Opening challenges

[Harrison Owen]

Great! Haven't had a really good Space Invader in years!! As a matter of
fact, I have even had some folks challenge me on whether or not they even
existed in the form that I wrote about. So it is a great relief to know that
the Space Invaders are indeed alive and well. Phelim -- my experience is
that such folks are just plain angry in general. To be sure they will object
to some things in particular - OS is too simple, you are a dictator, the
coffee is cold. . . But really they are just mad. But they are also usually
hooked on whatever it is the topic is -- after all they came. And that puts
them in a real bind. They love it / they hate it. They are out the door /
they are all involved. When somebody gets that confused, they need lots of
space to figure things out - which is what you gave them. Good job!

 

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Phelim
McDermott
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 3:35 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Opening challenges

 

Hi there friends,

 

I just held an open space event in Bristol for the theatre community  

there. The Bristol Old vic theatre has been closed and there has been  

a lot of intense feeling about this. The event invitation was "So,  

Where do we go from here?" It was a good day I think... here is a  

link to a press article about it which is very positive about open  

space is good for situations of conflict.  In my opening introduction  

I was challenged that the meeting should not be happening in this way  

and it was quite quite an aggressive challenge. I of course supported  

the challenger and asked them to suggest their proposal as a  

session... this worked well but i was also a bit knocked by this and  

it meant i forgot a few things to mention in the introduction about  

the news room and the reports. I was happy how open space included  

this energy and also included it, as were a number of people who came  

and spoke to me about it later. I am interested if other people have  

tales of space invaders.. particularly in the opening and how they  

have handled this. What i have noticed is that when people have been  

angry about the way the event is happening they got angry because  

they had felt patronised by something that seems so simple. Also they  

were angry that I mentioned "passion and responsibilty" almost as if  

I might be suggesting they weren't about the issue.

 

Phelim x

 

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