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The use of graphics -- indeed all non-verbal forms -- is a wonderful way
to enrich and deepen the experience. But I find it important to remember
that Open Space is all about "doing with" and not "doing
to." A number of years ago, an old friend from San Francisco
created what he called Group Graphics, and I rather suspect his work lies
behind a lot of the approaches that folks have been talking about here.
His name is David Sibbett, and he along with another old crony, Jim
Shannon, concocted some marvelous images. I loved them all, but I found
myself commenting to David -- if this is really "Group
Graphics" why doesn't the group do it? Having put my foot in my
mouth, I felt compelled to come up with something. And so at the First
International Symposium on Organization Transformation (Open Space was
"born" at the third symposium) where we had some 250
participants exploring an area that had barely been named, we created a
huge bulletin board that totally surrounded the folks -- who of course
were sitting in a circle. Around the room we had baskets of magic markers
and crayons -- and an invitation to draw what you couldn't say, or draw
what you could say, but make it clearer with a picture. For about an hour
folks did their thing. At the start it was largely individual efforts,
but soon small groups formed with group projects. When the initial wave
of creation was over, we had this wonderful walk about the hall. Totally
without instruction, folks naturally moved from their own work to their
neighbors -- and of course conversation followed, as did enhancements and
improvements to the drawings. At the end we had this marvelous mural
created by everybody. I would call THAT Group Graphics.<br><br>
Harrison<br>
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<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://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com\~owenhh</a><br><br>
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