[OSList] Re: Fwd: [searchnet] Honoring Harrison Owen
Thank you Peggy for sharing the touching tribute from Sandra. And the quirky work from dear Ralph, whom I first met at an open space conference after he walked the opening circle holding a sceptre and wearing a cape! The kind of lovely, fun professional who would inaugurate an alphabetical poetry contest on the oslist. I remember a tribute poem for both Ralph and Qiqo that feels right to share again. See you on the 8th if timing allows. An open space By internet Can serve During Emergencies Fostering Good conversations Held in surprising Intimacy Just because our Kind faces Linger at the screen Making that Nearby feeling. Optimally a Platform like Qiqo is a Resource Suited To Underpin a Very Welcoming Xperience if You so deZire. OSList mailing list -- everyone@oslist.org To unsubscribe send an email to everyone-le...@oslist.org See the archives here: https://oslist.org/empathy/list/everyone.oslist.org
[OSList] Early OST stories
I found a document from September 2000: Notes from a day of Open Space facilitated by John D. Adams, for the Sonoma State University MA program in Org Development. (Our OST and dialog friend Rosa Zubizarreta was there too.) One part of the day was a short history offered by John, who had been present at the creation of the OT (Organization Transformation) field in the early 80s! John, Harrison, Linda (whose last name I've lost) and FOUR other people were present at the first OT symposium in 1983 at the University of New Hampshire. The US Army officer Frank Burns had earlier convened 400 people with Task Force Delta at Ford Ord, also known as "Fort OD". And Harrison was there. (Burns also created the Meta Network, one of the first public online communities, which hosted our first version of the OSLIST.) And as we know, it was the Third OT symposium in Monterey, 1985, which Harrison had promised to organize in advance, and while sitting on his patio in Maryland "at the bottom of two martinis", he had the lightning flash epiphany of a design that came to be known as Open Space, and later OST! John also said: "Questions open the space. Having the answer closes the space." "Earth has no passengers - only crew." (A quote from Kurt Hahn, who founded Outward Bound.) warmly Jeff OSList mailing list -- everyone@oslist.org To unsubscribe send an email to everyone-le...@oslist.org See the archives here: https://oslist.org/empathy/list/everyone.oslist.org
[OSList] Re: Loving you...
A deep bow of gratitude to our old teacher, and an easy lift of the glass in his honor, with a small libation at the oak in the yard. OSList mailing list -- everyone@oslist.org To unsubscribe send an email to everyone-le...@oslist.org See the archives here: https://oslist.org/empathy/list/everyone.oslist.org
[OSList] Re: Happy 88th Harrison!
Appreciating the opportunity to "stroll down memory lane" in celebration of Harrison and of Open Space! It was my 31st birthday in February 1989. My mentors Antonio Nunez and Howard Schechter had grown an MA program to embody the "Organization Transformation" revolution, one that was partly inaugurated by the publication of Harrison's first "Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations" and by John D. Adams' "Transforming Work." I was a student in the program, having transferred from the MA in Anthropology, where I had begun learning with Angeles Arrien. It was the powerful "talking circles" hosted by Antonio and Howard that drew me to switch to their program on a quest for facilitation training. The two programs shared an office suite in the CIIS campus building in San Francisco. The Symposium on Organizational Transformation had gathered in Monterey for the first use of Open Space, and was meeting yearly in different places. I missed the San Diego symposium in 1988, so it was a thrill to learn that our school in San Francisco would host a two-day event with Harrison facilitating! Not that I had any real idea what we were going to encounter! The two days of Open Space introduced an embodied freedom of Being and relating that was truly remarkable. (As we all know.) And to invite us into this magic using only a simple introduction, a circle of chairs, and a blank wall, was like an feat of mystical alchemy. I don't remember where Harrison was during the two days (the old Persian martini bar down the hill on Haight Street?) The closing circle was a festival of warm feelings, songs, and appreciations for our deep learning. We quickly began using OS for our program's student/faculty retreats, and I began to attend many OT and OSONOS gatherings, and joined the MetaNet group space. The genius of facilitating Open Space being "totally present and completely invisible" was a gift that Harrison offered freely, and one of the greatest gifts I have encountered. I don't have a martini in hand (am still with morning coffee) but I raise it, and invite us to raise what we have, to Harrison on your 88th. Boundless gratitude to you! Jeff Aitken Hilo, HI OSList mailing list -- everyone@oslist.org To unsubscribe send an email to everyone-le...@oslist.org See the archives here: https://oslist.org/empathy/list/everyone.oslist.org
