[OSList] When did you first hear about OST?

Wed Dec 17 21:02:48 PST 2014

Hey Harold!  I'm smiling about the OS-Rainbow Gathering connection!

I had my first intensive gathering experience in 1981, in Washington State,
then in 1983 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Have been to a few more since
then...

About a decade later, when I attended my first Open Space -- the
Organization Transformation Conference
in Napa, I believe it was 1994 or 1995 -- and met Harrison in person, I
remember telling him
that I was blown away that "he had figured out how to hold a Rainbow
Gathering indoors". :-)

The next time I was at a Gathering... it may have been a regional in New
Mexico a few years
later? I remember talking with some of my long-time gathering friends, and
telling that there was this
crazy thing that they could do with organizations, helping them hold
Rainbow-Gathering-like events
indoors... I think they thought I was nuts!

*1. when did you first hear about os or ost?*

1994 or 1995, in the Bay Area, saw Harrison's book at my friend Kim Rosa's
house.
I read it all in one sitting, then called him up using the phone number in
the back of the book,
and was blown away when he answered the phone. I told him I'd just finished
reading his book,
and really wanted to experience this... he asked me where I was calling
from,
and then told me that I was in luck since the conference in Napa was going
to be happening soon...

*2. what was the hook?  how did you notice it might have value?*

I think it was somewhere on day two, when I really got that if something
wasn't being offered,
it was up to me to do something about it. Some friends and I offered a
session or two.
It was a blast....  The closing was really amazing also, a huge circle,
then snake-dancing through the building,
turning the energy outward toward the world, feeling this huge circle at
our back...

*3. when did you notice that you'd started letting it inform how you live?*
I think that first OST gathering was it...
it's been a huge reinforcement ever since then,
for my already-present tendency to "listen inside" for where I need to be...

*4. what has happened since then?  what difference does it seem to make?*

some time shortly after that initial encounter, a friend and I offered a
one-day OS gathering for
the education reform non-profit I was working at, that was going through
major re-org.
It was small, but very meaningful...

I remember going to some OS training with Harrison in SF, maybe in 1998?
Then in 1999, I assisted my friend Tom Atlee with another one-day OS event
that he was hosting in the Bay Area...

At the time, I remember worrying at that OS had "spoiled" me, as I had been
wanting
to go back to school for a master's in OD, as a way of moving into
consulting work...
However, after experiencing OS I was worried that I would not be able
to deal with a program that was not open to self-organization!

Fortunately, I ended up finding Sonoma State University's great OD program,
which is quite open to dialogic processes... :-)  :-) :-)  Got to play with
Future Search
and other good stuff there. And, in 2000 I encountered Dynamic Facilitation,
which is particularly useful and fun for small groups working on complex
issues.

I didn't connect with this list until a few years ago when my friend Peggy
mentioned
it to me. Mostly lurk but occasionally comment.

I've been on the hosting team for a few conferences
in Austria using Art of Hosting, where we do some OS,
but I wouldn't really count that as hosting a multi-day OS gathering,
which is where I feel the real juice is...
and which I've only attended so far, not hosted.
So I'm very much an amateur in the OS world...

with all best wishes,

Rosa

*Rosa Zubizarreta*

*Diapraxis: Facilitating Creative Collaborationhttp://www.diapraxis.com
<http://www.diapraxis.com/>*

On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Harold Shinsato via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>  Such awesome stories. Much gratitude, and may the powerful stories to
> continue to emerge. I'm in!
>
> 1. when did you first hear about os or ost?
>
> Short answer: May 2007. Long answer: I first about OST from the wonderful
> Kaliya Hamlin who was hired to conduct a sideline "barcamp" in San
> Francisco at Moscone Center for the annual (huge) JavaOne conference in May
> of 2007. The only reason I was drawn to that was because something really
> struck a cord in me when I heard read on the web in 2007 what was happening
> at FooCamp (a watered down version of OST), which would be hard to
> experience as only 250 a year get invites. When I heard that BarCamp's were
> a copy of FooCamp and something anyone could conduct, I got quite excited
> about offering one in Montana. And a few other influential people in the
> tech community in Montana were also interested and had heard about BarCamp
> and supported my intention. But the JavaOne sideline 'barcamp' was pretty
> much a glorious failure. Out of 10-20 thousand participants, only 10 showed
> up for our BarCamp and only stayed for an hour (despite one of the handful
> of lead conference organizers showing up saying he thought all tech
> conferences would eventually be in this kind of format). Kaliya did a small
> "barcamp" anyway and she told me about the real stuff, Open Space
> Technology. Kaliya was conducting her Internet Identity Workshop less than
> an hour south in Mountain View the following week, and when I showed up
> there Kaliya introduced me to Lisa Heft who offered me a short slideshow on
> how OST was used around the world in very diverse and powerful
> environments. I took Lisa's workshop December 2007, facilitated my first
> OST the month after at SAP in San Jose, CA, and my first "BarCamp" in
> Missoula in April of 2008 - but I did full force OST. No watering down.
> Have been hooked ever since.
>
> 2. what was the hook?  how did you notice it might have value?
>
> That's a long story - but the short version is I had had such a mind
> blowing experience of seeing self-organization in effect (before I had any
> words for it) - in 1996 at my first National Rainbow Gathering where 15-30K
> people camp for a week offering all kinds of things and feeding everyone as
> well without any official leadership. Also, my experience taking improv
> classes 1995-1998 offered the same kind of urging towards the emergent. And
> then hearing about self-direction and self-organizing in Agile Software
> Development in 2001. And finally, Jim and Michele McCarthy's bootcamp for
> me in 2002 also offered a huge level of self-direction and
> self-organization. I just *knew* it was the right direction. And Open Space
> had such a simple process and a beautiful invitation that let me feel like
> I or anyone could do it. The principles were already built in to our
> humanity. Anyone can play.
>
> 3. when did you notice that you'd started letting it inform how you live?
>
> Hmm, I'd say with confidence that I started let OST inform how I live well
> before I even heard about OST. See the story above. And what I find is that
> Open Space is so amazing that it keeps teaching me as I continue to
> practice.
>
> 4. what has happened since then?  what difference does it seem to make?
>
> OST has made such a difference for me and so much has happened, more than
> I can imagine writing. Short answer, it has totally changed my life for the
> better. Ten facilitations under my belt since 2008. Participated in 2-3
> times as many, several I think will go down in the history books like the 3
> WOSonOS events in 2010, 2012, 2013, "Leadership in a Self-Organizing World"
> and "Scrum Beyond Software". Serving on the Open Space Institute board and
> helping keep the OSLIST alive on the cheap by finding us free hosting.
> Leaving my day job this year and getting to face Open Space with even
> deeper commitment and intentionality for Open Space being my real life work.
>
> I'm so grateful to Harrison, the early pioneers; for the many incredibly
> transformative relationships as well as getting to participate in the
> lively OSLIST with all of you. Blessings!
>
>  --
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20141218/b3bb1025/attachment-0002.htm>