[OSList] Report From The Field

Tue Jan 8 14:17:24 PST 2019

thanks, mark and marai.  to your question about invitation, marai,
invitation (like os) implies/includes choice.  so if we name one of those
choices "resistance" then maybe the invitation didn't actually include that
choice.  so maybe wasn't as open an invitation as we thought.  that
suggests that "open invitation" isn't just about who can come, but about
what everyone can choose.  there is also the possibility that if we make an
invitation and meet "resistance," i.e. people don't come, then it might
have been a true invitation that just missed the mark.  and we can choose
to try again with different words, or other ways.  it's all an experiment
and discovery.  my sense, too, is that we as hosts and facilitators are
never separate from what's happening.

michael

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)

http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Tue, Jan 8, 2019 at 3:02 PM David Osborne via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Thanks for your comments here Marai I found they resonated with me and I
> appreciated the intentionality I sensed.
>
> Best to all,
>
> David
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 8, 2019, at 4:31 PM, Marai Kiele via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> Dear Mark,
>
> I appreciate your flow of energy and appreciation, both for OST and
> Harrison!
> I am fascinated, hearing about the „at that time“ largest educational
> transformation group and I honour you as someone who has walked the trails
> of OST before me.
>
> At the same time, I notice my resentment in regard to this part of your
> sharing:
>
> "beware of the evil spirits that seek the status quo at all costs“ and "fortify
> oneself against the forces that WILL seek to undermine change".
>
> I actually don’t live within a paradigm of something like „evil spirits“,
> and I find myself quite „resistant" to changing that world-view. I also
> don’t believe in setting myself up „against“ anything, but instead I
> believe in focusing on what is wanted. For me, this would include honouring
> those with a different perspective on what I desire (which might be change
> or transformation in regard to a specific subject).
>
> I have heard the term, „the client is resistant“ both in therapy and
> consulting contexts, and I notice great discomfort within me towards this
> kind of label.
>
> Not mostly, but also from my personal experience of someone giving me that
> „batch of honour". Someone who didn’t understand my perspective and how I
> was actually serving a group with my intervention. It has now happened to
> me several times that someone said to me (sometimes years later): „NOW I
> get you! I thought you were just annoying/resistant, but you were right /
> actually ahead of us with your perspective“.
>
> And.. there are times when I am not at all ahead, but truly resistant to
> change. For example because of different priorities.
>
> I will never forget the disbelief of the person at the iPhone help desk of
> my mobile phone provider:
>
> I called to ask how to activate my new iPhone 6. Which had been sitting in
> my desk for OVER A YEAR unused, after I had received the new model. He
> couldn’t believe that I hadn’t activated it right away. I imagine he might
> have shared that story during his coffee break with colleagues and all of
> them shaking their heads or laughing about that strange client.
> I just hadn't wanted to let go of my iPhone 3s (until I really had to
> because I couldn’t get software updates anymore). Back then, I so preferred
> its design. I mostly used it to make calls, not for the internet, and it
> fit so nicely into my hand and the back pocket of my jeans… Clearly a
> criteria that many tech savvy people will not find as important at I did!
>
> So the „moral“ of my story: What might be the things that other people
> value which we don’t understand, when we judge them as „resistant“?
>
> I very much appreciate how that perspective is embodied in this short
> video, narrated by Charles Eisenstein:
>
> What is it like to be you?
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uStmnodUpOo
>
> Also, isn’t OST based on invitation? And if there is something like
> „resistance to following an invitation“, is it a true invitation in the
> first place?
>
> (Kudos to Dan Mezick and Mark Sheffield and their book on Inviting
> Leadership)
>
> With respect,
> Marai
>
>
>
> Am 08.01.2019 um 02:41 schrieb Mark Carmel via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>:
>
> Greetings Fellow OST Practitioners!
>
> It is an honor to join you once again.  I met the great Harrison Owen in
> the early 1990's and began immediately facilitating Open Space.  I hope
> some of you remember me.  Guided by Harrison's mentor-ship I set the world
> record with a 700 person group in 1993, the largest at the time for an
> educational transformation.
>
> To my fellow followers of His Honor, Harrison "The GREAT" Owen, THE
> Inventor of the Magic and Miracle of OPEN SPACE, (or the Receiver, from the
> Great Inventor...) I honor you for carrying on His Legacy.
>
> May I suggest to ALL, that when the Space is Opened to the Spirit of
> Change, you are playing with the fire of the crucible right there,
> fomenting the ferver that IS the crux of CHAOS, and thus bringing out the
> very, very Good in people, and also, sometimes, the bad.  In all your
> preparations, beware of the evil spirits that seek the status quo at all
> costs, sometimes, literally.  Change dies hard, as it is said, and in
> America, we now live in Retaliation Nation, where change, may be, and is,
> often, met with resistance.
>
> To fortify oneself against the forces that WILL seek to undermine change
> (and not in an open way, quite the contrary), and undermine the change
> agents championing change, one tidbit of hopefully useful observation is
> warranted:  Make SURE Leadership is SOLID!
>
> It is such a joy to see O.S.T. alive and well.  We ALL have Harrison to
> thank for His Gift of the Spirit of Human Understanding, Peace, and
> Reconciliation.  Thank YOU, dear Father Harrison Owen!!
>
> Cheers!  Long May OST Live!!
>
> O - Open Invitation
> S - System Innovation
> T - Transformation Communication
>
> Peace!!
>
> Mark Carmel
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