<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="City" downloadurl="http://www.5iamas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* 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.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial;}
@page Section1
{size:595.3pt 841.9pt;
margin:1.0in 69.65pt 1.0in 69.65pt;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=4
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:
bold'>Not Open Space <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy;font-style:italic'>“No
matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-style:italic'> Samuel
Beckett<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>I am co-chair
of the central parents’ committee at my daughter’s elementary school here in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>. 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></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Having
participated in several OS experiences and then reading <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>
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></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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 <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>’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></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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 <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>
and now I am curious about how to build on his advice: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>So this now
seems to be the challenge: opening space without Open Space. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>I’d be grateful
to any of you who have thoughts about any of this. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Thanks much, <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.7in;
margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.7in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Yoav Peck, <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</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