My Love Affair continues

Thu Sep 30 07:35:12 PDT 2010

Dear Suzanne,

The event was wonderful and beyond our expectations. I was so blessed to be
there. You opened and held the space beautifully.

Thank you for your inspiration.

Claudia Alarcon

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:08 PM, Suzanne Daigle <sdaigle4 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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