<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2716.2200" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><EM><FONT face=Garamond color=#800080 size=4>Harrison - YES!!! and
then again, YES!!!</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT face=Garamond color=#800080 size=4></FONT></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT face=Garamond color=#800080 size=4>Blessings,</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT face=Garamond color=#800080 size=4>Toni</FONT></EM></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #800080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=owenhh@mindspring.com href="mailto:owenhh@mindspring.com">Harrison
Owen</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 13, 2002 5:36
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: a first step from Rome
(long)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>At 01:40 PM 6/13/2002 +0200, Bernhard wrote:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite">This reminds me of the time, when
I was a group dynamic trainer in<BR>classical T-Group settings (following
Lewins tradition) at Vienna<BR>University/Dep.<BR>Sociology. At that
time I was myself participating in various<BR>therapies. The more I learned
about therapeutic interventions, the<BR>more and more "problem"<BR>cases
showed up in my T-group trainings: people had break downs,<BR>people
blackmailed the group and/or the trainer with suicide<BR>threats... I had to
learn,<BR>that my "naive" speaking that I have "also some
psycho-therapeutical<BR>knowledge" at my inicial presentation was
interpreted as a kind of<BR>invitation: not to<BR>behave in a responsible
way.<BR>So I think it is just the other way round: I had to (and
I am still<BR>in the process) unlearn a lot of my knowledge of group
dynamics and<BR>other "facilitator<BR>skills" to become a good
OST-facilitator<BR>Unlearning does not mean: "just forget about ist", but to
transform<BR>the knowledge, integrate/dissolve it into the whole person and
then<BR>step forward. What<BR>I mean is: no! no special skills necessary,
but yes! of course we<BR>will be better prepared for OST &/in PEACE
making<BR>if we become wiser and emotionally better integrated
(healed)<BR>persons.<BR>(Medical & Psycho-)Therapy is a profession,
Healing is something we<BR>all can do (co-healing our & other selves),
even if we forgot that.</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Bernard -- if these are just
fragments, I would hate to see what happens when you get the whole thing
together. <I>Unlearning</I> and <I>transforming </I>are, I think, critical as
we move forward. For years I have found myself in a most uncomfortable place.
On the one hand it was clear to me that much of what we (or certainly I) had
learned and practiced under the general heading of "group work" (everything
from Dialogue to community building) constituted real impediments to my
effective role as a facilitator in Open Space. Some genuine un-learning was
therefor essential. At the same time the understandings of the group and the
individual gained from all of our work were, and are, profoundly useful as we
seek to understand what happens in Open Space and where we go from here. At a
practical level, as I conversed with colleagues who's practice centered on any
of the several approaches (Dialogue, Community Building, Appreciative Inquiry
etc) -- the interest seemed to be -- How can we ADD these to Open Space? At
the risk of appearing a mono-maniacal Open Space freak, I I tried to say,
there is nothing to add, it is already there. But can we please use your deep
insights to understand what is really going on? At worst all this appeared as
some kind of ego war. My way vs their way. That was never my point or feeling.
Maybe now we are in a place where we can take "The Open Space Experience" as
primary data in a natural experiment, and go from there, understanding that it
is not about one method or another, but rather -- the reality and power of
naturally occurring self-organizing systems. Someone once asked me what my
vision might be for Open Space Technology? I replied that it was simply a
half-way (interim) technology, and under the best of circumstances we would
forget all about it. No longer something special -- simply what we did.
Obviously, there is a role for OST at the moment as in Rome. But the sooner we
get beyond it, the better we will be.<BR><BR>Harrison<BR><BR><X-SIGSEP>
<P></X-SIGSEP>
<DIV align=center>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Drive<BR>Potomac, MD 20854
USA<BR>phone 301-365-2093<BR>Open Space Training <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/"
eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</A> <BR>Open Space Institute <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/"
eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</A><BR>Personal website <A
href="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm"
eudora="autourl">http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</A><BR><BR><FONT
color=#0000ff><U>OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<BR></U></FONT>To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options,<BR>view the archives of <FONT
color=#0000ff><U>oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu<BR></U></FONT>Visit: <A
href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html"
eudora="autourl"><FONT
color=#0000ff><U>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html</A><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></U></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>