Phelim McDermott reported recently…

It’s amazing but it is now five years since I first dived into Open Space after reading Harrison’s book. At that time I had never been to an open space event had no idea what it looked like but knew it in my bones.Since then we have done Devoted and Disgruntled 5 times and done one in Scotland, one Brazil, one in in NYC and one in Newcastle will be doing another one In Newcastle in the coming months. Been asked to set one up in LA etc.. its become a growing community of people who are devoted to theatre and want to use the fuel of their disgruntlement to change.

I remember that the thing that really inspired me to read the book in the first place was Harrison’s intro saying OS belonged to everyone and would never be certified/owned/contained etc we should all just do it. It reminded me of my own feelings about Impro and its relationship to the many attempts to categories, teach, quantify it. In the end Impro just was and would appear where it wanted. It also reminded me of Robert Le Page’s advice to “Mummenchance” theatre that they must “Give away the recipe.” He was referring specifically to the recipe for their squidgy changing putty like masks. But he meant this as a wider metaphor to look after our own creativity. We must gift the recipe not guard it.

In this spirit here’s our fifth annual report on the state of people who are passionate and responsible about theatre. The event is an annual 2.5 event on third day we reopen the space for whatever people want to still talk about and do.

So here’s the report and here’s a visual representation done from the report by wordle which i love. It’s a big theatre word sitting in a nexus of other issues! I think it gives a better feeling representation of the event than the report.

What are the possibilities of Open Space in our lives, organizations and communities? What capacities and tools do we need, to move to the next level with this work? Let’s gather and learn from one another. Jeff Aitken, Kaliya Hamlin, Lisa Heft and Heidi Nobantu Saul invite you to…

OSonOS 2010

Open Space on Open Space

January 15-17, 2010

in San Francisco, California, USA

complete details

Several days in and about Open Space — where the newly trained and the longtime practitioners will share our excitement, encouragement, trials and errors — and explore how we use this remarkable organizational and community-building process, on its own or with other tools and methods.

Anne Stadler posted this bit in a comment a little while back. It deserves more attention than that! So here you go…

This is a link to an article about spirited work a seven year experiment in an open space learning community of practice.
“Self-Organizing Systems - Self-Organizing? Emergent Community”
— The Spirited Work Learning Community: 1999 - 2005 —
(Living in Open Space)
by Anne M. Stadler © 2009

Thought Open Spacers might be interested in this article!!! Would love to engage you in dialogue about the learnings reported here.
Here is the link to the production site where the article is now public.

Please join us in May, 2009, for Leadership in a Self-organizing World

Many of us have been experimenting with new forms of organizing and leading for years and decades. Others are seeking new ways as the old practices are insufficient to the challenges they are facing. It’s time for us to gather to bring together our experiments, efforts, stories, wisdom, and questions.

We are convening at the beautiful Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort, nestled in the Cascade foothills outside Leavenworth, Washington, about 2 hours from Seattle.

Harrison Owen, creator of Open Space Technology, will be joining us and launching his book Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self Organizing World.

Harrison uses the term “wave rider” to describe the kind of leadership and organizational/community capacity needed to survive and thrive. We will spend our time together pooling our collective learning about what “wave riding” is really looking like, uncovering what our pioneering efforts are showing us and deciding what’s next.

An incredible cohort of learners, practitioners and pioneers are gathering to be part of this inquiry! Already involved and planning to attend are: Peggy Holman; Joel Levey; Tracy Patterson; Joshua Heim; Catherine Crim; Candi Foon; Mark Jones; Jan Gray; Christy Lee-Engel; Susan Partnow; Sono Hashisaki; Teresa Posakony; Anne Stadler; Dale Nienow; Paul Gleiberman; Steven Wright; Jun Akutsu; John Engle; Grace Chien; Gabriel Shirley; Tracy Robinson; Sue McNab; Iris Lemmer; Jerilyn Brusseau.

We hope YOU will be part of this too!

Register now, mark your calendar, and invite all your friends! For more information, visit www.selforganizingworld.net.

Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World, the newest offering by OST originator Harrison Owen, is now in our bookstore. In Wave Rider, Harrison shows how to apply the fundamental principles of self-organization – the driving power behind OST’s immense success – not just to a single event but to the day-to-day management and leadership of organizations. It’s published by Berrett-Koehler, in paperback, 246 pages. List price is $24.95 and our bookstore price is $20, plus shipping.

Your order can be shipped within USA or shipped internationally.

Dare we say, the perfect gift for all of the leaders and change agents, consultants and facilitators on your holiday giving list!

Chris Corrigan has posted his version of the Tao te Ching at the same Internet Archive where Raffi Aftandelian recently posted his Living Peace ebook. Chris’ book, The Tao of Holding Space, relates specifically to facilitating Open Space Technology meetings but slightly more universal that that too. Both are free for sharing.

John Engle and friends in Haiti have announced a downloadable version of “Circles of Change: a quiet revolution in Haiti” video with French subtitles.

He sez…

It’s 19 minutes long and in very good resolution. It’s a large file (1,100 mb) and will require some time to download even with a high-speed internet connection. We have many DVD’s of English subtitle version and have also distributed in Haiti many of the Haitian-Creole version, which has no subtitles.

We’ve received a number of requests in recent months for this French version and we’re delighted to make it available in downloadable form. Perhaps you know of individuals and/or organizations in French speaking Canada or French speaking African countries who might appreciate viewing this. Please feel free to share the download link with anyone who might be interested.

Let me know if you have problems downloading, have questions, or if you would like to receive a DVD of this version. mailto:john@johnengle.net.

Late last year, Raffi Aftandelian extended an invitation to Open Space practitioners around the world to write a response to the question: What is your personal practice of open space?

Contributors from Canada, India, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, United States, Sweden, and China (Hong Kong) responded. Raffi has edited in all together into an e-book called Living Peace: The Open Space of Our Lives, and posted it for browsing and downloading.

Thanks and congratulations on this, Raffi! And to everyone else, enjoy!

Scott Schimanski announced an Elegant Code Open Spaces Session back in May, but looks like there will be more of these:

Elegant code is hosting an Open Spaces session. An Open Spaces session is a discussion where the attendees generate the topics. There will be no presentation, no lecture, no Powerpoint slides, etc. The main point of this is a discussion were all can grow and learn from each other. We plan on holding these once a quarter.

The topics for discussion will be created by the group. The discussion will be facilitated, but just to keep the conversation going, not to drive it in any direction.

The first one will be held on June 3rd, at the Casa Mexico Restaurant in the Hyde Park section of Boise. They offer beer and wine in addition to the great “South of the Border” food. Details

Maybe we can get a report on what happened — and when the next one will be.

In her Livable Neighborhoods Project Patricia Mikkelson reports on her open space practice, in neighborhood and child care, informed by unschooling, non-violent communication…

For the past year I have envisioned an intergenerational community gathering which would bring people together in their neighborhood or town to have fun, food, conversations, and networking which would lead to people finding friends with which to collaborate with on the projects they are passionate about which better their community in some way. You can read more and see my slide show here

The first Community Gathering I held back in September was magnificent, and I saw the potential was huge. We had it at a pavilion at a park, and people enjoyed it immensely and lots of great connections were made. But then the weather got cold, and I could not find any indoor locations. This is the hardest thing about having an intergenerational gathering with lots of activities going on at once–finding a place that is inexpensive or free.

Today I got a second chance to coordinate a different kind of community gathering. I was asked to coordinate the child care at the Ozark Natural Foods Co-op Annual Owners Meeting. I had coordinated this 4 times previously, and although every time it was a success, I always felt like there was something missing. This time, I approached the event as if it were a community gathering–and it clicked! The missing ingredient was lots of people of all ages interacting, with everyone having fun. I wanted everyone involved to experience a sense of connection and even family–and my experience was that it happened. I brought into it some unschooling principles, non-violent communication and open space technology principles. Here’s what happened.

One of the best things about operating in Open Space is the transparency of the whole process, which supports immediate repetition and replication, as PhatBoyG reports…

After a great weekend in Seattle for the ALT.NET Open Spaces event, the two coworkers and I discussed how we could bring the experience of Open Spaces back to the team in Tulsa. We decided that instead of just giving a few talks about some of the things we took away from Seattle, we would bring the experience itself to the team.

At the end of our team meeting on Monday, we laid out some paper and pens and asked members of the team to write up topics that they wanted to discuss. It started a bit slow, but within minutes we had eighteen topics on the wall. The variety of topics was excellent, most of which targeted a different subset of the team. It was great to see the team come up with such a nice list of things for the team to discuss. more…

After 20+ years of experimenting in Open Space, we *know* we can produce great meetings, but this potential for the *practice* to spread like this is what keeps OST and a lot of us practitioners going.

Jack Martin Leith, Bristol UK, shares this post on what to do after Opening Space. How to keep all those projects going?

When planning your Open Space meeting, you’ll need to think about how you’ll ensure that ideas emerging from the meeting will be brought to fruition, and how the issues identified by participants will be resolved effectively once everyone is back at their workplace. Please be fully aware that this is a very big challenge. More…

It’s a great and detailed post. And Jack’s always got great diagrams to go with the explanations.

John Engle began a lively discussion of the “Whatever happens in the only thing that could have” principle in late April on the OSlist. And it is continuing! Here is how it all began:

I know that some have been through this hundreds of times but I’m wanting to get the most recent reflections on the principle:

What Happens is what happens - learn and move forward.

Join the conversation on OSlist!

Gerard Muller shared this a while back on the OSLIST, notes from a session at the OSonOS practitioner conference he hosted earlier this year:

Issue: Beliefs: What beliefs are important to attract OST clients? What beliefs do the organizations need for successfull OST? What are important beliefs for good OST Facilitators?

Conclusions:
We attract our experience based on beliefs held especially at the subconscious mind. It is important to consider what limiting beliefs or fears we have in doing and attracting OST and then create new empowering beliefs of what we want instead. These new beliefs attract a new reality/experience.

Some Beliefs:
I am open enough to hold space.
I have the energy I need to facilitate.
I have the courage to say no when the conditions are not right for OST.
I know when the conditions are right for OST.
I believe that groups find the energy to come to action.
I easily communicate the principles of OST & they get it.
I attract people that live the principles of OST.
I trust the process of OST and it works for me.
I am open to the outcome in OST.
OST always works and I trust it.
I create the space for people to be engaged and responsible when I
facilitate.
I know how to invite and I attract the right people that are needed.
When I make mistakes, I open the space for myself and others to learn.
I believe in the responsibility of all the people involved.
Wisdom leads to harmony.
The wisdom is always in the room.
I am Open Space.
I hold the attitude and essence of Open Space.

Marty Boroson has developed a video companion to his book, Becoming Me, inspired in part by open space. Acclaimed by spiritual leaders of different faiths, the clip has been posted to YouTube. Becoming Me is a simple, daring, and moving story of your/my creation.

This resource might be considered as another video to inspire one’s open space practice. An addition, perhaps, to this collection?

Here’s a point of view from Renaissance Woman:

While Open Space is a concept applied to the corporate world, its four key principles and one law are certainly philosophies that you can live your life by

Looks like the Kiwanis Club of South East Cleveland is off to a great start with their new blog!

here we go!

This is the first post of the new blogsite of the members of the Kiwanis Club of South East Cleveland. Every member has the privilege of sharing publishing rights on this blog. This blog will be self-organizing in the best traditions of open-space technology. I will not presume to have the standing to lecture any of my fellow Kiwanis members on deportment or blog conduct. You know the drill; the same rules of civility and gentility apply here as in our club.

Rob at Transition Culture (an evolving exploration into the head, hearts and hands of energy descent) writes as part of an ongoing series, “Open Space Technology is an extraordinary tool. … In theory it ought not to work.” He goes on to describe the some functions of OST in his community:

• It brings together the majority of the people interested in a particular subject (i.e. food)
• Within that, it brings together people interested in particular aspects of that subject (i.e. allotments or veg. boxes)
• It is a great research tool, for drawing out ideas and visions within the community
• If timetabled properly, it also creates time for people to just be with each other, to chat and eat.
• If you run an event a few days before with a dramatic title (i.e. “How Will Totnes House Itself Beyond Cheap Oil?” or “Feeding Totnes; Past, Present and Future”) and then the Open Space, and promote both heavily, it can bring that issue to the forefront for a lot of people. This can be very powerful for the TT process in terms of identifying what is already happening in that area, and who are the main movers and shakers

.

noneck writes a “How did we get here?” for Rootscamp:

Around the beginning of August 2005, a group of progressive technologists modified the long standing exclusivity of the invitation only hacker event “Foocamp,” and started planning Barcamp. Armed with a venue to host two days of free flowing and open conversations, Barcamps circled the globe and spread the meme of Open Space Technology. They have since evolved to meet particular needs in Govcamp, Podcamp, Artcamp, Copycamp, Drupalcamp, and in September 2006, the New Organizing Institute (NOI) and Emerging Progressives decided to grow their institutional knowledge and foster a 2006 political debrief; Rootscampwas born.

Beautiful!

easily amazed: Opening Space and Deepening Connection
# I breathe. I listen to my breath. I allow my breath to guide me. I follow.
# I value myself and I value others.
# I explore new techniques and organically arising processes for listening to and connecting with my internal experience.
# I love others… through loving others I am introduced to a variety of aspects of myself.
# I play with children. Listen to their world and allow myself to follow the mystery of their engagement with life.
# I trust my felt sense and my experience of now.
# I follow my passions. I take responsibility for what I love.

Chris Corrigan has posted 21 newly revised stories of Open Space in action at his website. These stories form an important learning resource, especially for those working with marginalized groups.

Interesting conversation going on at omidyar.net on The Mystery of Open Space. From Christina Jordan, an Ashoka Fellow in Uganda:

So inspired am I by open space, actually, that I’m trying to develop it as a cultural ideal at Life in Africa. I’d like to see the physical WE Centers operate more or less in a permanent state of open space, where members reserve spaces to do their thing and invite others to learn or help.

The tricky part of developing the physical Life in Africa space so far has been to have a hook that effectively brings people to the space and keeps them coming back. In practice, offering part-time, temporary income generating activities in craft-making is the glue that’s worked best. Once they are there making jungle beads or solidarity bracelets (which are activities they can do while talking or listening) they decide where to do that work at the Center according to the other activities (english lessons, loan planning discussions, health presentations) that are scheduled throughout the day.

My hope is that members will eventually will feel able to use the LiA space to work freely with likeminded members to achieve whatever they want to achieve. Right now, they are learning alot from each other informally, but most are still waiting for instructions at every turn with regard to implementing activities. I think within another 6 months or so they will have had enough leadership experience as a community to start initiating more and more small project & group work ideas on their own.

Very interesting how people have to be taught self-organization, as if they don’t already know how to do it! Open space seems to do that teaching without even trying.

Michael Herman has updated his ongoing contemplation of the “practices of Open Space“, in preparation for the Open Space Leadership Practice Retreat that he and Chris Corrigan will be hosting next week, April 18-20, on Bowen Island, in British Columbia.

Michael describes these as the four practices of Open Space:

* Opening Heart:

…The key questions are about core issues, the heart of the matter, the center of the problem or situation, which is always me. What do I care about? What do I love?

* Inviting Connection

…As heart opens, I can invite connection with others. I dare to attract attention. And I have attention of my own to give…What might we be together?

* Supporting Collaboration

…How do we learn, move, live, and work together?

* Making a Difference

…Then, what is my responsibility here?…How will I ground this energy I have? How will I use it to make a difference for myself and others?

In our retreat next week, we’ll consider how we apply these practices as facilitators, participants and leaders, in meetings, conferences, organizations and communities.