[OSList] Thinking...

Fri Dec 8 09:58:27 PST 2017

Thank you Christie for your  beautiful note and for leading us to Ashley's
interview. No matter how familiar is the message or how often I hear it, I
feel its comfort, its resonant invitation and all the hope, joy, grief and
"awe" that goes with it.

In your note you said:

"*Caring creates time, meaningful time.*"
 I have been thinking & talking with colleagues a lot lately about the
"care" part of healthcare & healthcare education, and about how time and
attention are necessary elements of care...and truly, allowing for
"meaningful time" can be powerful elemental medicine.

As I read this, I was triggered by the "caring that can happen at work" - a
caring connected to a spirit of community where  passion and responsibility
are at play. I experienced both yesterday.

It was related to my work with UPA (United Packaging Association)
<https://unitedpackagingassociates.com> - a  new packaging networking
association that got ignited from an Open Space gathering in 2016. UPA
members and guests celebrated the holiday season last evening and visited a
wonderful flavoring company called Monin, with its family roots in Bourges,
France. Their self-organizing ways of managing the company hooked my heart
and I had great difficulty containing my enthusiasm and holding back my
questions, wishing to remember and absorb every miracle moment of my time
with them. There were so many stories, so many little things that they are
doing - everyone totally invested in the work of the business, passionate,
having a place and having a voice. It is with such pride that they shared
their progress, their mistakes, their set-backs and their leaps forward
with clients, doing more for them and with them than anyone could imagine.

On the walls throughout their facility were large black and white, framed
professional photographs of every single employee, each capturing the
essence and spirit of the person  - sometimes a smile, sometimes a special
spark in the eye or a whimsical expression.

Their dedication, the excellence of what they do, their commitment, their
humility and the global place they have earned as leaders in the
marketplace attest to their culture, success and future prospects.

Little wonder that they say working for Monin
<https://www.monin.com/us/about-us/history/> is to be part of a family. The
spirit of family extends beyond to everyone connected to them including
community and us at UPA last evening.

I could not even begin to describe all those things that I noticed as we
toured - people on the job in their every day life doing what they do,
taking charge and in charge, with a pride of competency and collegiality
that spoke of decision-making by those closest to the work at hand. The
important measures of the business were there on the wall for everyone to
see, written not by management but again by people closest to the work. I
could go on and on about those items of continuous improvement, their
breakthroughs, technical expertise, commitment to excellence and the many
ideas from people across the company that adorned the bulletin boards in
celebration of the results from each of those initiatives. There were no
labels attached to what they do: lean, six sigma, self-management or indeed
open space. They were just doing the work.

One story in particular struck me deeply. Partnering with a placement
agency, they hired a young man who was autistic on a trial basis to do a
task that was somewhat repetitive and crucially important to the overall
manufacturing process of this particular product. Andrew, now a regular
employee, excelled at this task!! Others had struggled with the routine of
it, trying to avoid being assigned there. Today not only has the entire
organization learned deeply about right fit, for right job (applies to
everyone not just Andrew) but now teammates regularly come by to work side
by side with him on other projects to keep him company.  Outside the door
of the small office where Andrew works on the manufacturing floor is a
plaque with his name on it and the words "Pump Assembly". No one else in
the company has a plaque with their name on it.

As joyous and exuberant as I felt being there, I could not help but also
feel sadness, and even grief, knowing that others who were also on the
tour, as touched as they were by what they saw, could not imagine a culture
like Monin's within their own companies. Just as someone cannot imagine the
passion and results that happen in Open Space compared to the closed and
controlling ways that we have of doing strategy and organizing work. All it
takes it to invite and open a bit of space.

I believe that being in Awe of the Sacred is that coming home to those
little things in life that we notice, that give us hope and make our hearts
sing. Yesterday, Monin made my heart sing. Here a short write-up that I
wrote now featured on our UPA website. https://
unitedpackagingassociates.com/upa-4-you/
<https://unitedpackagingassociates.com/upa-4-you/>

Suzanne

Suzanne Daigle
Open Space Facilitator
NuFocus Strategic Group

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

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 1:19 AM, Christy Lee-Engel via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> 
> Dear HO,
>
> Warm birthday wishes and blessings for ongoing joy and vitality, and I
> hope you had a stellar birth day!
>
> Thank You Very Much for all the gifts of your birth, and now these latest
> musings "In Awe of the Sacred."
> I am especially touched by your sentence "*Caring creates time,
> meaningful time.*"
>  I have been thinking & talking with colleagues a lot lately about the
> "care" part of healthcare & healthcare education, and about how time and
> attention are necessary elements of care...and truly, allowing for
> "meaningful time" can be powerful elemental medicine.
>
> Ashley Cooper and I were just chatting last week about you, and the
> profound gift that Open Space has been for each of us (*I had just
> rediscovered a great interview she did with you in 2014 - transcribed here:
> http://tyhallock.blogspot.com/2014/02/harrison-owen-interview-inviting-flow.html
> <http://tyhallock.blogspot.com/2014/02/harrison-owen-interview-inviting-flow.html>*
> ). We agreed that each of us felt like we were struck by lightening (in a
> good way!) when we first encountered the practice / values / experience of
> Open Space.
> Or another way to describe it would be of stumbling unexpectedly into a
> deep sense of being at home. Which to me is another one of the abundant
> names of god.
>
> I also very much appreciate your framing of Open Space as "*not a method,
> procedure or process. It is pure invitation, and there is nothing there. It
> is all question with not an answer in sight.*" Open Space and zen koan
> meditation, which I am a fan of, have lots in common as I'm sure you know -
> both ways of "sitting the question
> ,
> "
> both 
> deeply playful, seriously hilarious, liberatory in a right here right now
> way, so full of life and also not afraid of death. Like yerself, dear
> Harrison.
> The latest koan that my teacher-friend John gave a group of us recently: "*There
> is nothing I dislike.*"
> After sitting with it for a while, it did Open up into a sacred Space of
> 'this, here, is the right place; right now is the right time; this life is
> my right life.'
>
> love and thanks from VERY dark and drippy Seattle (where it is still Dec 2
> for a little while longer)
> Christy
>
>
> 2611 NE 125th St, Ste 240 <http://www.corechiropracticseattle.com>
> Seattle, WA 98125
> Clinic: 206.708.7172 <(206)%20708-7172>
> Cell: 206.399.0868 <(206)%20399-0868>
>
> *"Every moment of freedom is amplified when we're together." - John
> Tarrant, Roshi <https://www.pacificzen.org/teachers/john-tarrant/>*
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 4:36 AM, Harrison Owen via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>> I have been asked on occasions (by myself and others) what did I do –
>> exactly. Truthfully I’ve never really had a good answer, but I’ve been
>> trying. The latest effort may be viewed at http://openspaceworld.com/AweO
>> fSacred_HarrisonOwen.pdf Please share if you care.
>>
>>
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>>
>>
>> Winter Address
>>
>> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>>
>> Potomac, MD 20854
>>
>> 301-365-2093 <(301)%20365-2093>
>>
>>
>>
>> Summer Address
>>
>> 189 Beaucauire Ave
>>
>> Camden, ME 04843
>>
>> 207 763-3261 <(207)%20763-3261>
>>
>>
>>
>> Websites
>>
>> www.openspaceworld.com
>>
>> www.ho-image.com
>>
>>
>>
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