[OSList] WOSonOS 2005 Nova Scotia - do you remember
Peggy Holman
peggy at peggyholman.com
Tue Jul 16 14:55:26 PDT 2019
Diana — LOL…we’re getting old!
To put that in perspective, following that amazing conference experience in Portland, one of the conference participants from Seattle faxed (yes, this pre-dated email) all of the attendees from Seattle to find out who was interested in continuing to experiment with Bohm Dialogue. About 15 of us showed up. We met monthly for over a year.
I learned a lot about the power of open ended dialogue. In fact, it informed how we worked when we started the Open Space Institute-US. After a couple of tedious meetings using a traditional project management approach where I’d coming with a pre-set agenda and we’d slog through it, we shifted to doing a check-in, where people spoke to what they wanted to cover, moved into an open ended exploration, and closed with a check-out. What I discovered was that not only did we cover everything on the list that I compulsively made for myself, but we covered things that hadn’t occurred to me. Plus, we enjoyed each other’s company. In other words, we got more done and had more fun. Sure changed the way I worked!
Peggy
> On Jul 15, 2019, at 6:35 PM, Diana Larsen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> Whoa Peggy. We have almost known each other for a long time. I was at that same 1993 event with Senge et al. 😁
>
> That Dialogue Circle was a very cool introduction to complex system dynamics.
>
> Diana
>
> Diana Larsen
> Agile Fluency Project
> -
>
> Sent from my phone.
>
> On Jul 15, 2019, at 15:23, Peggy Holman via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>
>> Marai,
>>
>> I don’t think I ever mentioned Bohm Dialogue in Halifax. It just informed my offering to what we did in that closing circle.
>>
>> Bohm Dialogue <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohm_Dialogue> is a form of circle process. It was the first practice I ever experienced in which a large group (200+ people) sat in a circle and deeply explored a complex subject. The year was 1993 and practicing this form of interaction is in part what set me up to appreciate the power of Open Space when I met Harrison in 1994. (BTW, Bohm Dialogue is more typically done with 20-40 people. But that first time was at a conference in Portland, Oregon with Peter Senge and they had 200+ people sitting in 2 concentric circles. I’d never seen anything like that before. In fact, it was an experiment for the conference organizers.)
>>
>> In short, David Bohm was a physicist who saw dialogue as pathway for changing consciousness in order to solve crises facing the planet. In fact, he wrote a book called Changing Consciousness <https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Consciousness-Exploring-Political-Environmental/dp/0062500724>. He also wrote a seminal essay called On Dialogue <https://books.google.com/books?id=MGGF_oF_aY0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22on+dialogue%22&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=ARyeTd3tIMntObq92bQE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false>. These were early influences for me.
>>
>> What we did in that circle in Halifax was based on what I had learned and experienced in working with Bohm Dialogue. We engaged in an open-ended reflection in which people listened deeply to one another making our thinking visible to the whole.
>>
>> Chris’ questions brought the whole system present. We became a “we” as the considered the needs of individuals and the needs of the whole.
>>
>> Peggy
>>
>> P.S. I found something I put together in 2002 on how I practiced Bohm Dialogue (attached). I eventually moved away from it because it takes so much patience and self-regulation to do. Open Space seemed to yield similar or better results and was much more fun. Still, I see circle processes, like Bohm Dialogue, as the foundation of virtually all systemic, engagement practices.
>>
>> <Dialogue Practices.pdf>
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Jul 15, 2019, at 11:28 AM, Marai Kiele <genuine-contact at joyful-together.com <mailto:genuine-contact at joyful-together.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> That’s exactly what I am intending to describe in my short story, Peggy!
>>> I smile, reading your description.
>>>
>>> I don’t remember „Bohm dialogue“ (Are talking objects used in that?)
>>> Please remind me of what exactly you are referring to, so I can integrate that in my story.
>>>
>>> I do have a clear memory of the moment when Chris Corrigan picked up the talking object and spoke up.
>>> As I remember it, besides the „I“ language, he invited all who where expressing themselves to broaden their perspective.
>>>
>>> Not just think of „what do I want“ or „what do we, in this room, want“ but include all those around the globe who are not physically there.
>>> What would be best for the longterm flourishing of OST and for all those who belong to the community, in some way or another?
>>> What would be best for those who weren’t capable of bringing their perspective in themselves?
>>>
>>> To me, that was a sacred moment. I experienced that the whole atmosphere shifted, and after a while the next location had become clear to the whole group:
>>> Moscow / Russia.
>>>
>>> But I won’t give all the details of my whole story away in this email! ;-)
>>>
>>> Marai
>>>
>>>
>>>> Am 15.07.2019 um 18:17 schrieb Peggy Holman via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>:
>>>>
>>>> Yes, it was the year of Harrison’s 70th birthday. I remember the dancing!
>>>>
>>>> The closing circle keeps coming back to me. We had invitations to go to two places in 2006. We used Bohm dialogue to discern where to go. I remember we used a talking piece among the 50-60 people. I recall setting it up with something like listen to each other and speak when moved. And you, Chris, added the essential guidance to speak “I” language — from personal experience.
>>>>
>>>> Peggy
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On Jul 14, 2019, at 11:17 PM, Chris Corrigan via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I remember 2005…it was celebrating Harrison’s 65th birthday I think too (or was it 70th? I just know it was significant). I wrote a song for him based on a Nova Scotia folks song…I’ll look through my old note books and see if I still have the lyrics. I was so nervous to sing it! I thin I rehearsed it with Esther Ewing, but I was too nervous to do it as a duet!
>>>>>
>>>>> I remember too that we also mourned our colleague Colin Morley, who was killed in the July 7 2005 London Underground bombings the month before.
>>>>>
>>>>> I met some life-long friends at that OSonOS, including Feliz Telik from Turkey and Piret Jeedas from Estonia who were both working (along with Kairi Birk) at Tim Merry’s Split Rock Learning Centre in Yarmouth.
>>>>>
>>>>> Halifax is such a great city. And it was a really fun time, probably my favourite of the three full OSonOS’s I attended (including the OSonOS IX which I co-hosted with Laurel Doersam in Vancouver in 2001). There was great conversation, a beautiful, community location and dancing and drinking every night!
>>>>>
>>>>> Chris
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Jul 14, 2019, at 1:37 PM, Jeff Aitken via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That (first or second) Day's Inn osonos was late '94. It was after the November US election when Newt G became Speaker of the House (he was on TV at the hotel.) Funny how memory works.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>> San Francisco
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 1:10 PM Jeff Aitken <r.jeff.aitken at gmail.com <mailto:r.jeff.aitken at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>>> Hi, the archives don't seem to go back that far. Were we on the MetaNet back then? Then the oslist was born in mid 90s when we needed a listserv instead of a website based conversation?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I remember the first or second Day's Inn gathering.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Was a nice complement to the OT "Symposium on Organization Transformation" taking place each July in different locations. The 9th US OT was in Colorado '91 and the 12th US OT was in Napa California '94 - and that's the limit of my memory :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>> San Francisco
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 10:02 AM Harrison Owen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>>>>>> The questions of when, how many and where have persisted over the years. Frankly I can't remember either. Even the first one is foggy in terms of year -- but I know where... Day's Inn at Dulles Airport. Suggestion is that you use the search function on OSLIST. Somewhere "back there" I am sure you will find the collective ruminations.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Harrison
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: Marai Kiele via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>
>>>>>> To: ost list international <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>
>>>>>> Cc: Marai Kiele <genuine-contact at joyful-together.com <mailto:genuine-contact at joyful-together.com>>
>>>>>> Sent: Sun, Jul 14, 2019 7:07 am
>>>>>> Subject: [OSList] WOSonOS 2005 Nova Scotia - do you remember
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hey folks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am writing a short story about my experience at WOSonOS 2005 in Nova Scotia. This will likely be published as a contribution to a short stories book.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It was my first and life-changing experience with collective sense making (the way the location for the next WOSonOS was chosen, or rather: how it became obvious to the group).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have the session reports from back then, but what I am missing are numbers like:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - How many participants were we?
>>>>>> - From approximately how many countries?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And then the questions that probably have been asked many times before.
>>>>>> Yet I still couldn’t find the „right“ answer:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Since when does WOSonOS exist?
>>>>>> - In which locations / or in how many locations has it taken place up to this year?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks a lot in advance!
>>>>>> Marai
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://about.me/maraikiele <https://about.me/maraikiele>
>>>>>>
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>>>>> _______________________________________________
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