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<DIV>The most important part of your thoughts here, Harrison, is the notion that
any good process reminds people of what's true in life at large anyway. The
further a process gets from the authenticity of fully engaged and living, the
less effective it may be in the long run. One of my tests for good process is
the question: Does it bring to people's consciousness the kind of freedom in
connectivity we and they want outside the process? For, there are contrived
processes and authentic processes. The more authentic, the more value for the
community.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Jack</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>~~~~~~~~~~</DIV>
<DIV>jack ricchiuto</DIV>
<DIV>two.one.six/three.seven.three/seven.four.seven.five</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.designinglife.com/">www.designinglife.com</A> / <A
href="http://www.appreciativeleadership.org">www.appreciativeleadership.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV>------------Original Message------------</DIV>
<DIV>From: Harrison Owen <hhowen@comcast.net></DIV>
<DIV>To: OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</DIV>
<DIV>Date: Tue, Jun-14-2005 9:59 AM</DIV>
<DIV>Subject: Re: Fw: The World Cafe meets Open Space</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Artur: A gentleman of courage and perspicacity! Asking
precisely my question which I feared to pose. . .leading to a wonderment
which I share.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>"I would say that to have TWC before OST
has no added value and may help create (or maximize) the freedom shock;
and the intimacy created by the "intimate groups" can be good, as you have
explained, but it can also be bad in some cases, where the previous small
groups (with a fixed number of 4 and a square table) will made more
difficult the process of creating the feeling of belonging to a circle of
the "large overall community" (all the people assembled) needed for OST
to work properly."<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I have no question that TWC creates a comfort level (or
perception of comfort) for certain people who are used to the controlled
environments of highly facilitated sorts of gatherings. I also have no
question that the level of Freedom Shock may well be less for these people
than would have been experienced in OST -- after all there is a lot less
freedom, and a lot more predefined structures and processes. But I am not at
all sure that TWC will actually ease the nervous ones into the wild open
spaces -- and with Artur -- I suspect it may actually make the situation
worse, if only because there is an immediate comparison between approaches.
Having experienced the friendly control of TWC -- suddenly to be thrown into
the radical state of taking personal responsibility for what you personally
care about! Frightful!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Now I understand that the conventional wisdom tells us
that taking a large group of people (say a thousand or two) into a situation
of radical freedom with nothing to prepare them save for a 15 minute
recitation of Theme, Principles and The Law -- is guaranteed to produce
disaster, or worse. Yet as we all know, millions of people in tens of
thousands of situations all over the world have had such an experience and
survived. Undoubtedly there are people who found the experience to be
quite unpleasant. It is also probably true that these people made their level
of discomfort very clear. Yet after 20 years living with folks in Open Space,
my experience has been that the vast majority of participants find the whole
affair quite useful. At the very least they find it to be productive (work
gets done), and for a lesser number their time in Open Space is remembered as
a fantastic high. At a personal level, I particularly enjoy those individuals
who say at the start (verbally or by their body language), "This can never
work!" And then sometime down the road, often before the gathering is over --
they change their tune quite radically. Truth to tell, I find the most
resistant group to be potential sponsors and fellow consultants (who have
usually never been in Open Space).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>For me the truly interesting question is why/how do so
many survive? Certainly the majority do -- maybe even the overwhelming
majority. I think that part of the answer is the speed with which space opens.
>From a standing start -- just sitting in a circle -- to active engagement
in something like 15-20 minutes. People rushing to the center of the circle to
announce their issues, and everybody else listening hard and figuring out what
additional issues need to be raised in order to meet their own needs.
That burst of activity might last 30-40 minutes, followed by another 20
minutes of total ordered chaos in the Market place -- and it is off to
work -- usually with sufficient time for a cup of coffee, restroom break, or
phone call. Fast! The point is that before even the most concerned and nervous
participants have a chance to "freak out" because it is "not working" -- it
already is working!!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>What this tells me is that the faster you are able to
move from the opening "Welcome" to the actual engagement of working groups --
the better. And for this reason alone, I would never front end Open Space with
any sort of "preliminary activity" -- whether that be some form of "community
building," ice breaking, or TWC. It is not needed, can be counter-productive,
and even under the best of circumstances when the "preliminary" was a most
pleasant experience a common reaction from participants (at least in my
experience) is something like, "Well that was nice, but why did we waste the
time?" </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Having said all of this -- we are still left with that
small (I think) group of folks for whom the Open Space experience remains
anathama, unpleasant, or worse. It may sound hard hearted, uncaring, and
professionally irresponsible, but my approach over the years has been to
respect their feelings and move on. If given the opportunity I am delighted to
try and talk them through it and/or give them a hug, but at the end of
the day I suspect they will just have to make their own
way. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I understand that this approach could be viewed as
my effort to uphold the purity of OST. Perhaps, but I would like to think
that it goes deeper than that. From where I sit -- freedom and the necessity
of accepting the responsibility of freedom is not the peculiar gift
or requirement of OST, it is just a fact of life. From this point of
view, OST is only an opportunity to practice what we all have to do anyhow.
Some will do all that better than others, some will enjoy it more, and others
less -- but it remains a task of our common humanity. The sooner we get on
with it, the better.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Harrison</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Dr.<BR>Potomac, MD
20854<BR>USA<BR>301-365-2093<BR>207-763-3261 (summer)<BR>website <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com">www.openspaceworld.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 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=arturfsilva@yahoo.com href="mailto:arturfsilva@yahoo.com">Artur
Silva</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> Monday, June 13, 2005 9:51
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Fw: The World Cafe meets
Open Space</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Peggy:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Please
see below what I am commenting.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I
wonder if the "freedom shock" was created by OST or by the fact
that OST was preceded by TWC. Interestingly, I made a misreading
of your words “had a felt sense of community very quickly" that I first red
"had a false sense of community very quickly" ;-(<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I
would agree with you that maybe there are conditions that are
suitable for TWC (for instance, the client is not prepared to OST, or
the problem doesn't need a solution for yesterday). But if those
conditions don't existI would say that to have TWC before OST has no added
value and may help create (or maximize) the freedom shock; and the
intimacy created by the "intimate groups" can be good, as you have
explained, but it can also be bad in some cases, where the previous small
groups (with a fixed number of 4 and a square table) will made
more difficult the process of creating the feeling of belonging to a
circle of the "large overall community" (all the people assembled)
needed for OST to work properly.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">But I
agree with you that beginning in small groups the evening session may be
something worth trying in some situations.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">My two
cents<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Artur<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><B><I>Peggy Holman <peggy@opencirclecompany.com></I></B>
wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">
<P>Here's a bit more on World Cafe and OS from Tom Atlee, who just
returned<BR>from a conference "downunder". (...):<BR><BR>> A couple of
points on the OS/WC experiment:<BR>><BR>> It was explicitly noted
that the groups could become more or less than 4<BR>> (the ideal WC
size); this is not significant to OSers, but is definitely<BR>>
significant to WCers.</P>
<P>Perviously Peggy wrote:</P>
<P>(...)</P>
<P>>>A reflection on how TWC affected the dynamic.<BR>>>It was
clear that people had a felt sense of community very
quickly<BR>>>through TWC. I think that the move into OS created that
condition that<BR>>>Harrison calls "freedom shock". It's possible
that the contrast<BR>>>heightened the shock. That said, I believe
the sense of connection<BR>>>created during TWC enabled those who
were distressed to seek out the<BR>>>friends they had made rather
than completely check out (of course, being<BR>>>in a remote
location would have made it difficult to leave!). I wonder
if<BR>>>that is a benefit of a cafe prior to OS --<BR>>>to
create relationships that might support people to stay engaged if
they<BR>>>have a tendency towards freedom shock?
(...)</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
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