[OSList] The grief process in my new venture

[Skye Hirst]

THank you so much for this most beautiful mix of mythology, metaphor and
experience to point to a most complex and elegant process.  Also with
love,  Skye from Maine US

Skye Hirst
skyeh at autognomics.org
lifeworks beautifully knowing itself


On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Kári Gunnarsson <kari.gunnarsson at simnet.is
> wrote:

> Last week has been wonderful for my start-up Open Space consultation
> businesses. With new clients that have ambition to get out of the way for
> self-organization to take place.
>
> A small private school and kindergarten system invited the leadership and
> key-employees of the 17 institutions to discuss how we can prepare for the
> future now that the first generation of visionaries will no longer be as
> active in the organization. We had two-day open space filled with learning
> and longing. Extremely positive comments from participants, two of my
> favorite were:
> 1. Why did we not meet like this many years ago?
> 2. We need to meet like this for a full uninterrupted week.
>
> The sponsors are seeing the grief process at work within the leadership of
> the institutions and I told them a wonderful story of Icelandic myth. It is
> a story about a man named 'Fúsi', he finds himself at crossroads during
> midnight at the changing of times. He knew that the elves travel the roads
> at these times and will offer their gifts to anyone sitting at the
> crossroad. But one should be careful accept any one gift from the elves or
> one would go mad. Many elves came and offer him gifts of gold and pleasure
> and laid them at his feet. And as the night grew, he became hungry. One
> elven maiden came with a dish full of eatables, a dish called "Flot" and
> offered to him, he said to the maiden, "Sjaldan hef ég flotinu neitað"
> (Rarely have I 'been a' "Flot" naysayer), and he became mad from the day he
> ate from that dish, then I add that we should not jump to conclusions with
> easy solutions and let the emerging open space take its place, for
> otherwise we rob ourselves from the leadership development that is
> necessary for a healthy organization.
>
>
> My little story on grief is a follows.  It goes like a berthing exercise,
> first there is something that happened, we lose our breath and freeze in
> out track. It is good stop if there is danger, but we can't do much without
> breath. Anger helps us recapture our breath and move away from danger.
> Anger lets us draw our breath and drop whatever we are doing so that we can
> react promptly. Now that we are out of anger and other tasks like feeding
> the children come to the agenda, then the Denial is like gold. Now as we
> move in our daily tasks the memories of what happened come to us and we
> negotiate them into our personal and organizational life stories. As our
> stories have changed so have our prerequisites for our hopes and plans, it
> can be a painful process to let go and disconnect from them, but as we do
> this, we find new space open up in our lives. The methodology of Open Space
> draws its name from this stage of the grieving process. When here, it is of
> value to learn from the Story of Fúsi and the elves, and not fill up the
> space with old ideas, but to let the gifts of the open space unfold. For
> the next stage holds the promise of a new hope, a new power, a vision for
> the future. a common direction that is essential for effective strategic
> planning.
>
> With love from Iceland
> Kári Gunnarsson
> kari at openspace.is
>
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