[OSList] When did you first hear about OST?

[Jeff Aitken via OSList]

I was in grad school in 1988 - the first year of a new MA program called organizational development and transformation, at CIIS in san francisco. Colleagues brought back photos and excited stories from an open space symposium called OT, held that summer in San Diego. The next February - my birthday weekend - Antonio Nunez had invited Harrison to offer two days in open space at CIIS.

I loved facilitating open space, but my attention was taken by several experiences as a participant in 3-4 days of open space (such as other OT symposia.) I began to track the internal and external learning journey of the individual in the context of open space and the location where it took place. 

This became a PhD dissertation as I learned about indigenous practices like "wayfinding" for negotiating a path thru complex situations, paying attention to cycles, protocols, sychronicities, etc; and U shaped creation stories; and the designs of ceremonies in which everyone gathers at the closing for a "return and giveaway" of their learnings and legacies and medicines, for the good of all.

It's been a lovely winding road, and I am most interested in the individual and collective leadership capacities that can be cultivated in open space as a practice for, and of, life in a community. I like the "fourfold way" of Angeles Arrien and the "fourfold practice" of the Art of Hosting as rubrics for this multi-dimensional capacity development. 

Gratitude for our community.

Jeff
California

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