<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Arial CYR";}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.Style1, li.Style1, div.Style1
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.EmailStyle18
{font-family:Arial;
color:red;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body bgcolor=azure lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Raffi Wrote: </span></font><font
size=2 face="Arial CYR"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial CYR"'>Harrison</span></font><font
size=2 face="Arial CYR"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial CYR"'>,
when you unexpectedly spilled the phrase 1/2way technology I understood that to
mean that it gets us only part of the way. Great ideas are generated, probably
great plans, but OST by itself is no guarantor that the "planned"
change will happen. It was as if you were hinting that maybe the next step is
another technology, maybe like OST or a logical extension of it that takes us
all the way, something that allows us to be the planned change already. That's
the letdown that I think some feel who have participated in OST: maybe there's
Herbalife-like excitement (indeed one Russian colleague compared the excitement
generated by OST with the worked up state of those who have gotten into selling
Herbalife products; for those who are unfamiliar with Herbalife, it's a
multi-level marketing scheme. Curiously, after putting down OST, a year or so
later he admitted it indeed has value.) Or does such a technology already exist
and I/we are not aware of it?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>As I confessed in my
little piece, I was not at all sure why I said what I did about a halfway
technology, nor what I really meant. Me and my big mouth! But I think I am
catching on. You catch the point neatly when you say, “</span></font>OST
has helped me see that the answers are inside all of us already, it's about
phrasing the question right<font size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>.”</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=red
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>OST, for me is
all about empowerment for the group and the individual. I think we would all
agree that such empowerment occurs during the process, which probably goes a
long way towards explaining the highs that people experience. But OST is also a
teacher – enabling us to see that we are already empowered, we simply
have to claim the title. But there is a catch. Participants may assume that the
empowerment they feel is a result of the process (OST), the facilitator, or
(God forbid) both. Given what usually goes on in peoples’ lives,
seemingly informed by the “expert syndrome” (You don’t know
nothing – get an Expert!) such a reaction should probably be expected. However
if it really takes root, we are in real trouble. The seductive part is that it
feels really good (for a moment at least) to be the Guru. The antidote to
creeping Guruism (as near as I can figure out) is to keep opening space,
backing away, leaving the people on their own – faster rather than
slower, sooner rather than later. Now obviously there are situations with a
group newly to Open Space where as facilitators we will have to play a more
central role. I can also think of situations where the group has become the
facilitator – and it really is time to go home, or perhaps play a
different role. Part of my wondering is how do we move from A to B quickly,
effectively, and strategically?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=red
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=red
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Harrison</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>Harrison Owen</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>7808 River Falls Drive</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>Potomac, Maryland 20845</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>Phone 301-365-2093</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'></X-SIGSEP><font
size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:red'><!--StartFragment --><X-SIGSEP>Open Space Training <a
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora=autourl>www.openspaceworld.com</a>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Open
Space Institute <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org" eudora=autourl>www.openspaceworld.org</a></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Personal
website <a href="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm"
eudora=autourl>http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</a></span></font><font
color=blue><span style='color:blue'><br>
<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a></span></font><font
color=red><span style='color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><font
size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:red'>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: <a
href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html" eudora=autourl>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html</a></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>OSLIST</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> [mailto:</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>OSLIST</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Raffi Aftandelian<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Friday, May 14, 2004 8:25 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>OSLIST</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> OST as a halfway
technology and other thoughts/questions</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Arial CYR"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial CYR"'>Harrison, when you
unexpectedly spilled the phrase 1/2way technology I understood that to mean
that it gets us only part of the way. Great ideas are generated, probably great
plans, but OST by itself is no guarantor that the "planned" change will
happen. It was as if you were hinting that maybe the next step is another
technology, maybe like OST or a logical extension of it that takes us all the
way, something that allows us to be the planned change already. That's the
letdown that I think some feel who have participated in OST: maybe there's
Herbalife-like excitement (indeed one Russian colleague compared the excitement
generated by OST with the worked up state of those who have gotten into selling
Herbalife products; for those who are unfamiliar with Herbalife, it's a
multi-level marketing scheme. Curiously, after putting down OST, a year or so
later he admitted it indeed has value.) Or does such a technology already exist
and I/we are not aware of it?</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>OST has helped me see that the answers are inside all
of us already, it's about phrasing the question right.</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>
***</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>I was vindicated recently. A colleague of mine who
runs an NGO that runs victim-offender mediation programs participated in an OS
I had written about. I ran an OS for his wife's NGO, which deals
with teenagers with substance abuse issues. He was not at the OS in the
beginning, came late. But he was full of irony about the technology: "what
a great job. You just walk in, announce the space is open, you sit around. then
pronounce the space closed and get paid for it."</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Later I learned he did see the value of OST (he did
not share this with me directly) and plans on using OS at an international
restorative justice conference to be held in Moscow in June...This will be an
opportunity for everyone to at least spend a little time discussing other
issues at the conference. </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>He has scheduled 2 1/2 hours for this OS, to be
held towards the end of the conference. The rest of the multi-day conference
will be in traditional format, with plenaries and other assorted (yawn) old
paradigm goodies.</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>I am curious, those who have scheduled or seen
mini-OS's within a larger event, how necessary do you think it is to
necessarily do the whole circle walk, attention to breath, and other things to
open the space? Is it necessarily to even sit in a circle? My hunch is if
people have already worked together for more than a day that the space is
already open. I have already participated in a fully open OS before within a
multi-day conference (this was with Intertraining, the professional association
of trainers and consultants that Michael Pannewitz and Jo Toepfer trained in
OST. Almost everyone had at least participated in an OS, if they hadn't led one
already.)</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Sending circles of clarity from a cool and overcast
Moscow,</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Raffi (Aftandelian)</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist