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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Yoav:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I love your spirit. And I think this is what we all get…
practice at living in Open Space when not everyone gives permission for it,
officially. Keep the faith. Find a way to open space wherever you can.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Best regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Esther<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> OSLIST
[mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Yoav Peck<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:09 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Not Open Space<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:navy'>Not Open Space <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>
Samuel
Beckett<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>I am co-chair of the central parents’ committee at my
daughter’s elementary school here in Jerusalem. We are a relatively young
school that began with a handful of kids and now numbers 400. Since losing the
intimacy of the school’s early years, a plethora of questions and issues has
appeared: about the running of the school, the nature of the parents’
community, educational emphases, student violence, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>Having participated in several OS experiences and then
reading Harrison and obtaining coaching from experienced folks, I led three
successful OS events. I am in love with Open Space, the “technology” and the
world-view that underlies it. So I quite naturally saw a school-wide Open Space
event as something that could respond beautifully to the widely-perceived need
to give the parents a chance to express their concerns and to gather them
together on the way to voluntary, passion/responsibility – motivated activism
in the school. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>Along with the curiosity and openness of some folks, I
encountered stiff resistance from others, including the two co-principals. It
was expressed in people’s difficulty envisioning what would follow the chaos of
the marketplace, and the opposition to “wasting time at an event with no
agenda.” I explained, I described, I brought in an outside OS facilitator to
explain, I gave out written material. The two principals were particularly nervous
about it, and I called other principals who were willing to share their
successful OS experience with our principals…. all to no avail. Perhaps I
wanted OS too much. Perhaps I was sounding righteous about it. I was even
accused of belonging to some kind of OS cult!! Picture me holding out
Harrison’s book to my accuser and him refusing to touch it, as though there
were worms crawling around the pages. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>What was wrong? Avner Haramati urged me to accept that
people could not be “persuaded” to do Open Space. That I had things upside
down… that the proper order of things would be reached when people would own
the idea to the point that they would be persuading me that OS was right for
us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>The Parents’ Committee decided to devote an entire evening
to deciding what to do. As I listened to the various points of opposition, and
along with them the deeply-felt need for some kind of event to take place, I
yielded. People wanted structure, they wanted the class representatives to go
out to the class parents and cull the central issues people wanted discussed,
and then to build an agenda around these issues. They were clearly not prepared
to be surprised. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>So that’s where we are now. In early April, we will hold an
event that will not be Open Space. I somehow do not feel “defeated…” An
organizational consultant, I know that we have to “start where the client is…”
I wrote to Harrison and now I am curious about how to build on his advice: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>Open as much space as you can, and when the walls close in,
take a pause until the next opportunity. It will come. The other thing is that
Open Space (for me) is less about “doing a program” – than a way of being. It
is a style of approach that just opens space for people to share and grow. You
don’t even have to sit in a circle! I think that is what you have been doing,
and I say keep opening.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>So this now seems to be the challenge: opening space without
Open Space. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>It is exciting to me in a special way, since this feels like
living in the real world, a world where suspicion, fear of losing control,
skepticism and cynicism reign… this is where we live, and learning to uncover
the keys to opening a closed space feels like an important journey. As we build
our non-OS event, there will be countless opportunities for opening space, for
making use of the OS distinctions, for softening our fear of the unexpected. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>As Rabbi Yitz Greenberg says, I prefer Succoth to Passover.
On Passover, we herald liberation from slavery. Trumpets and glory! But on
Succoth we celebrate the dreary tasks entailed in wearily plodding our way
through the desert, as we daily build and take apart our little huts on the 40
year schlep to the promised land. At Succoth we celebrate the secrets of living
our way through the desert with the promised land in our hearts, sometimes
slipping to longing for the fleshpots of slavery, but steadfastly confronting
what arises along the way from an inner place that resonates with our vision of
what can be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>I’d be grateful to any of you who have thoughts about any of
this. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>Thanks much, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span lang=EN-GB
style='color:navy'>Yoav Peck, Jerusalem<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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