Authenticity and self-discovery in Open Space
Zelle Nelson
zelle at knowplacelikehome.com
Sat May 27 10:07:28 PDT 2006
Chris, Harrison, Lenore, everyone,
Thank you so much for contributing to this great discussion! Lenore -
great to see you here!
Chris - I think you have found something:
Open Space disappears after a while. I think Harrison, you might
have had this experience in Japan recently if I'm not mistaken.
"Come and be with us," people say. And it is because you are who you
are that people want you to be with them and work with them. You
might not even do an Open Space. But when you do an Open Space, it
isn't anything special, it is just what you do.
For me, it has been interesting over the past 10 years of so watching
how Open Space has shaped who I am and how it has led me into
thinking about and seeing the world in different ways. And these
ways of thinking and seeing, rooted as they are in an Open Space
worldview are pretty unusual still in the world at large. So when I
show up in different settings asking questions that we ask if we come
out of an Open Space worldview, then it often seems as if a breath of
fresh air has come into the room. Whether we end up doing an OST
even or not, it's that presence that seems to matter.
What I have learned is that presence is no mere accident. It is the
result of years and years of practice, informed and supported by
folks like the ones on this list who fill my inbox with scads of
things to work on, to continue to refine my view of things.
My view does not always land with complete acceptance in others, and
probably most of us here have had the experience of people think we
were completely nuts. That's fine with me. I just don't work with
people who think I'm crazy. I find though that the ones that do get
what I'm saying seem to have a hunger for this type of "being" in the
world and our working relationships become very deep.
For me trying to figure out who I am has the effect of wanting to
place a boundary around myself if only to make it easier to define
what is within. The practice perspective does the opposite in my
experience...it allows me to continue growing more and more open and
even in doing so, find my core more and more reinforced. It's when
the boundaries start slipping away, between work and practice,
between process and product, between Open Space technology and open
space, that things really get interesting.
And it feels like you're describing my life too! As you walk into the
front door of our home in North Carolina, the first thing you see is
several framed posters giving the foundations for the life of my
wife, myself, and everyong who is invited to our home (and by the way
everyone and anyone is welcome anyday, anytime to share our home - it
is an open invitation - our door is always unlocked and open even if
my wife and I are not avaialble to chat or even in the country).
One of the 4 posters invites you to live in Open Space - and that's
what we do in our home and our lives - so there are the principles
and the law for everyone to see as you walk in the door.
(The other 3 speek to the other levels on our journey into
authenticity, a moment to moment practice).
Harrison - I'd say you have definitely found something in Open Space
Technology.
with grace and love,
Zelle
Zelle Nelson
Engaging the Soul at Work/State of Grace Document/Know Place Like Home
www.stateofgracedocument.com
zelle at knowplacelikehome.com
work/home: 828.693.0802
mobile: 847.951.7030
Isle of Skye
2021 Greenville Hwy
Flat Rock, NC 28731
USA
On May 26, 2006, at 2:13 PM, Lenore Mewton wrote:
> I am compelled to chime in here, although this is my first time
> doing so. Ever since being introduced to this list by Chris
> Corrigan and Wendy Farmer - O'Neil, in Vancouver in October- I have
> watched and listened, tried to take it all in.
>
> As a (former) psychotherapist, now 'coach', facilitator- none of
> the names really matter to me now. What is most important is
> bringing my true self to the table or circle, if you will. I am so
> pleased to hear you say, Harrison, that it does not take a ton of
> training to 'do' Open Space well- as I"ve had some wonderful
> windows to learn the process, in training settings, but have been
> 'fearful' of going out on my own to 'do' it as I put too much
> pressure on myself to know how to do things 'well'- (whose
> measurement is that??).
>
> What always works in the end, with any client, person, or group- is
> to be willing to 'be'- and I think the other piece that in the end
> matters in terms of 'competencies' to do this work- is knowing how
> to invite and 'hold' space for others in a gentle, loving way that
> invites them to be as authentic as you strive to be.
>
> this may all have been said before-- I have trouble keeping up with
> all these great emails! But, I wanted to chime in.
>
> Thank you all for your generous sharings.
>
> Lenore Mewton
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harrison Owen"
> <hhowen at verizon.net>
> To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 12:13 PM
> Subject: Authenticity and self-discovery in Open Space
>
>
> Thinking about the manifestation of masculine and feminine in each
> one of us
> took me to another place, and I suppose it is all related. But I
> may have to
> go several times around the barn in order to find the door!?? In other
> words, I will probably wander a bit, but I think there is a point.
> It is
> all about authenticity and self-discovery.
>
>> From the very beginning of this Open Space adventure it has been
>> very clear
> to me that anybody with a good head and a good heart can "do it."
> It is not
> that training and experience count for nothing, but they are
> clearly not
> prerequisite for doing an Open Space. If you can sit in a circle,
> create a
> bulletin board, open a market place, you will get on with the
> business. At
> some significant level, the capacity to open space doesn't have a
> thing to
> do with training and experience; it seems almost like a natural
> act. This
> was certainly true with my first Open Space. It seems like a long
> time ago
> (21 years), and at the same time it is only yesterday. But long or
> short, it
> is very clear to me that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. No
> theory,
> no training, no nothing - but it surely felt good.
>
> And as things went along, I watched other people having the same
> experience.
> Without a book to read, training program to participate in, or
> colleagues
> for support - they just jumped in. And everything just worked out
> perfect.
> Of course, once you have done something and it seems to work, there
> is a
> natural tendency to attempt some improvements. And so some of my
> friends
> began to think of other things they could do, ways of integrating
> (combining) Open Space with whatever sorts of approaches they had been
> using, or had recently learned about. Interestingly enough, as I
> watched
> their efforts, it seemed to me that they more they fiddled (added,
> changed,
> sequenced etc) the more cumbersome and less functional the
> experience in
> Open Space became. My personal approach went just the other
> direction, and I
> found myself thinking about one more thing to leave out - not do!
>
> It was not unlike peeling an onion. Layer after layer disappeared,
> and of
> course, if you keep on going eventually you get to a point where
> there is
> nothing there! I pretty much reached that point and simultaneously
> found
> myself with a marvelous conundrum - the less I did, the better
> things got,
> and if I ever were to reach a point where I did nothing at all,
> that should
> be the best of all! Fair enough - but then what did I bring to the
> party?
> What was it about me that was significant?
>
> I suppose this could sound like longing to be loved (Somebody,
> please NEEEED
> ME!). Guilty as charged, I am sure. And I think the question is a
> real one.
> Who am I and what difference does that make? I guess the simple
> answer is:
> I am me, complicated by the fact that "me" changes over time. The only
> "thing" I will ever bring to the party is me, nothing more, nothing
> less -
> just me. And the only thing that seems to matter much is that the
> "me" that
> shows up is really me. Not some abstract me. Not some new and
> improved me.
> Not somebody else's version of me. Just me. Just the way I am. I
> think that
> is called "authenticity."
>
> At this point the waters get a little muddy, if only because the
> "me" I am
> changes day to day. Or what may be the same thing; my awareness of
> this
> little old me changes. So just who is this "me" that shows up? The
> traditional approach to such an interesting question would be to
> engage in
> some form of self-analysis prior to showing up. But that never
> worked for
> me. The harder I tried to figure out who I was, the more confused I
> became -
> and I suspect that confusion was also draped in a mantel of
> inauthenticity.
> More often than not, I came out looking like something I thought I
> should
> be, or that somebody else wanted me to be - all under the heading of
> self-improvement.
>
> So I just showed up, any way I could, and did what I was able to
> do. No
> apologies. Sounds kind of in-your-face, but it definitely worked in
> a most
> unexpected fashion. Somehow or another, the Open Space environment
> (whether
> I was the facilitator or participant) striped away all of the
> should-have-beens, might-have-beens, could-have-beens. And in
> retrospect I
> discovered elements of me I never expected.
>
> So where does this tour around the barn leave us? Speaking
> personally, I
> have found that the experience in Open Space to be an incredible
> dialogue
> between the me that showed up authentically and the emergent self
> that that
> greeted me at the end of the day. If nothing else it sure beats
> psychoanalysis and is a lot cheaper.
>
> And for whatever it is worth, one of the things I discovered about
> me is
> that I am bi-polar for sure - Masculine and Feminine.
>
> Harrison
>
>
>
>
>
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland 20854
> Phone 301-365-2093
> Skype hhowen
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://
> www.openspaceworld.com/>
>
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> Personal website www.ho-image.com
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