Action Planning

Thu May 1 04:48:50 PDT 2008

Patricia - I am curious as to how you approached the Action Planning part.
If you did something like "Opening the Space for Action" (a la Chris
Corrigan et al) - and nobody felt moved to move, that may well say more
about the people than the process. And I always trust the people. Working
under the ancient rubric of "You can take a horse to water, but you can't
make him drink" - I have always found that when you invite people to
identify what they have a passion to move (take action on) and then to take
responsibility for doing it - those who care will, and those who don't
won't. Not very complicated! 

It also occurs to me that you might have deeper and richer results were you
to expand the group, both in terms of size and diversity. I have found that
small groups do work well in Open Space (five is my smallest) - but the
conversations and results get a lot deeper when there are some more people,
particularly different sorts of people with different, even opposing ideas.

Harrison  

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com

Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael
Herman
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:12 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Open Space 2.0 - Beyond the Dogma

generally, patricia, i'd say it's hard to know anything from one data point.
one point that is made up of hundreds of embedded choices.  ost is practice.
sometimes it's bumpy, or surprising, or whatever.  my inclination would be
to have a good think over all the details, noticing without deciding
anything, and then staying the course as best as you can.  i think that
after your noticing without deciding, there might be a moment come up in the
second or third meetings in which you might decide something, and might
decide to take a breath, raise your voice, change your pace, or whatever,
differently than before.  or it might be that you do everything exactly the
same (miracle!) and something entirely different happens.  that's the part
that's almost guaranteed... do it again and something different will happen.
good luck!  m

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 11:12 AM, Patricia Haines
<levelgreeninstitute at yahoo.com> wrote:

Michael & Friends:
I could use help assessing what worked and what didn't
about the OS at this past weekend's GREEDNING THE ARTS
Symposium in Ithaca.

The audience was small but very knowledgeable, so the
quality of conversation was very high - but they ended
up NOT wanting to break into OS groups, rather wanted
to stay together as one group. In retrospect that
didn't work well, at least after the first hour.

During this initial time we got some superb 'bullet'
points down on newsprint. When we switched to action
plans, however, the concept of focusing on ACTION
didn't click - and we ended up on Saturday morning
spinning wheels.

A lot of solid next steps DID come out of the weekend,
and enthusiasm is high for continuing to develop the
project (project is ARTS AT THE HEART OF A SUSTAINABLE
WORLD, global initiative to integrate the arts more
visibly and pro-actively throughout the sustainability
movement).

 BUT - the plan has been to hold a series of OS-based
gatherings at various places in the US, Europe, Asia
and Africa, to make sure we give voice at the
vision/planning table to the myriad perspectives,
approaches, interests and needs that are out there.

now I'm wondering if OS is the best way to go for this
process.  The panel part  of this past weekend's
program  - short presentations followed by discussion
- was really great. But the small-group OS didn't work
well - just made folks unfamiliar with the process
confused and annoyed.

Thoughts? thanks - Patricia Haines

--- Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com> wrote:

> hallo jack, interesting question...
>
> for me, the dogma comes mainly from outside, not
> within the community.
> dogma like "people won't come if there's not a big
> name keynoter" or "people
> need warm-up icebreakers" or "we could never do more
> than a half-day (...on
> the future/survival of the organization!" ...or some
> such) or "everybody
> needs to hear everything" or even... "there's always
> a way to improve
> something and so we're going to mess with this
> world-renown process before
> we've actually tried it even once."  how about "oh,
> yes, there's already a
> committee that's supposed to be handling that
> (really big question) (never
> mind that nobody can remember the last time they
> met) so we need to focus on
> just this (small question) for this (short) meeting.
>
> if there is an ost 'establishment,' this list must
> be it.  and here i see
> regular inventions and experiments and also the
> occasional diving into the
> question of what's essential ost.  i've said for
> years now, in the process
> of adapting ost to all kinds of (hostile, to the
> standard model)
> environments, that it's most important to do the
> practice and notice for
> oneself those things that seem essential.
> invitation, circle, marketplace,
> breathing or what i usually generalize to
> 'pulsation', bulletin board.  lots
> of different ways to create these same mechanisms.
> embedded in these things
> are voluntary self-selection, real purpose,
> responsibility, documentation,
> and some other things we've discussed here for
> years.
>
> personally, i'm not as interested in discussion
> aimed at nixing 'dogma' that
> might get in the way here or there as i am in
> understanding through direct
> experience the barest essence of what actually does
> work, so that i can be
> smarter still about what not to do... and what NOT
> not to do... and more
> importantly, how TO DO those things that some
> situations demand, in ways
> that are most consistent with the essence of what
> we're up to with ost.
>
> have a good chat and i hope you'll bring the notes
> back to post here.  i'm
> sure there are corners of the world where dogma is
> getting in the way of
> opening space... ost dogma perhaps, and lots of
> other dogma, too!
>
> cheers, m
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 8:01 AM, Jack Martin Leith
> <jack at jackmartinleith.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hiya Harrison.
> >
> > Happy that you're not offended by our undertaking!
> >
> > Maybe it's different on your side of the pond, but
> Paul and I have both,
> > separately, noticed the worrying extent to which
> OS certainly has become a
> > dogma over here, sometimes along with the words
> "Harrison Owen" says. (I
> > must put my hand up to having done that many
> times.) We both feel that OS
> > has become somewhat arthritic, and overdue for a
> rethink.
> >
> > What you say is perfectly true, and I agree
> wholeheartedly ... although I'm
> > personaly keen on conversation that precipitates
> action ... but all too
> > often it's very different on the ground.
> >
> > Big thanks for your support and encouragement.
> We'll keep you posted. Steve
> > the Doc has already signed up for the Skype
> option.
> >
> > Very best,
> >
> > Jack
> >
> > Jack Martin Leith
> > Bristol, United Kingdom
> > Mobile: 07831 840541 (+44 7831 840541)
> > Skype: jackmartinleith
> > Facebook:
> www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=725422325
> > Facebook group on Open Space Technology:
> > www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7189220743
> > LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jackmartinleith
> > email: jack at jackmartinleith.com
> > www.jackmartinleith.com
> >
> > 2008/4/30 Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>:
> >
> >>  Sounds like a marvelous under taking, but I am
> not sure about all this
> >> "Dogma" business. Dogma in my lexicon is a whole
> bunch of stuff that you
> >> have to do/believe. My experience with OST is
> that it is all about thinking
> >> of one more thing NOT to do - or believe. The end
> of the line, or indeed the
> >> next iteration, would involve doing nothing at
> all, and where "belief"
> >> translated into pure experience. You were just
> "there" in that present
> >> moment being fully what you (we) already were -
> full, conscious, passionate,
> >> responsible human beings. My experience with most
> of the 2nd Generation
> >> Open Spaces is that they seem to involve more and
> different doing and
> >> believing. To my eyes this seems to be going in
> the wrong direction. But
> >> what do I know?  Have 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:
>

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> >>
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> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
>
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> http://www.openspaceworld.org
> http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
>
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
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Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.openspaceworld.org
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org

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