[OSList] In response to Tricia

Mon Feb 18 13:21:42 PST 2013

How funny! It seems that Temasek Polytechnic has a different perspective on 'inappropriate' or a very strange filter system! It reached me fine. Thanks Suzanne!

Kind regards
Amanda
Commercial Mediator
www.AmandaBucklow.co.uk
www.blog.AmandaBucklow.co.uk

+44 207 121 8772

P Save a tree ... please do not print this e-mail unless you really need to

On 18 Feb 2013, at 15:03, Suzanne Daigle wrote:

> Hi all, I posted a response to Tricia's "Sticky dots" email to us early this morning. To my surprise, I then received this alert. Don't know if my message went through and certainly don't know what was unacceptable or inappropriate except maybe what "self organization and Open Space" might invite :-)
> 
> The following email message has been blocked by automated email security system:
>    
>    From:      sdaigle4 at gmail.com
>    To:        cletaml at tp.edu.sg
>    Subject:   Re: [OSList] Sticky dots Q - San Fran event reflections
>    Message:   B512207ab0000.000000000001.0001.mml
> 
> Because it may contain unacceptable language, or inappropriate material.
> 
> Temasek Polytechnic
> Email Security Team 
> 
> So here is what I wrote and I hope it will be acceptable and appropriate to whoever: 
> 
> Dear Tricia,
> 
> Thank you for sharing this with us all as you have.  What a gift! I love how you just let it rip describing it. All the details, your feelings along the way, and your reflections and retrospective.  I will let others comment as I do not think I could ever make one suggestion of anything that you should have done differently. For me, it's not the point. And yes I will be longish too...
> 
> On January 22nd (not even a full month ago), you came onto this list and said: "I am an OST newbie who is hoping to facilitate an Open Space for my main client's annual meeting in a few weeks and I would like to get your thoughts on incorporating hands on skill transfer into an Open Space. I did do some book reading on OST and just attended the OST meeting in NYC this weekend, but have never hosted an Open Space. Then... you added I do not provide facilitation for this organization. I am one of a number of project managers who work on teams to conduct market research and strategy consulting projects for their clients in the life sciences arena. They have agreed to my participation in the  facilitation of the meetings and I have referenced OST, but we have not yet discussed details on meeting design and I am pretty sure they are not familiar with OST. This meeting will be a small group of only the US folks - 14 in total. We will be meeting for 2.5 days. On an ongoing basis, we are all remote workers across the US and in Europe and Japan and only see each other when we travel to a client's location."  
> 
> I remember thinking as I read this then: "Wow this may turn out to be a bit of a challenge but you go girl. Why a challenge? Because I interpreted that you were working with peer facilitators and consultants.  And what I also know is how very different is the way of facilitating Open Space than traditional facilitation. Taking from the French word "faciliter" it can mean making things easier for others or  "plus facile" translated literally "more easy".   Well for me therein lies the sticky wicket, whether in facilitation or leadership, making things easier for others, smoother, more predictable, coordinating, helping, managing, controlling, inspiring, synthesizing, doing project management, guiding strategy, taking care of, having it all together, are all the words of our profession. Yes most often that's what project managers, consultants and leaders get paid for. I spent a lifetime doing this with what I thought were good intentions. Making things easier for others. I got successful at it, was promoted and recognized. And yet inside myself I never felt all that good about it. I really only felt happy when everyone was working together as equals, with everyone jumping in and letting it rip. When stuff was happening in all its messiness, with folks doing the most amazing things, going beyond anything anyone could dream of. I had had sparks of this in my career but had never been able to connect the dots...until I met Open Space.  This stuff of self-organizing and an invitation for me to bravely and vulnerably  unleash my own leadership with tons of room for others to unleash theirs without knowing where it would lead was a huge leap. 
> 
> Harrison said: You can’t open space if your space ain’t open!   Well I might disagree a tad. 
> 
>  I did open space even when my space wasn't yet open. I had to start somewhere and jump right in. Cause it was only in the doing of it, jumping on the court, not sitting in the bleachers that I got my courage and learning. 
> 
> It was easier said than done. I had a lifetime of "unlearning to do"!  And it was painful and scary, still is, though a lot less. . After all, it confronted everything I had done and what folks typically described as success...an empty success really. Yes Open Space confronts a lot of the stuff that we've been doing in leadership and facilitation...it is quite confronting to see how much gets done, how energized and passionate people get to be, how productive we all become when we simply "Sit in a circle, create a bulletin board, open and market place, and go to work".  All that effort, all that work, all that preparation, leading and guiding for naught!
> 
> And whether consciously or unconsciously, that's what people start getting when they participate in Open Space (whether you are facilitating or participating). I didn't get this at first Tricia, all I can say is I did what you did. I just jumped right in, faulting myself a lot for the things I was doing wrong that I could have done better but really in the end, it didn't much matter cause I was opening space and learning to unlearn a little bit more every day. 
> 
> When I started in Open Space, I jumped in just like you... . I talked about it all the time...still do. Doing it for free, for pay, for a few bucks or many more bucks. I made a commitment then, early on that I would do one Open Space a month, whether I sponsored it myself or was invited. My journey  in Open Space started a short 4 years ago! I have lost count how many Open Spaces I have facilitated, co-facilitated or attended.  And now this year, I and others are hosting the World Open Space in St. Petersburg Florida. 
> 
> So Tricia, you did nothing wrong.  I feel as if you were drawn into this and gave your heart and soul to it. You invited others on the basis of what you experienced in New York.  You jumped right in and I applaud you for trusting your intuition and for courageously asking us for help and for sharing.  In my book, you did nothing wrong and you did everything right.  
> 
> Thank you Tricia, I am so glad you are here. Maybe we will see you in Florida! Suzanne
> 
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