Brian Bainbridge and the fifth principle

Wed May 5 09:16:41 PDT 2010

As I recall what has happened all along on my OS journey, the "Be prepared
to be surprised" has been the emergent reality of "Here and Now" regardless
of outcome: an collective & integral possibility to be explored and
realized.

Thus I would recommend it stands out among what might be expected in OS.
After all, all life is Open. "Be Prepared to be Surprised" seems to be a
learning we often forget. It challenges all of us to contribute to birthing
of a possibly Pleasant Surprise!
Well, "be prepared..." Otherwise...

Anyhow, everything seems to be okay as far as it serves our life.

spark

2010/5/5 Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com>

> Interesting.
>
>
>
> In my practice, when people arrive, in the entrance, out of the main room,
> the first things they see are two posters: one with the "theme" and another
> with "Be surprised...". Then, if there is a corridor, they will see some
> more posters only with "Be surprised".
>
>
>
> Only when they came to the main room they will see the Law, in the wall
> near the last door before the main room.
>
>
>
> In the wall of the main room, there are normally posters with "The theme",
> "Be surprised", the Law, and the Principles. In my opening, I always refer
> in this order: the theme, "be surprised" and the Law and then, sometimes, I
> refer the principles, one by one. Some other times I refer only some of the
> principles (but the others are in the posters).
>
>
> In two cases, as I have told many moons ago, the principles are not there
> in posters and they have not been referred at all.
>
>
>
> I all the cases (included this experiment I have done twice) it always
> works.
>
>
>
> Best
>
>
>
> Artur
>
>
> PS: And, no, MMP, I am not studying German... Sorry...
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com>
>
> *To:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Sent:* Wed, May 5, 2010 2:55:28 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [OSLIST] Brian Bainbridge and the fifth principle
>
> 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
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
>
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> http://www.ronanparktrail.com
> http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
> http://www.openspaceworld.org
>
> 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
>>
>>
>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 397 resident Open
>> Space Workers in 68 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
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>>
>>
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