Brian Bainbridge and the fifth principle

Wed May 5 06:55:28 PDT 2010

when i did my first event in open space, i studied the book, pieced together
a script, and made posters.  'be prepared to be surprised' was one of the
posters, and has been ever since.  so i think that line must have come from
the user's guide, which brian told me he reviewed, at least a little bit,
before every opening.  must have been the church thing seeping into the ost
side of his work -- do the reading and then do the feast.  <grin>  i used to
post 'be prepared...' and talk about it as the last of the four posters, a
sort of summary, but i saw brian do something different with it:  he put it
up on the door, as a sort of first shot when people arrived.  in that way,
it not only said surprise, but it was, itself, surprising.  if i were to add
anything to the four principles, it might be brian's simple summary:  it's
all good.

m

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Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
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312-280-7838 (mobile)

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 8:32 AM, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.org>wrote:

> Dear Artur,
> "Be prepared to be surprised!", in German, which I understand you have been
> learning in preparation for your trip to the WOSonOS in Berlin, I phrase it
> "Augen Auf! Mit Ueberraschungen ist zu rechnen!"
> Aside the four facts of life (them aint principles, come on) it is what
> Harrison called the admonition (all tongue in cheek, never to be taken with
> total seriousness...all on page 91 of the third edition to the Guide).
> So its been part of my intro to OST all on an extra large flipchart paper.
>  I had the notion that everybody has been using this seeing it sometimes on
> photos of os events.
> Maybe I am missing something here.
>
> Fact is, I have never been to an os event where there were no surprises!
> Great and small, happy and nasty...
>
> See you next week at the WOSonOS where I will expect you with the denatured
> ethyl alcohol in hand for the "international suitcase buffet" to fuel your
> grill for the chouriços...I remember them well at 8th WOSonOS in Berlin 10
> years ago...
> Cheers
> mmp
>
> Artur Silva schrieb:
>
>  Chris (and all, in Melbourne and elsewhere)
>>
>>
>> I understand and respect your desire to honor Brian,
>> which I used to call a friend, even if we have met only once. But one
>> single face to
>> face meeting is enough to develop a solid friendship, especially when one
>> is
>> prepared to be surprised...
>>
>>
>> As you all know my relationship with the principles is
>> not easy, and I only can understand them as "what always happens" if one
>> opens
>> space - or in what Harrison used to call an "InterActive
>> Organization".
>>
>>
>> Anyhow, for me, "Be Prepared..." is not something
>> that always happens. Is a king of recommendation to open oneself to the
>> space
>> being opened.
>>
>>
>> My counter suggestion comes like this: OST has 1 Law
>> (and a very powerful one), 4 principles (if we have to accept that...) and
>> one recommendation
>> (you may chose another name), that from now on can be called "Brian's
>> Recommendation".
>>
>>
>> What do you all (in Melbourne and elsewhere) think
>> about that?
>>
>>
>> Regards from a sunny Lisbon - happy because I will soon
>> met a lot of friends in Berlin and unhappy as I will not have the
>> possibility
>> to met some others that will not come this time
>>
>>
>> Artur
>>
>>
>> --- On Mon, 5/3/10, Chris Corrigan <chris at chriscorrigan.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Chris Corrigan <chris at chriscorrigan.com>
>> Subject: [OSLIST] Brian Bainbridge and the fifth principle
>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Date: Monday, May 3, 2010, 9:49 PM
>>
>> Hello from Melbourne.  I've just opened space at a conference here with
>> Viv McWaters, Geoff Brown, Anne Pattillo and Johnnie Moore.  We've got a two
>> day, full on participatory conference on evaluation with 179 people.  40
>> topics have gone up for our day and a half OS.
>>
>> It's sweet for me being here in Melbourne, which for me is the spiritual
>> home of Open Space in Australia (would you agree Brendan?  :-)).  Of course
>> for me that impression largely comes from the fact that this was Father
>> Brian Banibridge's  home, and I regret that I never made it here while he
>> was alive, only able to meet him over the years at various OSonOS gatherings
>> or when he stopped by our place on retreat or en route to elsewhere.
>>
>> Brian of course was such a stalwart member of our community...he and Viv
>> have hosted trainings in Australia for years and of course they took the
>> mantle of hosting OSonOS X in 2002 after Laurel Doersam and I co-hosted it
>> in Vancouver. It's such a pleasure to be here working with Viv and our team
>> in this place, with Brian's presence very much in our mind.
>>
>> And so as way of honouring Brian in our own little way today we took the
>> unprecedented step of officially adding a fifth principle to the Open Space
>> canon.  Of course the four principles are very important and probably all we
>> need, but Brian always posted a fifth one up when he worked: Be Prepared to
>> be Surprised.   For years I have also made a poster with that one on it and
>> put it up in the room, but today in my opening I elevated that most
>> excellent phrase by making it the third principle of five.  It comes right
>> after Whoever comes... and Whatever happens...  Be Prepared to be Surprised.
>>  And then When it starts... and when it's over...lovely.
>>
>> It seems a perfectly natural place to put it, and, being here in
>> Melbourne,  it seemed a perfectly natural act to just say out loud "Open
>> Space has 5 principles and one law..."  Viv and I both got a little shiver
>> up our spine, our own little testimonial to a great friend of our community
>> of practice whose presence we miss dearly.
>>
>> So from now on it'll be five principles for me, and in reciting them I
>> always see in my own mind Harrison's call to simplicity, Anne Stadler's call
>> to take simplicity seriously (which helped Harrison get the principles right
>> - that IS the story, right?) and Brian's mischievous imperative to be open
>> to surprise.
>>
>> So as we prepare to gather here in Melbourne on May 11 for a little OSonOS
>> with 40 or so local OS-workers, and our community of friends and colleagues
>> gathers internationally in Berlin, Viv and I invite you to officially adopt
>> Brian's fifth principle not for sentimental reasons, but just because it
>> makes sense, and it lightens the invitation in just the right way.
>>
>> It's all good.
>>
>> Chris
>> ----
>> Chris Corrigan
>> chris at chriscorrigan.com
>> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>>
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>
> --
> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49-30-772 8000
> mmpanne at boscop.org
> www.boscop.org
>
>
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