Open Space being badly defined

[Lisa Heft]

One of my passions in facilitation, and in life, is practicing  
inclusion and awareness of what is access and what is inclusion.

With the use of the principles and law, opening circle, agenda co- 
creation (without facilitator intervention to cluster, eliminate or  
structure that process further), multiple participant-led discussion  
circles and closing circle - the basic form of Open Space - what often  
gets left behind is - the people who are different. And with them, the  
richness of discovery and interchange that fuels breakthrough thinking.

So when all run at the wall with markers, or when majority votes on  
what sessions should be up on that agenda wall, or when the basic form  
(above) is not used...

- gone is the outlier thinker - the discoverer of penicillin (is the  
metaphor in my mind)
- gone is the slower responder
- gone are the guidelines for self-care
- gone are the invitations to notice and feel
- gone is the strength in diversity of thought and experience
- gone is the invitation to go where you are more productive
- gone is the chance to shift power dynamics
- gone is the shift from linear to intuitive thinking
... you may wish to add to this list.

There are other forms of dialogue that invite full systems thinking,  
not just Open Space - for which if you pull away some key elements it  
does not hold together to deliver the same shift and depth and self- 
organized interconnection.  In living systems, everything you touch or  
change touches or changes something else.

One can do anything one wants to facilitate dialogue. But if you are  
going to call it Open Space, I would hope that you would further the  
elements that by nature include the differences.  And help keep in the  
definition the elements that include the different kinds of people  
(those above).

I have found when folks don't know about group dynamics, if they don't  
know about what holds a basic dialogic tool together they don't know  
how what they may change may impact those with lesser voice.  Majority  
wins and richness of diversity loses. The cool thing about OS is that  
in its very simple basic form it takes care of this.

A few years ago I took it on as my passion to visit wikipedia and a  
few other locations to check in on and offer adjustment to the  
definitions of Open Space / Open Space meetings and so on. Simple: I  
just visited a few sites once a week or every few weeks.  I invite any  
of you with the passion for doing this to do so - very easy. Rather  
than to think that 'someone should'.  I hope that you will carry on  
this passion.  And I bow to Ms. Kaliya for directing our attention to  
what can further the understanding and use of this particular tool.

(Did I say the word 'passion' enough?) ;o)
 From a gray California morning,
Lisa

Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
Opening Space
lisaheft at openingspace.net
www.openingspace.net




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