FEET OPEN SPACE

When the devil dances

Picture picked at: http://djembefola.com/dance.php

Harrison Owen sent yesterday this beautiful piece to the OSLIST.

I don’t know if this fits, but some many years ago I had the privilege of spending some time in the African Bush with some wonderful people. I think this was my first awareness of open space (Open Space?). Anyhow I wrote about it and it went like this (in my first book, “When the Devil Dances” and I should add that the Devil is not the familiar figure with long horns but rather the missionaries mistaken appellation for a central actor in village life.)

In the village

All things go in a circle,

And everything fits.

To speak of the drums

Is to speak of the dance,

Is to speak of the Devils…

Weaving and Forging

Fire and Steel – The Bush

Life, Death, and Life again.

When the Devil Dances Life goes on

Harrison Owen

www.openspaceworld.com  www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

_______________________________________________

A good piece for a song, really! Keep dancing!

Eleder BuM31    Mind Mapping-Open Space Technology-Sormena

www.burumapak.blogspot.com (eus)   @Eleder_BuM  (Twitter)
www.in-fluyendo.blogspot.com (esp)   www.flowandshow.blogspot.com  (eng)

LITTLE BOXES

Some weeks ago we returned to the ever interesting subject of education, home schooling in our radio interviews (in Basque, listen here to Madalen Goiria). Ibon Burgoa, our great technician was inspired once more to select this brilliant piece by Malvina Reynolds. Yesterday we gathered in Eutokia, a "social innovation" place in Bilbao again for an interesting conversation on education. That has taken me to copy+paste for this post.

Lyrics and below text taken from: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr094.htm

Notes: words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1962 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1990. Malvina and her husband were on their way from where they lived in Berkeley, through San Francisco and down the peninsula to La Honda where she was to sing at a meeting of the Friends’ Committee on Legislation. As she drove through Daly City, she said “Bud, take the wheel. I feel a song coming on.”
Look  for more about the song´s story in Wikipedia

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,¹
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

Enjoy yourself!

Eleder BuM31    Mind Mapping-Open Space Technology-Sormena

www.burumapak.blogspot.com (eus)   @Eleder_BuM  (Twitter)
www.in-fluyendo.blogspot.com (esp)   www.flowandshow.blogspot.com  (eng)

HANDS

Smart video: aspiration, identity, collaboration, phyisical work and fun,... main factors in great work, represented by the fingers and the palm. Discovered on Chris Corrigan´s site.



Lolll (live, laugh, love,...).

Eleder BuM31    Mind Mapping-Open Space Technology-Sormena
www.burumapak.blogspot.com (basque)   @Eleder_BuM  (Twitter)
www.in-fluyendo.blogspot.com (sp)    www.flowandshow.blogspot.com  (eng)
www.bilbohiria.com/gaika/berbaz (radio interviews, basque)

Opening Space for Peace in the Basque Country

Co-facilitated with Ramon Alzate (photo) and supported Jokin (Xpressionk!), Ilitz and Xabier Mínguez (sponsor). Great help by our Open Space colleague Visi Serrano.

A one day event to close the doctorate thesis os Xabier Mínguez, directed by Ramón Alzate.

From the summary in http://www.openspaceworldscape.org (3rd event):

• Lots of energy and vibration moved.

• Start of a big change in plenty of the participants, as stated in the closing circle.

• Wonderful bright day. Participants (more than 98% fist timers) taking some circles outdoors,...

• 
  The event was kept quite underground to avoid press and the stuff to guarantee intimacy.

• Great confidence for speaking in a climate where such conversations (specially with strangers) are very uncommon.

• At the end the group decided that the proceedings could be published wherever. Fear was supposed to be a potential factor not to publish them, but in the closing circle someone said: "Fear? The only fear we have would be fear not to have them published!" This statement was followed by an outburst of laughter...

Eleder  
BuM31    Mild Mapping-Open Space Technology-Creativity
http://www.burumapak.blogspot.com/ (eus)   @Eleder_BuM  (Twitter)
http://www.in-fluyendo.blogspot.com/ (esp)  http://www.flowandshow.blogspot.com/  (eng)
www.bilbohiria.com/gaika/berbaz (irratiko saioa)
(+0034) 638.733.223

WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING (poem by Chris Corrigan)

Chris Corrigan wrote "A poem for you all", in response to this thread in the OSLIST!:

When you know what you are doing
When your gifts match the purpose
when the call is strong
and the questions are electric

when the people need it
when purpose swirls amongst us
the invisible leader,
the blurry shepherd,
nipping at our heels
and tilting the floor...

when the time is right
and the world is facing you full on

when the complexity is overwhelming
and the elusive answers die in the field of despair

when you stare at an empty circle
and every face begs for certainty
and your knees shake with the trembling
that comes with the deepest not knowing.

then,
and only then.

it will work.

Chris

OS, other techniques & facilitators (longish)

I write a message to the OSLIST (2011 feb 11) on facilitation techniques and had some interesting feedback. These lines are the mixture of both. First message is in green. I tried to organise the pieces of the answers the best I could. I painted magenta the pieces that resonated strongest in myself. The thread even inspired a poem in Chris Corrigan that I'm copying in this other post. Hope this "proceedings" are helpful to you. I still am dubious about using/learning other techniques (unless one day I get delighted with a text or experience that really gets me convinced). Probably I'll keep singing, and try to spend more time in nature, just listening,...

Thank you so much: Barry Owen, Lisa Heft, Mikk Sarv, Spark, Chuni Li, David Osborne and Chris Corrigan !

You can read all the thread in the OSLIST archives.

Optimal circumstances for OS are:

• clear, hot topic
• complex issues
• diverse participants
• passion and potential conflict
• urgence...

As weaker these characteristics are OS seems to work worse. So, as less such circumstances exist...Is it worth or really needed any kind of formal gathering?

'OS doesn´t work worse' if those particular characteristics are not there.

(Good news for me from Lisa.)

Or should we just let the organization self manage everyday?

There´s a much more open space for OS:

"I violate those "optimal circumstances" daily and am always glad I did.

Open Space always seems to bring out the "REAL" in people (best and worst), and so I find that even in less "urgent" circumstances, important things get done:

Deepens relationships

Solves problems you might not have known exist

I haven't yet found a time when Open Space hasn't served all participants well :-)"

Open Space can be used for knowledge sharing; coworking: designing an airplane door.

for unpacking the wisdom in a group to help them do their jobs in a way that has more impact and interconnectedness; and many other things.  ...'OS doesn´t work worse' if those particular characteristics are not there.

___________

People know Spirit Moves Mountain.

I use OS because It Moves That Mountain while other human-facilitated approaches don't seem to be able to work that magic with so much simplicity.

So, I'd rather continue to fully enjoy letting it move mountains.

Somehow the entire Universe seems to give us an answer whenever we humbly ask how it works.

 

I still wonder: in which circumstance that one could use OS would you rather another type of facilitation?

Myself I know very few about other techniques.

• I had 2 World Café experiences. After both of them I felt that an OS event would have fitted and done the job much better. It felt like something just halfway anyhow,....

Your World Cafe experiences - it may have been like when we see something called OS that was not really OS, or was the wrong timing or time span or the facilitator saw the visible process but had not explored what is behind it - you know?

• I was also told some stories about Appreciative Inquiry

 So World Cafe is a great tool but like OS - learning deeply about the art of the question and about that tool is to me really important before one uses it. I have seen it deliver great things in short time frames - like 2 hours to open up what is the data / the collective experience in the room. Many of these participant-driven dialogue tools are also used to open up ideas - then there are other really interactive processes for folks to cluster their thinking, reflect on it, see what it says to them and so on. So these tools are not always done in isolation but as part of a larger design - including sometimes several kinds of meetings for moving thoughts or projects forward, if appropriate.

Question for the people that know about and use other facilitation techniques... would you recomnend any resources that inform about them in a general way? That suggest such techniques for such circumstances,...?

Ralph Stacey’s / Brenda Zimmerman’s Agreement-Certainty Matrix sheds some light on this.

• When there is a high level of certainty about what will happen and agreement about what to do...go ahead and execute

• When there is uncertainty about what will happen and what to do....the situation is complex and self-organizing  / Open Space is idealy suited
  

• When you’re far from certain and far from agreement your likely in the land of chaos.....where seeing what patterns are emerging through strategic sensitivity /  and action taking might help make sense of the emerging patterns. (Usually all the characteristics you describe for optimal OS are naturally present in these situations)

Now I have a hunch our good friend Harrison would say all three of these activities are self-organizing and I would be hard pressed to argue that.

I do not feel you have to have a million tools to get business or to sell anything. But I do believe that it is important to learn the tools you feel you like - learn them very well. If you find a situation calls for something that you yourself do not do, it is such a wonderful opportunity for you to refer the work to a respected colleague who does those other things.  You don't have to know and do everything, right?

There are wonderful participant-driven tools and processes for groups in addition to OS - using graphics, inquiry, movement, appreciative inquiry, kinesthetic modeling, mapping, storytelling and more.

I am guessing that if you love OS for what it brings to / out of a group you will love learning about these other similar tools and process as well.
______

WOSonOS in 'Swenmark' in 2003 in the large circle.

Mikk, you sang a song that you learned from a tree.

I will always remember that song, and that tree, and you.

You remind me that we can add song...and breathing...to this list of tools for our dialogue work with groups.

Dialogue with each other, dialogue within one's self, dialogue with one's body and other senses, dialogue with Mother Earth and nature, dialogue with the unknown and unknowable..

...which is also about...listening....

_____
I use all of them - OS, World Cafe, and Appreciative Inquiry, plus a bunch of others such as focus groups, quality improvement process, and sometimes straight-forward clear agenda-driven business meetings. I think each has its place depending on the objectives.

World cafe (or Knowledge Cafe) is a series of facilitated conversations for knowledge sharing on a topic typically pre-determined for the participants
Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy and an approach to organizational development that emphasizes not solving the problems of the organization but amplifying what's best (the strengths) about the organization.
These tools all aim at encouraging dialogues and unleashing the positive energy of people although OST is probably the most organic and least directive.

One of the lessons I learned from OST is that we should not assume there is one person who knows the best way (the best question to ask, best process to go through, or best group of people to work on) - to resolve an issue or improve anything. This humility is a crucial step in opening the door of wisdom. I used to rely on myself a lot as a facilitator thinking I had to come up with the "right" process or a well-designed intervention to guide people to a solution. A page was turned for me as now I believe as long as we hold the space, respect people's free will, and trust the process, the group's collective wisdom is much more powerful than my own little brain.

OS as a process, an attitude, and a mind-set. It says "let it be." I can take that "let it be" spirit to any sessions I facilitate and turn it loose whenever I see the need for a rich and deep dialogue.

Complementary
They can work together. For example, we can open space to discuss what's great about our organization (Appreciative Inquiry) and how to leverage our strengths to create further success. On the other hand, I can see the potential of misusing these tools when the assumptions and expectations don't match

Maybe the comfort of staying so is pulling me to have this simplistic view :-)?

Sometimes it seems as if a facilitator should have more services to offer the client to "get a business", but in this case, wouldn´t one rather complement his/her own life with other stuff she really believes in and enjoys (...you got it, like singing !!! : -)

live, laugh & love :-)!

Eleder BuM31    Mind Mapping-Open Space Technology-Creativity

http://burumapak.blogspot.com (eus)   @Eleder_BuM       
http://in-fluyendo.blogspot.com (esp)  http://flowandshow.blogspot.com  (eng)

(+0034) 638.733.223