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<DIV>"It was the usual and beautiful reminder of what happens when a community
is invited into a premier launch from historic victimhood to authentic
engagement"</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>This is a very good
description........."authentic invitation for authentic
engagement" </EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM></EM></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Thanks,</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Funda</EM></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jack@designinglife.com href="mailto:jack@designinglife.com">Jack
Ricchiuto</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> Saturday, August 27, 2005 5:01
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Opening a wild space</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face="Optima, Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">I wanted to share my blog entry from today on this
week’s Open Space with a very hostile community group.
<BR><BR>____________________<BR><BR>So this week I facilitated community
meetings in my neighborhood aimed at authentic community engagement around a
housing development proposal. The context: the most demographically diverse
neighborhood in the region of 4 plus million where voices polarize between
support for high and low income housing.<BR><BR>In spite of near violence,
proposal sponsor near-hijacking of the process, and participants shouting
objections to giving input (the stated event intention!), the 300 plus
participants - in our meager 45 minutes of time - interacted on what matters
to them relative to this actually very complex situation. (The more vocal)
People were livid at being asked to talk as a community about their issues and
ideas instead of enjoying the usual public fare of public hearing
grandstanding that we offered later that produced zero actionable
content.<BR><BR>In Open Space where I very simply introduced and invited and
held the space, we had over a dozen topics drawing genuine contributions
harvesting 8 printed pages of proceedings.<BR><BR>It was the usual and
beautiful reminder of what happens when a community is invited into a premier
launch from historic victimhood to authentic engagement. Their mythic
proportion resistance to their own empowerment was based on a stated
preference for positional grandstanding and verbal pie-throwing against
perceived persecutors. I stopped counting the number of people who remarked at
the amazing and palapable difference in the energy of the community during and
after Open Space ... the space where no one can control anything and everyone
gains everything. <BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT
face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR><BR><BR>(Thanks to Lisa Heft for gorgeous
spiritual support throughout ...)<BR><BR><BR></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Papyrus, Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Jack<BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT
face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><FONT
face="Optima, Times New Roman"><BR>.__.__.__.__.__.<BR></FONT><FONT
color=#808080><FONT face="Papyrus, Times New Roman">jack
ricchiuto<BR>two.one.six/three.seven.three/seven.four.seven.five<BR>www.designinglife.com
/ www.appreciativeleadership.com</FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face="Optima, Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR></SPAN></FONT>* *
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