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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Harrison wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>“I'm not quite clear what you are asking
here, but to the extent that I understand, my thought would be that the real
thing is to be clear who the client is, and further that the client can change
in time. For example, when i start conversation with a group -- my contact
person (the CEO-- whatever) is my client, but should we do an Open Space, my
client becomes the whole group. My mission quite simply is to create the space
in which that group can experience and realize its full potential. Should it
turn out that my "original client" (the CEO) is the major road block,
and he/she acts that out by becoming a Nasty Space Invader, I see no
alternative but to protect the space in whatever way I can. After all I have
indicated to the group that the space will be open, and should it close down
suddenly through the actions of a single person, my integrity is at stake. “<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Harrison, <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>For me, the sponsor (senior staff person
involved) is the one who “opens space” in the organization for the facilitator
to come in and lead in an “Open Space Technology meeting”. I have infinite
respect for this senior staff person, for the risk they take in allowing us as
facilitators to come in to their organizations. They are the ones who have to
deal with all of the pieces, however good they may be, once the facilitator has
packed his or her bag and gone home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I agree that my job as the facilitator of the Open Space Technology
meeting is to get the space open and to keep it open no matter who the space
invader is at the time. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>I also carry out my work so that I am not
setting the organization up to have space closed down by the “client” on Monday
morning back at work. I cannot prevent the space being closed down come Monday
morning, but because I am aware that Open Space Technology is a very powerful
intervention in an organization and I see it as my job to do my best to create
with the “client” a nutrient terrain within which the Open Space Technology
meeting has its best chance of creating and then sustaining a more life
nurturing, open and participative work environment.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>I have experienced too often, a wonderful
closing circle for the meeting, and then deep grief work setting in Monday
morning not because the meeting was a failure, but because it was such a
wonderful success. It reminds me often of how afraid humans still are of the
great inner light in them, afraid that they can be so successful. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Going back to the work from the early eighties on second order
change/transformative change…there is a decline crisis (grief work) before the
new is reframed. I believe that many facilitators of OST see the grief
work/decline crisis taking place leading up to the OST meeting and that the OST
meeting is about reframing for the new followed by moving steadily along a path
with the new. It has been my experience that decline crisis/grief work is often
high leading up to an OST meeting and immediately following an<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>OST meeting. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>The OST meeting itself is an event that is
about change. With change, however wonderful, there is always loss. And the
companion of change is also conflict. I don’t see this arising so much during
the OST meeting as I do after the OST meeting. Prior to the meeting, the
participants and CEO often believe this is just another meeting. When the
results unfold, if the space is truly kept open in the ongoing organization, it
turns out that just about everything is open for change including detailed
items like how performance reviews are done. Prior to the meeting, the CEO
often had no idea that this is what he/she was opening the space for. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>I have wrestled with this all long and
hard in terms of ethical considerations. If I know that something has this
power and long term results—whether there is follow up from the meeting or not,
nothing stays the same----I make every endeavor to assist the client to understand
that he/she is really the one opening space in the organization and what this
could mean.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Again for me, this comes down to whether we
work with OST as an event that has a start and finish and no ongoing
responsibility or as an intervention that has with it the responsibility of
enabling a more informed consent by the client that this is more than simply a
meeting. As you yourself say, the good news is that OST works and the bad news
is that OST works.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Birgitt<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=EmailStyle18><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>
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