[OSList] Poke the Open Space Box

Wed May 18 06:13:43 PDT 2011

Harold,

Your post has been on my mind a lot...Your question: "What's the path to
abundant full time Open Space living?" and then your comment "I've been
wishing I could do this full time - go out - get clients - and facilitate
OST conferences full time - but Seth's quote kind of threw that back at me".

All I can say Harold is to follow your passion.  In many ways it is a hero's
journey, a journey that does not have the security, the predictability, the
stability and all that a traditional "abundant full time job or career might
have".   For me, Open Space is the pathway that opens up space to transform
how we do work, how we experience life, how we are together, together.
There is nothing that compares.  I know I could be accused at times of being
a "one trick pony" but how can I dismiss the depth, the possibilities, the
layers, the hope, the transformation, innovation, creativity, peace,
performance and all that Opening Space invites in our lives.  It is a way of
being much more than a process of doing.

As I reflect on my corporate career, I can feel and taste the possibilities
of what Open Space invites. It invites EVERYONE to participate and engage,
to contribute and make a difference. To be themselves without holding back.
Wow!  And as I think of you Harold, your depth, your  commitment and
contributions to this community, I think to myself, lucky client who would
have you to Open Space. What a gift knowing the results and outcomes in
productivity, high performance and high engagement that could occur.

As a community, I feel us to be on the edge...on the edge of so many
possibilities. The World today is a very different place: in business, in
politics, in education, in finance, environmentally, etc.   Or perhaps it's
not that different at all, it's just our perception that has changed and
perception is everything.  It's a lot.

The opportunities to be opening space abound.  Some days I feel like a shoe
salesman seeing
so many people around me with no shoes, not even knowing what shoes are and
I think of the "repetitive patterns" of how they work and live that aren't
working anymore. I then think to myself "if only they had shoes aka Open
Space" and therein lies the entrepreneur magic inside of me.  In those
times, I feel myself to be a business owner, a scientist and an inventor --
imagining the path of how I can help people discover  how life could be
better if only we could open space and introduce a few principles of living.

At this stage, rather than writing a book, I feel myself wanting to write a
marketing campaign not to sell somebody on something but to speak in a
language where people are, a language of need and possibilities that is
familiar. A language that invites a relationship with clients, a language
that does not talk about Open Space but that is all about Opening Space in
different ways so we can get different results.

So Harold, I thank you for posting this.  It made me realize again that time
is "awasting" and  that I have important work to do if I am to go for the
whole enchilada, as Harrison told me in a recent post. It means being smart
and strategic, thinking like an entrepreneur, knowing what I'm good at and
going for it.

I'm imagining there are lots of Wave Riders out there like you, like me who
are not shy about announcing that making a sustainable living doing what we
love to do is indeed a noble and worthy goal.  And "abundance" seems like a
darn good word because it is through abundance, sharing, helping each other,
contributing back to this community that abundance happens and multiples.

So Harold, keep simmering your dream and let me know if I can help in this
trail blazing, wave riding adventure that we call Open Space which is really
nothing more than opening space in our lives so that "people can be helping
people" in business, community and in life.

Suzanne, invigorated and energized about the future

-- 

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 7:37 PM, Harold Shinsato <harold at shinsato.com>wrote:

>  I just read this in Seth Godin's latest tract - "Poke the Box". I've heard
> occasionally that some folks are having trouble making ends meet as Open
> Space Technology facilitators. Yet others seem to be doing ok. I've been
> wishing I could do this full time - go out - get clients - and facilitatre
> OST conferences full time - but Seth's quote kind of threw that back at me.
>
>
> "My friend Jessica wants to be a conference organizer. You can hire her and
> she'll sweat every single detail of your event. Give her the attendee list,
> the venue, and the agenda, and the conference will go off without a hitch.
>
> "The problem with this plan is that it involves being picked by the event
> promoter. If she gets picked often, it's a fine living. If she can negotiate
> a fair payday, it's a fine living. But Jessica must pitch the promoter, hat
> in hand.
>
> "So... why not be the promoter, the initiator, the one in charge and
> responsible?"
>
>    - Seth Godin, Poke the Box, p. 25
>
>
> This sounds a lot more like the spirit of OST than going out looking for
> clients who want to do OST events. This is very personal for me as Missoula
> BarCamp's OST event happens on Saturday. I went out and just got it started
> - but it's not exactly a money maker at this point. But what Seth says, just
> initiating cool OST events, sounds a lot more juicy than trying to pitch OST
> facilitation.
>
> Any enlightenment anyone? What's the path to abundant full time Open Space
> living?
>
> --
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>
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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
twitter @suzannedaigle
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