4 July: 25 years of Open Space

Sat May 15 21:30:16 PDT 2010

Dear Harrison (and others), I have a story/book? burning inside of me
as a former journalist, a former corporate minion sitting high at
times on the esteemed corporate hierarchy and someone who has since
been deeply touched inside by OST.  For me, it is not the story you
describe.  The story of a) event b) participants c) initiating
conditions d) venue and logistical considerations e) highlights, etc.
etc. does not stir my passions or lead me to want to take
responsibility.  Some form of indexing and cross reference…  Of this
story, you say: "The entries need not be massive, but of sufficient
size to have some weight. They should be substantive and carefully
done, meaning less emotion and more fact. – Oh yes, OS is emotional
stuff, emotions are important -- but in this case I think the facts
need to create the emotions (the WOW! factor). The reverse never works
too well, I think – especially with great “unwashed” world community.
This is not about “proving” Open Space. I don’t think we have to and I
am sure we could not do so even if we wanted. But we can lay out the
facts as we see them."

The invitation above does not move my pen, drive my fingers to the
keyboard or inspire my soul. Yet I feel passionately that this other
"emotional" story I see and feel must be told, over and over again in
a way that is sensitive and responsive to this unwashed? community.
Facts have had center stage for too long; perhaps now it is time to
share that space more equally with emotion, not hiding from it but
speaking to it in words that invite and feel safe.

Now before I begin, I want to leave empty space here inviting you on
the OS list to use the LAW of 2 FEET as I again apologize to have
written long, not being able to speak short about what is in my heart
right now. The fact of the matter is that here in historic Berlin,
sitting in my hotel room in this 25th anniversary year of Open Space
after a wonderful WOSonOS, I cannot NOT speak my voice on this, no
more than Juan Luis could not NOT make the impassioned invitation that
he did for us to be in Chile next year or Matilda, in her creative,
unique and inspiring invitational way, not NOT entice us to be in the
theatre capital of London for WOSonOS in 2012.  I am French Canadian
with Latin blood (we speak long with our heart and our hands) who now
lives in the US world (which values short and to the point).

SPACE…..SPACE…..SPACE…… (Goodbye to bumble bees or butterflies)

Welcome and thank you for being in this circle with me. I will get
straight to the point:  I don’t think the “facts” of Open Space are
the way to entice and to invite.  I’ve decided to rebel, take a stand
and be an activist.  For me, it’s ALL about stories and spirit, not
facts. My intuition has always felt this. I saw sparks of it in the
OST technology book and Wave Rider. I was then taken to magical places
with Spirit  that I read on line and other books of Harrison’s that I
bought like The Practice of Peace, The Power of Spirit, The Spirit of
Leadership, and Expanding our Now.

I discovered the power of Stories within me in those books.  It made
me hear more clearly and feel more strongly the stories inside of me
and the stories of others that I hear in my everyday life. These
stories ARE the spirit and the spirit IS in those stories. They are
the antidote to the “soul pollution” and “data driven” lives that
consume so many. I cannot believe that “facts need to create emotion”.
 In my mind, they are a big part of the problem. Time to make room for
something new.

In my journalist ways, I recalled other voices who spoke as I feel. I
remembered, for example, how mad I was to read the description of Open
Space technology on Wikipedia.  Like a slap in the face, I cringed to
see their blaring banners at the top of the page, knowing that
clients, friends and colleagues read this about Open Space.  In spite
of the great work of Larry Peterson and others to provide better
descriptions, citations, references, etc. many of the searing words
remain and I quote: “the purpose of Wikipedia is to present fact, not
to train. Please improve this article either by rewriting the
how-to-content or...”  Last year we formed a team on this Wikipedia
project and wonderful work got done (by others and not me).  Brian
Bainbridge had accepted to be part but we never got that far. I quote
him now as I feel it is relevant to the discussion on emotions and
facts.

“I’d be quite interested to help in this task; though I’m not sure we
should bow to the world of academia and follow down their infallible
line of thinking and presenting. So I’m of the opinion that we should
be true to Open Space and the truth of it, and say what we see
happening, rather than academic-ising any such documentation. IMHO.
(Brian’s “in my humble opinion”)
As one writer (I don’t know who) said, if we keep doing things the
same way as we have always done, then the outcomes will be the same as
they have always been. In Open Space, as I see it, we are really
turning the “traditional way of doing things” on its head…”

Perhaps as a woman in corporate life and elsewhere, I revolt
remembering the silent messages that I felt so often:  “emotions not
welcome here”.   I believe the pathway to the future is not to go from
fixing problems or describing and validating data first; it starts and
ends with the emotional stories of our lives, filled with data, love,
action, passion, hopes, joys and dreams. We just have to create a safe
place for stories to be spoken and heard and Open Space does that.

If we place too much emphasis on data as the way to describe the
experiment of Open Space, there is an implied promise of outcome and
results which is not in the spirit of what we invite. Rather than a
bunch of someone else’s case studies, I prefer the simple analogy of
Open Space igniting the same energy of a “coffee break” in meetings,
gatherings and conferences.   Vivid, to the point, few words, speaking
much truth on which we all seem to instantly agree! In that basic
description, one can easily imagine the benefits and opportunities of
what is possible when the energy of people is HIGH compared to what it
is when the energy is LOW?  Do we really need to talk about all that
other data and fact stuff or even present it in a book?

That said, I honor the “the conversations where people are” which is
in the data world.   How do we help people shift away from that world
of  “facts” and “to do lists”  that seems to consume their every
waking moment as they seek to “prove” before they start, look for
“certainty” before moving forward, wishing everything to be safe and
conflict-free?

There is no recipe for this.  We find the answers inside ourselves.
Harrison calls it the “Nexus of Caring”.  It’s where the dance of
relationship begins, from a place of non-judgment, of deep listening
and connecting, hoping that in the middle, together from a place of
shared passion about real, urgent and important issues, we find each
other.  The conversation then transforms into a dialogue of trust and
shared vulnerability.  It becomes the foundation where sponsor,
facilitator and organizing team become community long before anyone
ever sits in a circle.  The Open Space event is a breeze compared to
this which Lisa Heft calls the pre-work that is her passion.

Strange as it sounds and as strongly as I feel about what I have just
now asserted that stories trump data, I still pause and wonder if
Harrison and others may be “right” in what they say here.   Is the
data story what’s needed now as we see Open Space breaking big time
into main stream?   I try to be open and listen, to understand,
honoring those before me who have facilitated hundreds and hundreds of
events who may feel this to be the story, a sponsor’s story that gives
center stage to facts.  Maybe I am not understanding. And yet, as I
doubt myself, I feel myself transported back to the conforming person
that I was, almost giving up before I begin, abandoning my passion
before it gets ignited. This I must not do. I feel violently
passionate that our emotional “stories” will never be tiresome.
Indeed, I feel they are ALL that we have.

Now I can only speak as the “more aware and conscious” person that I
am, who has “just recently been touched” this way, who still “feels
the stirrings” so strongly inside and from that “feeling place”. It
has reactivated the journalist I once was, going on a mission this
past year, to ask others:  “how do YOU feel”,  “what is happening to
YOU”, “how did this start for YOU”, “tell me YOUR story”.  Then as I
listen to facilitators, participants and others, I see the patterns of
their unique story, one that they cannot easily write themselves
because as they speak it, the story emerges from inside like a work of
art and it is a beautiful story of life each time as if for the first
time.  I see and hear the story in their eyes, in their heart, in
their voice and in every breath they take to describe it.  This is
what amazes me, what humbles me, and what excites me.  I am always in
awe, can never hear enough, and somehow then, I feel that this story
in all its unique creativity, joy and passion must be written.  It is
never quite the same and at the same time, it is always the same.
Like a work of art, a painting on a canvass with so much in each
stroke of the brush. And what is even more amazing is that whether you
are a participant or a facilitator, whether you live on one continent
or another, wherever you sit in life, the stories have this same
“sameness” and rich “diversity”.  That's what seems to happen in Open
Space and then from this place of being together as one, people
connect with others and find their courage to act alone and together
to make a difference on what they care about.  Maybe one day, I will
start this book that tells the "emotional" stories of others in their
words, capturing every vibrant nuance of joy and pain knowing that
they will inspire others as they always inspire me. And who knows,
perhaps its spirit will invite more than data ever could because we
will recognize each other from the "inside out" knowing that we can
never truly see each other clearly from the "outside in".

Suzanne

P.S.  Thank you Berlin for helping me tear down my wall.

On Sat, May 15, 2010 at 12:59 AM, Chris Corrigan
<chris at chriscorrigan.com> wrote:
> Beautiful....I knew you were deeply in!
> My love to all gathered in Pannwitz-land.
>
> Chris
> ----
> Chris Corrigan
> chris at chriscorrigan.com
> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>
>
> On 2010-05-14, at 9:43 PM, Lisa Heft wrote:
>
> Chris wrote:
> ...invitation based, generous in its inclusion, disciplined in its
> representation of the history and use of the method and hefty (which I
> suppose implicates Lisa in some way!) in its importance.
> Yes, I am hefty indeed (although not massive in size, I do like the fact
> that 'impressive', 'powerful' and 'mighty' often appear in the definition of
> this word as well as references to size and weight - you never know when you
> may need those qualities...
> And since I am in Berlin at the WOSonOS, it is appropriate that I take notes
> for the discussion sessions I attend, because one of the German translations
> of 'Heft' is 'Notebook'...
> Lisa, das Heft
>
>
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-- 
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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