<html><div>At 09:28 AM 4/28/00 -0400, you wrote:</div>
<div>>Hi,</div>
<div>></div>
<div>>I picked up a few things to think about today. Here's the
story...</div>
<br>
<div>>And training. What do we think about sending folks into
the center of the</div>
<div>>circle after one long conversation and watching a couple of
run-throughs?</div>
<div>>But I never went through a training program either, so who
knows. Have you</div>
<div>>ever trained anybody in truncated fashion like this? Did
you get to witness</div>
<div>>the result? Come to think of it, this is the third time
I've done it, and</div>
<div>>all three did well. But I still don't recommend it, but
why the hell not?</div>
<div>></div>
<div>></div>
<div>>Ralph</div>
<div>***********************************************</div>
<div>It is all pretty hard on the old ego, to say nothing of deep seated
prejudices and biases --which you, Ralph seem to have, and I share. But
there it is, and it keeps happening again and again. OST works --
sometimes in the most weird circumstances. I can remember one time in
South Africa where a fellow sat through a two day event, went home and
tried one with his local PTA that night. He called me in the morning at
6:00am, and all he could say was "It works, It works, It
works..." When I finally got myself awake, I asked him who he was
and what worked. You could have fooled me. </div>
<br>
<div>I guess what we have to remember is that Open Space was
"here" before any of us, and certainly before it had a name or
I wrote the book. Opening Space is, as far as I am concerned, a natural
act. Anybody with a good head and a good heart can do it. In fact, I'd go
further and say that opening space is what we as humans do when we are at
our very best. It is the way we enable community, creativity,
relationships and most of the other good things that make life worth
living. Things get complicated and break down when we fill the spaces of
our lives up with pre-conceived notions (which never quite fit) detailed
plans (which never quite work) and finely turned processes for enhanced
human performance -- which seem to drag on and on until the life is just
sucked out. Always reminds me of falling love by text book. Hell, even
the mistakes in love are better than the text.</div>
<br>
<div>All True. And...</div>
<br>
<div>It is also true that 2 and 1/2 days is better than 2 and 1/2 hours.
That practice enables us to learn to be in Open Space in fuller and
deeper ways. That some knowledge of the mechanisms and modes of
self-organization enrich the experience for our selves and for those we
work with. That being in Open Space twice is richer than once, and it
only seems to get better. Of course, there is a real problem here. Any
other way of being tends to be a drag. Worse -- you find yourself with a
nagging question -- if being in Open Space feels so good and is so
productive -- why not be that way all the time? Why not? </div>
<br>
<div>thanks for the story, Ralph.</div>
<br>
<br>
<div>Harrison</div>
<br>
<div> </div>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854<br>
USA<br>
phone 301-469-9269<br>
fax 301-983-9314<br>
website <br>
<a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</a><br>
Open Space Institute websites<br>
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
</html>