"What I know for sure..."

[Suzanne Daigle]

*…and what I notice about our OS community*.

*Monday, January 18, 2010* – En route to Florida after 2 days in San
Francisco at Open Space on Open Space.  Time for the next chapter and my
next big challenge articulated as:  “I will earn a living in OS, doing what
I am passionate about.” As I make this statement for all to hear, I know I
speak for many out there in this generous community – people who love Open
Space as much as I do. By saying these words loud and clear, with confidence
and conviction, it is my way of “paying it forward” hopefully giving courage
to all who harbor this same dream.

Now back to my original statement:  *“What I know for sure*… is that these
times *need* Open Space – times filled with grief (Haiti for example),
filled with pain, with worry, with stress and all the system breakdowns in
so many places – at work, in our communities, in our world.  All the
elements that invite us (not to say compel us) to consider Open Space  and
opening of space …everywhere.

For example, different excerpts from the Sunday New York Times – January 17
th, 2009

·         “The answer is to allow employees to develop a name for themselves
that is irrespective of their organization ranking. Recognition from their
peers is an extremely strong motivating factor, and something that is
broadly unused in modern management”  Cristobal Conde, President and CEO of
SunGard

·         When Stress Flirts with Burnout – You are a professional who is
accustomed to stress, but all the uncertainty and anxiety in the workplace
these days is putting you under more pressure than usual. You feel burned
out.  “As anxiety grows in the workplace, so does the need to tune it out
with daily breaks.”

·         Bank chieftains on Capitol Hill explaining their roles in global
financial crisis. “The former Citigroup chief executive Charles O. Prince
III once confessed that he knew his aggressive deal-making would most likely
end in trouble once the easy money stopped flowing. Still, he said he felt
powerless to pull back. ‘As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get
up and dance,’ he told The Financial Times in summer 2007, even as credit
markets began to shudder. ‘We’re still dancing.’"

·  Our Basic Human Pleasures: Food, Sex and Giving. “Helping others may be
as primal a human pleasure as food or sex.”

To me this equates to code word:  OPEN SPACE.  Plenty of places and
situations that need Open Space!

Now to my next comment: *“What I notice about our OS community…” *Yes, first
and foremost, I notice the caring and very capable (erudite) people in this
OS community that I am now a part of: so much integrity, no phony baloneys,
just real people who are filled with passion and a desire to make a
difference.  Yet  what I also noticed first in Seattle, then in Taiwan, in
Toronto afterwards, and now in San Francisco was the strong pattern of
“questioning ourselves” about OS, if it’s enough, if others will accept our
invitation, if there’s something more we should do, add or change. And yet
for me with my beginner’s mind (first introduced to OS in April 2009; have
since facilitated 8 and attended 6) and with fresh eyes, I see so much there
already with Open Space just the way it is, so much more than what I’ve ever
seen before.

So I wonder if we, in this wonderful community of ours, would benefit if we
let go a little bit and let ourselves be guided by our heart knowing, seeing
and sensing the huge need that is out there for what we do, and then perhaps
by letting go, our head will convince us that we know enough and are good
enough to “just do it”, “do more of it” and “be paid a fair buck for
it”.  Perhaps
the time has come for more of us to heed Harrison’s words, to “never work
harder than we have to” and by working (and fixing or improving) less, we
will *be* more so we can help *heal *the world.

Thank you San Francisco…organizers, old and new friends. As you can see, I
was and am inspired by the theme “to take Open Space to the next level”!

*Suzanne*


-- 
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com

*
*
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