My Love Affair continues

[Suzanne Daigle]

At the very beginning, the recovered “Miss Fix it” that I was with “No task
too big” from the corporate world, becoming an Open Space facilitator seemed
like a climb to Mount Everest. This weekend supported by so many friends
(Christine Whitney Sanchez, Harold Shinsato, Lisa Heft, Larry Peterson,
Diane Gibeault, Harrison of course, Alan Stewart, Juan Luis Walker and so
many others), I felt I peaked at a Base Camp level with an absolutely
wonderful team: members of the Scrum Technology community and their many
allies.  Indeed I have facilitated many Open Space events  but this one in
Phoenix AZ was truly unique and special.

For this two day event, there was community before we even met.  (The true
spirit of pre-work as Ms Heft would call it). Weeks before, topics were
flying on the internet around this theme of “Scrum beyond Software” on
blogs, on twitter, on facebook and everywhere. Dreams were starting to
crystallize, anticipation was building and the spirit of welcome was in the
air.

I’ll admit that I was somewhat trepidatious in this chaotic, “who’s doing
what” shared leadership, self-organizing world with my new techie friends. I
breathed in and breathed out, knowing that what they have done to change the
world in technology, in community, as free agents and free spirits to make
this global world a smaller place, through technology change and large
system change, well I knew they had something precious to share with the
rest of the world.  And share they did.

>From California to Serbia, Canada to the Eastern US, from the Mid-West to
the Far-West, they came.  The banner and welcome signs became works of art,
the chairs quickly arranged in circle, everything was ready the night
before. Comfortably settled in this incredible place called “Gangplank”,
certainly worth reading about (http://gangplankhq.com/ ) that could not have
been better chosen for all its principles and values which parallel so much
of who we are in Open Space, the conversations began.  Quickly participants
bounded to the center, many still infused with the Orlando event last March
that Harrison hosted.  The topics just kept coming, too many to really count
because it really didn’t matter.  It was the passion behind the words that
mattered most.

What I realized in that instant is that when there is a spirit of welcome, a
diverse group, people who are there because they want to be there, a sense
of urgency because the world needs this and a complex topic that sparks and
ignites, well indeed magic or real life happens.  People quickly shed their
facades, threw caution to the wind, and they got to work.  In my opening
remarks, I talked about nervous energy (for those who had never sat in a
circle like this in Open Space) and pent-up energy (for those who just
wanted to get on with it so pressing were the topics they wanted to discuss)
suggesting that these were the perfect ingredients for innovation and
creativity.  I invited all to pause, to look around that giant circle as if
seated in the Arizona desert  to see who was there and to leave room from
within for the 4 principles and the Law of 2 feet to do their thing.  Leave
some space to be surprised, I said, and let go of pre-determined
expectations.  These principles and this law, would be some of the precious
take-aways to be used in our life beyond this event.

No sooner were those words spoken than my job was done.  I truly became
invisible (with a slight tad of sadness I’ll admit) knowing that passion and
responsibility had found their place and there was truly nothing left to do.
Yes in some cases, there were concerns: were people documenting their
reports, were we capturing the names of all the participants…and I chose to
simply smile knowing that I could not interrupt the intense conversations
(butterflies, bumble bees and participants) as it would perhaps crash the
one magical moment where individuals were connecting and creating something
greater than I could imagine.  I had no doubt that everything would be
alright, that responsibility would combine with passion and that action
would naturally emerge which it did and will.

So I stood back and quietly watched the intense expressions, the energy
bouncing off the walls (exhausting at times), the charged discussions, the
markers flying on the flip chart sheets, the smart phone video cameras
capturing the action in the moment, the live stream twitter comments
enticing folks outside the room to respond. It was exciting; it was
exhilarating!  Anyone interested, have a peak (blogs and live stream)
http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/

And then at some point, I shed my facilitator role too and had a few
wonderful and life changing conversations with a few butterflies.

As we closed the circle after two days asking people to say not what they
thought but rather to describe how they “felt” about what had happened, I
knew then just as I had experienced it at the Wave Rider event in Toronto
and also at WOSonOS  in Taiwan that these moments would never happen again.
This is it and this is now!   Certainly what happened in those two days
borrowing from the title of one of Harrison’s books is that for those two
days in Phoenix, we were “Expanding our Now” and I, for one, will be forever
grateful to have had a small part in making this happen with others.   My
love affair with Open Space continues.
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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