Circles and open space

[Wendy Farmer-O'Neil]

Thank you all for this wonderful conversation. What is arising for me as I
sit with your questions and comments, is that underlying all of our
passionate choices is the intention of opening more space wherever we are.
I know that is always my intention and I trust and have faith that it is
yours also.  

 

Sometimes this opening of space looks like world café or appreciative
inquiry, because that’s the widest, edgiest space that the sponsor can
conceive of.  Sometimes it’s a progression of ever more open processes until
the group trusts me and itself enough to leap into OST (I’m always humbled
and blown away by leaders who move through huge fear and/or organizational
resistance and say “Go for it!”).  And sometimes it means holding the open
space event in my heart and keeping that space open for months or years
until the sponsoring group wants OST.  All of the time, however, I am
fostering a deeper understanding and familiarity with OS principles and
practices and demonstrating the benefits.  

 

And I have had plenty of resistance to the circle.  I work a lot with social
service agencies and when they walk into a room set up in a circle, they
don’t look surprised, they roll their eyes and say, “Oh no! Not another
process!  What are you going to do to us?”  And at the end of the day they
thank me for NOT doing anything to them.  ARGGGHHHH!   Hence the reason for
my conviction that OS is one of the only truly ethical processes around—it
doesn’t steal power from people.  It’s not about me, the Grand
Facilitator!!! Thank God/dess/Spirit/your word here!

 

So, thank you Kaliya, for sharing how you have grown and fostered open space
practice in your community—I resonate with your pragmatism.  Your approach
is not something I had considered before and it has helped me to stretch my
thinking.  You obviously had a determination to introduce your community to
the benefits of OS and you made the principles and practices work for you
rather than becoming a servant to the technicalities of the process itself.
It’s really invigorating to encounter someone who has chosen to make
positive use out of circumstances that most of us view as a challenge.  As
Harrison keeps reminding us—it always works—and your experience widens the
horizon of what that means. 

 

And isn’t one definition of mastery: knowing when to break the rules? ;-)

 

The question I’ll be sitting with now is:  If the artist’s/host’s presence
is embodying the essence of OS, what is the minimum of form required for it
to still work? 

 

Cheers,

Wendy

 

Wendy Farmer-O'Neil

Prospera Communications & Consulting Services

250.713.2351/1.800.713.2351

weblog: www.wordgravity.blogspot.com

 


No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.2/966 - Release Date: 8/22/2007
9:05 AM
 

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20070822/d8a680bb/attachment-0015.htm>