[OSList] Renewing the Mission of the Open Space Institute U.S.

Tue Jul 19 12:07:26 PDT 2016

Wow - thanks Birgitt. I very much enjoyed your perspective and resonate 
with it.

I love trainings (as long as they're very little lecture and lots of 
experience, movement, creation and experiments... and play). I love the 
work of Sharon Bowman, "Training from the Back of the Room". It's almost 
required reading for moving up in the Scrum Alliance's trainer 
certification track. (Ack - did I say certification???!)

Some questions:

Is it wrong to take and enjoy an Open Space Training?
Do the trainers and the trainees deserve censure for taking and 
enjoying, sometimes multiple times, such trainings?
Is training a less than helpful word? Does it invoke Pavlovian 
punishment/reward processes, and sitting obediently around the guru/teacher?

A little bit about "question storming" that I learned from the book by 
Warren Berger "A More Beautiful Question 
<http://amorebeautifulquestion.com/>". It can be useful to build more 
questions by taking yes/no ones like the ones above, and opening them. 
And it can be useful to do the reverse too! Turning open questions into 
yes/no ones.

How can taking and enjoying trainings for Open Space be a good thing, 
and how can it be detrimental?

How do both offering and taking trainings for Open Space Techonology 
close space? How could it open it?

What other words invoke a more "Open Space" purpose and intent than 
"training"?

How can the use of the word "Trainings" for Open Space actually be a 
benefit?

     Cheers,
     Harold

On 7/19/16 11:59 AM, Birgitt Williams via OSList wrote:
> I just wanted to add a little to Harrison's point about 'unlearning'. 
> In something we refer to as 'training' which is a misnomer unto 
> itself, we have
> -unlearning
> -getting in touch with the mythology, story, and ritual that we are, 
> in other words getting into genuine contact with ourselves
> -getting in even deeper genuine contact with ourselves until we can 
> access the memories carried in our bones, in our cells, and in our 
> hearts and souls of what is good, true and beautiful in us all and in 
> our connections
> -this leads to genuine contact with another, with the collective and 
> with Creator/Creation
>
> Does it take 2 days? Does it take a lifetime? 2 days is a starting 
> point....personally I prefer to offer a 4 day learning journey...not 
> just about facilitation and the essence of OST....the form is after 
> all quite simple....I like to include how to work with OST within a 
> fixed system so that the outcomes from an OST meeting have their best 
> chance to shift into action and positive results.
>
> I took Harrison's OST training 4 day training 7 times...learning more 
> each time. I have offered countless OST trainings and learn more each 
> time. Maybe it is a quirk of mine...I totally enjoyed three years 
> deeply immersed in studying the circle...and these days I am enjoying 
> learning the nuances of the breath as metaphor. Great joy!
>
> Blessings all around,
> Birgitt
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 8:08 AM Harrison Owen via OSList 
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org 
> <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>
>     Paul – Good to see you! And I was struck with your question… “How
>     can it possibly take 2 days to "teach"
>
>     OST and why would anyone ever want to teach it anyway ?” In my
>     experience it certainly does not take 2 days to “teach” Open
>     Space. BUT it does seem to take two days to get even a minimal
>     start on un-learning all the stuff we thought we knew about
>     working together – All the stuff that clogs up our space so that
>     working becomes difficult and sometimes impossible.
>
>     Harrison
>
>     *From:*OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
>     <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>] *On Behalf Of
>     *paul levy via OSList
>     *Sent:* Tuesday, July 19, 2016 7:06 AM
>     *To:* Harold Shinsato; World wide Open Space Technology email list
>     *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Renewing the Mission of the Open Space
>     Institute U.S.
>
>     Harold
>
>      A few more questions ...
>
>     Warm wishes
>
>     Paul
>
>     Why are we still calling OST a technology ?
>
>     Why is the LAW of two feel a law ?
>
>     If the "principles" are not prescriptions but descriptions why are
>     they called principles ?
>
>     How can it possibly take 2 days to "teach"
>
>     OST and why would anyone ever want to teach it anyway ?
>
>     Why do OST "elders" on the OS list keep advocating dogmatic views
>     about OST? (Oh yes you do)
>
>     What if one less thing to do was facilitation ?
>
>     How could OSI begin a humble inquiry into new and valuable ways of
>     opening space? And learn from them ?
>
>     What questions do we need to ask that cannot be formed into
>     latinised words and phrases ?
>
>     Where is open space technology when the world needs to open space
>     most - right now ?
>
>
>
>     On Monday, 18 July 2016, Harold Shinsato via OSList
>     <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
>     <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>
>     Dear People of Open Space:
>
>     The Open Space Institute of the U.S. has been "holding space for
>     open space" since at least 1997. It's origins lie in the summer of
>     1996, 20 years ago. In the beginnings, there were many serious
>     conversations in the community as to the role and mission of such
>     an institute, and that role has certainly evolved over the years.
>     The board has determined it is time for us to revisit our mission
>     and role, and especially to invite and trust the rest of the
>     community refresh and renew our purpose.
>
>     Rather than have a mission statement, we hope instead to have a
>     mission question. Or series of questions. What are the most
>     valuable and alive questions for our community right now, and for
>     the foreseeable future?
>
>     To start the "question storming", here are some questions that
>     have been reportedly asked deeply within our community in the
>     early days:
>
>     What is Open Space Technology?
>     What is Open Space?
>     What is Space?
>
>     And here are some practical questions that would help guide the
>     OSI-US's operations:
>
>     How can the OSI-US best support our community?
>     How can we best work together with the community to co-create a
>     broad and diverse circle of people holding space for open space?
>
>         Thanks!
>         Harold Shinsato
>         on behalf of the Board of the Open Space Institute, U.S.
>
>     -- 
>     Harold Shinsato
>     harold at shinsato.com
>     http://shinsato.com
>     twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>
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-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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