funding community work?

Sun Nov 18 19:17:09 PST 2007

On one of the other hands, I have often enough followed my nose into sheer poverty, eating almonds and lemon juice for dinner, only to be saved by somebody's willingness to hire me into a desk job. There seems to be a capacity for entrepreneurship required of open space nose followers. I have not seen nor raised this topic on this list until now. 

Michael Phillips coined a great term in his old book Honest Business. "Trade-skill" is that capacity which some people develop when they are growing up - people have newspaper routes, or work in the family trade, or do babysitting - it's the capacity to think in an intuitively businesslike way. Michael said there are two kinds of people - those who have tradeskill and those who don't. If you don't have tradeskill you can run a business, but you need to partner with someone who has tradeskill.

In my case my open space practice dried up around 2002, six years after my first paying gig. I facilitate for free in my educational community, but I long to return to the days of opening space for clients. Or better, to develop funded community work.

I'm interested in people's experience of running a facilitation business. What else lies beneath the entrepreneur's practice of following your nose?

with gratitude
Jeff
San Francisco

> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Harrison
> Owen
> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 5:12 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: funding community work?
> 
> Peggy - I think we need to create the "The Royal Order of Nose followers." I
> doubt we have many recruits, but those that choose to join will be
> exceptional. Otherwise known as, "The Right People."
> 
> Harrison
> 
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20854
> Phone 301-365-2093
> Skype hhowen
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> Personal website www.ho-image.com 
> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
> archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Peggy
> Holman
> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 3:27 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: funding community work?
> 
> Harrison,
> 
> Yes to following one's nose.  It led me to you and Open Space and on to who 
> I am and what I am doing now.
> 
> As my work has moved increasingly in the direction of, essentially 
> self-sponsoring the projects I do, the question of finances has never been 
> fully met in a satisfying way for me.  I assume that it is perfect as it 
> is...and I am now experimenting with what happens by asking the questions 
> about it out loud.
> 
> open-heartedly,
> Peggy
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Harrison Owen" 
> To: 
> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 5:26 AM
> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] funding community work?
> 
> 
>> Doubtless I have led a blessed and charmed life, at least some might think
>> so and I know so. But the truth of the matter is that funding for my work
>> has never been something I worried about, at least not much. In one way or
>> another things just got taken care of, although not always in the time 
>> frame
>> or amount that I hoped for or expected. Starting in the late '70's when I
>> left my last honest job (where I actually got a pay check) I simply 
>> followed
>> my nose. If there was a plan I don't have a clue what it was, although in
>> retrospect everything seems to make a certain amount of sense. And my nose
>> took me to lots of interesting nooks and cranies, most of which looked
>> nothing like a job or a paycheck. My facination with organizational 
>> culture,
>> myth (story) and ritual was viewed as odd to say the least, and when I
>> ventured into the strange new world of transformation in organizations the
>> common judgement, I think, was that I was just weird. As for Open Space
>> Technology that, as you all know, was a matter of two martinis. Talk about
>> the cost of doing business:-) Regardless, I just kept following my nose. 
>> And
>> to date, I have never missed a meal. On occasion friends and colleagues
>> would ask what it was that I thought I was doing -- and truthfully I
>> couldn't really say. The closest I ever came to getting "it" into words 
>> went
>> something like this. It was my hope to somehow contribute to the business 
>> of
>> making human life human.
>>
>> Is there a lesson here? Maybe. One thing that pops out is that I never 
>> made
>> any effort to define "community" -- or maybe more accurately my definition
>> was about as broad as it could get -- human life, or all of humanity.
>> Everything was connected even if I couldn't see it at the time. I have
>> worked in Barrios and Board rooms and as far as I could see it was all the
>> same. People being people trying to get on in the world. Some did well, 
>> some
>> not so well, but doing well never seemed to have much to do with their
>> station in life. Corporate presidents could appear as paupers, and beggers
>> as kings. What I learned in one place always had application in another, 
>> and
>> when I connected deeply with some individual that connection always led to
>> deeper connections with others. Does this make any sense? I don't know, 
>> but
>> it has been fun.
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>> Harrison Owen
>> 7808 River Falls Drive
>> Potomac, Maryland 20854
>> Phone 301-365-2093
>> Skype hhowen
>> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
>> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
>> Personal website www.ho-image.com
>> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
>> archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Peggy
>> Holman
>> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 4:59 PM
>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Subject: Re: funding community work?
>>
>> Yes, to underpin Doug's question below, I find that more and more I am
>> working from a place of deep calling.  That call doesn't take me into the
>> lucrative business world to fund the work of my heart.  I have jumped in
>> with both feet between the cracks, not even with non-profits, but in 
>> calling
>>
>> gatherings beyond the divides of organizational boundaries.  It isn't
>> financially sustainable.  Hence the question of how to attract the funds 
>> for
>>
>> work that, according to its participants is of service to their field, but
>> requires far more time and energy than is reflected in the compensation. 
>> (In
>>
>> fact, I jokingly say that in my experience, compensation is inversely
>> proportional to the complexity of the work.  I find corporate work, with 
>> so
>> much established infrastructure, some of which is actually useful, much
>> easier than the work of reaching out to bring together the ecosystem of a
>> subject area, such as journalism, story, philanthropy, etc.
>>
>> in inquiry,
>> Peggy
>>
>> ________________________________
>> Peggy Holman
>> The Open Circle Company
>> 15347 SE 49th Place
>> Bellevue, WA  98006
>> (425) 746-6274
>>
>> www.opencirclecompany.com
>>
>>
>> For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to:
>> www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook
>>
>> "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get 
>> burnt,
>>
>> is to become
>> the fire".
>>  -- Drew Dellinger
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "douglas germann" 
>> To: 
>> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 12:50 PM
>> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] funding community work?
>>
>>
>>> Harrison, Kerry and Raffi--
>>>
>>> Thanks for your replies. They are great strategies and do answer the
>>> question. They have suggested then a refinement of the question:
>>>
>>> If we want to work exclusively or primarily in community work, what are
>>> the sources of funding which are working for you today?
>>>
>>> :- Doug.
>>>
>>> *
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