[OSList] the story I told when opening space in NYC in 2015

[christine koehler]

Dear OS community,

As I am preparing myself to open space (and also longing for not being able
to join you at the International House next week), I came across the story
I wrote just after the Paris attack in 2015 and that I told when opening
space for the Practice of Peace.
Reading it again after those years, I believe it is too long a story to be
used to open space.
However, I remember how meaningful it was for me at that time to be able to
connect the terrible events I had gone through and the hope I had (and
still have) that opening space might be one very meaningful way to act when
dealing with events that bring sorrow to life. How meaningful it was also
to be able to share my story with you.
This summer, while attending an Art of Hosting gathering, I met a man from
Austria whose son was deeply injured in the next attack, in November of the
same year, in Bataclan, the club where 130 persons were killed.  His family
is still today heavily impacted by those terrible days. This made me think
that those stories may still be worth sharing.

Here it goes.

"To begin this seminar and welcome you I could offer you the story of this
year theme *“Opening Space for Peace and High Performance in Work and in
Life: Navigating Chaos, Confusion and Conflict »*. The first part « Peace
and High performance » comes from Harrison. As he loves to tell stories, I
am sure he will be delighted to tell it to you when he will be there this
afternoon or in the coming days. And if you forget to ask him, just read
his book « Wave Rider: leadership for high performance » where the story is
being told.

Instead I will tell you how strong those words echoed for me in the past
days, as we in France went through as you all know those terrible moments.


I was in my office on Wednesday, January 7, a  grey winter day in Paris,
preparing to receive guests I had invited via Twitter to listen together to
the launch of an online course some of you may know : Otto Scharmer’s U
lab, dealing with Transforming Business, Society, and Self. A theme dear to
my heart.  That’s at that precise moment that I learned that our satirical
newspaper Charlie Hebdo, has been attacked and that many of “them” were
dead. You may know what happened in those dreadful days: the initial 13
deaths,  the tracking, the shooting of several police officers, the Jewish
supermarket assaulted, more deaths and the killing of the 3 gunmen.

I have seen this going on in front of my eyes. The supermarket is 15mn’s
walk away from my apartment. Charlie Hebdo’s newspaper is closed to the
university where my daughter is studying. One of the supermarket clients
studied in the same business school than my husband.  All those horrors
sounding suddenly so close. So during those days, I experienced a large,
very large palette of emotions: shock, anger, sadness,  fear, doubt,
confusion, more fear for the future: would our society split into opposite
camps ? would this lead to more chaos?



After Charlie Hebdo’s shooting, a minute of silence was decided in all
public spaces. Private places did the same. Schools did the same. As they
did so, we suddenly discovered that there were some classes were children
would not silent, would not be shocked by what had happened but found it
absolutely normal. Suddenly the kids showed what we all knew was there and
had tried to forget.  Kids repeat what they hear at home. And so we all
heard via radio or TV that there are some places in our society where the
killing of others brings joy and comfort. Even if a minority, it shows us
that something has gone wrong.

How was it possible? how did we go together to such a situation where there
is such madness? Will we ever be able to change this? Can we define the
problem, imagine a solution and just press a button to fix it? Obviously,
we won’t. This is not the kind of problem that can be fixed. We already
tried, and obviously, those killings showed us that we failed.



Then on Sunday, in some places on Saturday, marches were organized all
around France. Everybody was invited to join.

I don't participate often in protest marches because I don’t like big
crowds. I am afraid I could be trapped in a sudden moment of violence.

But this Sunday, it did not matter. Maybe there was a risk, I feared it and
I was scared. But one thing I knew for sure was that I cared. I care for
being able to live a peaceful life with everyone around me, no matter if
they are white, yellow, black or red, if they believe in Jesus, Mahomet or
don’t believe in any kinds of gods, if they speak, act ,fight or keep
silent. So because I care, I went to the march. And so did 1 and half
million people, including governments leaders from all over the world
(including some whom we may question the way they understand the word
“freedom” or “peace”), representatives of a diversity of religions,. I saw
babies, toddlers, teenagers, as well as old people needing a stick to walk.
I saw people from all corners of the society, rich and poor alike.  I had
never seen so many people all around the Place de la Bastille. We couldn’t
walk to place de la Nation, the final destination of the march, because of
the many barriers to protect the government officials. But we
self-organized, walking in nearby streets, finding our ways that were no
direction or goals but as a way of being present. we walked, not quite
silent all the time, singing, or saying poems aloud.

The effect on me was incredible : being there and feeling that all of us
were there to show respect, solidarity, support was comforting. More than
once I had tears in my eyes. Like finding a steady point in our hearts
again we could lean on. Maybe we’ll be able to do it, after all, maybe
we’ll be able to fix the problem, if so many of us care,  consider
ourselves as relevant and affected, there should be hope. There is hope.



For me this is exactly the story of open space. We live in a complex world,
that is becoming more complex every day, or where we see more and more
complexity every day, everything being interconnected, because people
write, talk, travel, use the internet. One action here impacts the whole.
One drawing, one satirical cartoon impacted the world. This shooting
impacted the world. Maybe this peace march impacted the world.

We live more and more often in chaos , confusion, conflict.

No great man can now save the world, even if deep inside I would love to
believe in this kind of magic. The magic in fact is elsewhere : It depends
on us all. To invite those who care. And let flow the energy of love. Did
anybody tried to organize and control those 1.5 million people in the
streets of Paris, a city full of narrow streets? I don’t think so.  Someone
who cared made an invitation. Those who had the authority prepared the
place: initiated a place of origin, a place of destination, advertised 2
roads to follow. It ended up with the place de la Nation, supposed to be
the final destination, being full from early morning,  and many many more
than 2 roads with people marching. I bet the police just secured the
minimum, for the officials, and then self-organization took place, every
responsible person doing his job, and surfing chaos. Some shops had closed
for security reasons. Restaurants and café re-opened and probably had one
of the best turnover of the year. I bet if anyone had tried to organize and
control 1,5 million people, they would have failed. Just letting us
self-organize  worked perfectly well. And doing so, without even realizing
it, we opened the possibility for peace and high performance, because when
we care and take responsibility for what we care for,

And thus comes peace.



During those 3 days you’ll discover or re-discover –for me it’s a discovery
every time- a way to experience this, you will experience in your own
bodies how it feels when you take responsibility for what you care, in work
and in life.


-- Christine
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