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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Yoav – Great story! And marvelous to
see you here. As you can already see you have occasioned a lot of interest and
conversation, Good Show! </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'>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>
<div>
<p 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 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 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 20854</span></font></p>
<p 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 </span></font><font size=2 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>301-365-2093</span></font></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Skype hhowen</span></font></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Open Space Training</span></font><font
color=red><span style='color:red'> <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/"><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>www.openspaceworld.com</span></font></a>
</span></font></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Open Space Institute</span></font><font
color=red><span style='color:red'> <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/"><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>www.openspaceworld.org</span></font></a></span></font></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Personal website</span></font><font
color=red><span style='color:red'> <a href="http://www.ho-image.com/"><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>www.ho-image.com</span></font></a> </span></font></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>OSLIST</span></font><font
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;color:red'>: To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: </span></font><font
color=red><span style='color:red'><a
href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html"><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html</span></font></a></span></font></p>
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<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> OSLIST
[mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On
Behalf Of </span></b>Yoav Peck<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, February 19, 2008
7:09 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Not Open Space</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=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=4 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:14.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:bold'>Not Open
Space </span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy;font-style:italic'>“No
matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-style:italic'>
Samuel
Beckett</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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: </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy;font-style:italic'>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.</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>So this now seems to be the
challenge: opening space without Open Space. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;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. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>I’d be grateful to any of
you who have thoughts about any of this. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Thanks much, </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-right:.7in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
1.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 color=navy face=Arial><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Yoav Peck, </span></font><font color=navy><span lang=EN-GB style='color:navy'>Jerusalem</span></font></p>
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