Opening Space - What Have I Learned? Keep It Simple. No buzz words please. Just tell a story that connects with the hearts and minds that face you as you move about the circle. Bring their eyes to connect with all the other eyes and you have connected their hearts as well!
Trust In Humanity. As we know, it always works. Each time I Open Space, I am adding to my true sense of trust in people, the core of it all! So here is the one aspect of Open Space where more is better. Do it! And do it some more. It only gets better. Practice Makes Perfect. I ALWAYS read the Users Guide before Opening Space. Its a mantra, a Zen that gives me the breath and focus to honor the humanity I have committed to assist. And yes, every time one thing less . thats more! Be The Principles How simple and how difficult. They conflict with our environmental conditioning and it takes intuitive faith to live them, not just perform them. Although a long road lies ahead for me in this case, at least Im on the right road, and it takes me to wondrous people and places on this planet. Obey The Law Whenever I have nothing to give or get, I get up and use my two feet. As we all have heard, it is the one aspect of Open Space that all participants recount and celebrate. Every Day Do Something That Scares You! That a quote is from Eleanor Roosevelt. It seems to speak to the notion of people self-organizing. Talk about scary! As a manager, I made a practice of pushing the envelope thereby testing my belief that self organization works outside of the formal Open Space setting; it does! They Wont Do It If The Conditions Arent There! We all lament the difficulty in getting managers to accept our method- OST. Fact is, they always accept it when the required conditions are there: 1) A Real problem, 2) Something Complex and potentially Contentious and 3) Decision time of yesterday. Call that condition chaos or desperation or ? It is the only time we can do what we do Open Space! Celebrate And Give Thanks. Cry when the closing circle asks it of you! Sing when the voices come together! Hug each other to pass the love around. And finally say, Thank you for the gift Harrison. I love you so much! * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist