I'm Peg Holman and I stumbled into Open Space in the summer of 1994. Although immediately in love with the idea, it took until about March of the following year to actually be involved in a real OS session. With 175 network technicians from U S WEST who cared deeply about their future work, it was a great way to start.
At the time, I worked for U S WEST and was basically in an R&D role looking at organizational learning. I was seeking out news ways of approaching change since the linear, sequential, plan-every-step way of working was not serving us well anymore. Since that time, I've gone to work at Weyerhaeuser Company, working with Information Technologies people on changing their approach to work. This is a challenging group to support in doing this kind of work! I have stayed involved with Open Space outside of work (while planting the seeds inside). During the summer, when Harrison suggested the idea of the Open Space Institute, I thought to myself, of course! So I have been one of the co-creators giving shape to an institute dedicated to something as adaptive as Open Space. One of our early discoveries is the more we stay aware of what has heart and meaning, the more energized we are. So, what keeps me coming back to Open Space? For me, its about creating communities where learning and action both flourish. Where each person can be fully who they are and the whole community aligns itself to what people really care about. To me, the Open Space institute is about spreading that way of being together. At some level, its about changing the world. So here's some of the mundane stuff about me. I've a Bachelors Degree in Drama from the University of Washington and an MBA from Seattle University. I spent most of the first 20 years of my working life in Information Technologies. What attracted me to building software systems was that it seemed to be about making people's lives easier. That didn't seem quite so ironic 10 or 15 years ago. In any case, in about 1989, I discovered Total Quality which seemed to go much deeper in helping people be more productive in their work. Ultimately, its led me to work on creating communities for learning and action. This work feels like coming home, to seeking wholeness and being together around what has heart and meaning. So, there you have it; the last 40+ years in a paragraph!
