[OSList] LOVE

Suzanne Daigle via OSList oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Sat Aug 27 10:08:51 PDT 2016


Anne Stadler wrote:


*Love...*
*“A world that works for ALL is a world of love made visible”*

How I love Open Space and what it invites, what unfolds and what it reveals
inside us. Yes the word LOVE seems to capture it with such utter simplicity.

I decided to create a separate post while honoring the question about
University Training. Anne’s words unleashed a tsunami in me.

This 2 martini, coffee break thing that's been around for 30 plus years and
counting ignites something inside us that's always been there, a pure,
infinite, boundless love of life and love of everything around us, a
noticing that seems sharper, crisper, more joyful, and more full of
possibility.

Our 2 martini, coffee break open space …

·         from the budding seed of an idea to convene around something that
matters much,

·         to the invitation where we're inviting people to something so
different from what they know,  an invitation that is filled with listening
and connecting

·         to the point  we are together sitting in a circle where it will
unfold in so many unique ways depending on the individual.

It's like a play within a play, with stuff going on outside of us and
inside us.

·         Our senses are awakened; we are on the alert whether anticipation
or healthy nervous anxiety. As the facilitator walks the circle, knowing
this is happening and will happen, the words humble, gratitude, quiet,
calm, totally present and yes LOVE come to mind.

·         During and afterwards, the Open Space continues to percolate
inside us... it has done its magic reminding us of the essence of life.
Whether we are aware of it or not in the moment or weeks, months and even
years later, we sense that something is happening, has happened. That space
that was inside us all along suddenly feels as if it's been set free, ready
to expand ever more. We feel an invitation to freedom one that we’ve may
have been deprived of if we were folks that behaved and conformed to
society’s norms. Like new clothes, it can feel uncomfortable at first; we
can feel somewhat discombobulated.

Free to choose, free to be courageous, to breathe and yes to LOVE.  Whether
the law of 2 feet or the principles, these are all reminders of the freedom
that is ours to choose ignited by the Two Martini/Coffee Break of Open
Space.

I became a grandma a few years ago and as I watch and feel my little
grandson engage in life, I see the open space of life bursting out of him,
not holding back anything, curiosity, awe, joy, pain and hurts, exuberant
energy and words that sound like music each with such intonation. He exudes
LOVE moment by moment. Oh to capture and nourish that side of ourselves
before it gets muffled by society and fears and the mechanistic way of
doing things.

And then these past few years, I've been working with a Packaging
Association in Central Florida. Open Space was alive and well before I
arrived... Not the two martini, coffee break one but the spirit of Open
Space. When I joined they expressed that they had been drifting. Their
meetings were less attended, many on the Board were tired having serving
for many years.
We spent time together, I attended their meetings and became a part of them
in the shared passion around work, packaging, manufacturing, etc. By asking
questions, space opened and they/we began to dream again.

In January 2016 we started talking about an Open Space; in March we started
inviting; in June we hosted a one day gathering to record attendance -- 80
people, more than we could have hoped. The naysayers (“nobody will come
there”) had been proven wrong. Interestingly as the invitation evolved,
some of those naysayers registered. It made us smile and we welcomed
everyone with open arms, Life shifting in beautiful ways.

The two martini Open Space started to work its magic from the moment the
idea of packaging Open Space became a possibility. The team poured its
heart into the planning and inviting; doubts haunted them at times but
nothing could stop us. We found courage with others and with each other.
Many moments of happy and hopeful anticipation and lots of anxious moments
too.  They/we learned together on how to invite to something with no power
points, no speakers, no panels, visits or tours, for one full day. As it
had been with Creative New Jersey
<http://www.creativenj.org/about/the-idea/#.V8G_5VeeNcY> years ago, we took
the invitation job seriously, we engaged in many conversations, we
listened, we connected, we invited and invited by speaking the issues, the
possibilities and our heart.

Those early conversations opened tons of space -- space that is still
vibrantly open today with many in the industry whether they attended or
not. People could feel our shared purpose, our “can do, unstoppable”
attitude, our optimism. It was embodied in the Theme “Evolve or Perish – A
Future of Exponential Growth and Unlimited Possibilities”
<https://evolveorperish.wordpress.com/>. Serious and urgent stuff.

Today we are brimming with projects and plans. Open Space is in us and part
of us.

Never in my entire life have I worked with a group so connected with each
other, so open and inviting to others. Step by step, on top of their day
jobs, our work and plans continue, bigger than any one of us could have
imagined. Grounded, serious, purposeful, it has become a labor of love and
as our plans grow and the energy around it does too, it becomes infectious,
attracting and igniting others who want to be part of these serious
meaningful projects. It is also infecting other parts of our lives – in the
everyday work as people step into their own leadership in their own
companies – bolder, more confident, clearer and increasingly articulate in
speaking that which can and should be done. Their colleagues, leaders and
others in their organization are noticing.  Space is opening there too,
slowly but surely.

I have written very long... and most certainly strayed from the point on
university training which was the subject of the post that Anne Stadler
responded to. In my mind, there can be no official training or
certification for this. The training happens in all kinds of ways, in the
inviting, in the sharing, in the talking out loud, doing and being
ourselves.

Training can happen in so many ways as it has been happening over decades –
no formula, no best way, no set program or certification. Whether
individually (amazing trainers and facilitators around the globe) or in
teams as happens in New York at International House every January with
Harrison and Karen Davis  or soon in September at the Contorno workshop
<http://www.contorno-consulting.com/092016-ost-workshop> in the Netherlands
with Thomas Hermann, Anna Carolina Turk (Germany) and Doris Gottlieb
(US/The Netherlands). Then of course, one cannot forget World Open Space
and others like it in various countries. I’m planning to be in Manila in
November at WOSonOS2016 <http://www.wosonos2016.com/> hosted by Sharon Joy
Chao. In 2009 we were two newbies together at WOSonOS Taiwan hosted by Gail
West. We knew then that there was something incredibly profound about Open
Space and we each ran towards it. We will celebrate our friendship together
in person and I, with others, will hold space for her.



Yes, there are those basic steps that can be taught quite easily -- all
described in Harrison’s Open Space User Guide. But for the rest, the stuff
that talks to love and life which Open Space invites, there is no training,
there's just the wave riding of life, meeting and reaching out for every
wave, each moment more exhilarating than the other, in the joy, the pain,
the endings and beginnings.



I could write and write and write. Thank you for indulging me as I speak my
Open Space soul after a long absence on this list. I’ve just been busy
living it.

*Suzanne* grateful for Anne's simple word and phrase about LOVE

P.S. Today I dedicate this piece of writing about love to our Open Space
colleague Hélène de St. Front who is marrying this weekend in France. We
met in Open Space in Paris, later she traveled to Washington to meet
Harrison in person and then, this past January, she came to International
House in New York and then to Florida with Amy Chen and I. We were the
first to see her wedding dress which she paraded at my home and which she
bought in New York. You can't invent stories like this. It's the magic of
the synchronicity that happens in Open Space.






Suzanne Daigle
Open Space Facilitator
NuFocus Strategic Group

FL 941-359-8877
Cell: 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
Twitter @Daiglesuz
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