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At 08:47 PM 9/10/2003 -0500, Ted wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Anyway, last night was that Sept
meeting and while the process worked<br>
perfectly as always, and what happened was the only thing that could
have, I<br>
was left thinking "these people just aren't ready for this type
of<br>
self-responsibility." Harrison pointed out a couple of months
back that<br>
he'd take battle hardened marines over the peace, love and light crowd
any<br>
time if choosing a group that thrives in open space. I can't
remember his<br>
reasoning, but last night I had to do a heck of a lot of internal work
to<br>
just let it all happen.</blockquote><br>
The reason I would prefer the Marines (engineers, managers, fire
fighters) over the Love 'n Light crowd, or even worse, professional
meeting managers and facilitators -- is that typically the Marines want
to get something done, and the others are more interested in talking
about how to do it (process). There is also a certain proprietary
interest on the part of the L 'n L folks. If it turns out that Open Space
works as well as we all know it does, a reasonable question arises as to
why do a whole mess of other stuff???? And since the folks in question
are being paid (or trying to get paid) for doing a whole mess of stuff
(detailed agendas, phalanxes of facilitators etc.) there is a certain
hesitation in letting the OS genie out of the bottle. And of course,
there is the old bug-a-boo of <i>control</i>. A whole generation of human
service professionals (not to mention most other people) have been
educated to believe that the worst possible outcome is to lose control.
And of course, in Open Space, we are out of control from the start.
<br><br>
So, it is not surprising to me that "some folks don't get it."
What is quite amazing is that despite all of the above, all sorts of
people all over the world get along just fine in Open Space -- provided
there is real passion/responsibility, diversity, complexity, and urgency.
In short, they really care about something of common interest. <br><br>
And what would I have done in your situation? Nasty curmudgeon that I am,
I think I would have finessed the "Planning Committee." Just
send out a powerful, attractive invitation to anybody who might care --
and open the space.<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>
207-763-3261 (Summer)<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"><font color="#0000FF">http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</a><br><br>
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