Inspired by the blogger driven audio recroding of Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture, Alexander Kjerulf initiated a project earlier this year to produce a free audio version of Harrison Owen’s latest book, The Practice of Peace. Thanks to the folks at Human Systems Dynamics Institute, the book is now available for download in all its mp3 glory. Readers from around the world contributed to the project, all of them (I believe) Open Space Technology facilitators.

The Practice of Peace is the latest journey in Harrison’s work with Open Space Technology. Since the book came out in 2003 it has spawned a variety of gatherings, projects and activities around the world. Have a listen.

More recent searches that have brought visitors to Parking Lot:

There is an interesting narrative in here…a couple meet online looking for proactive living and interested in Euro-Canadian art and sculpture. They turn out to be cousins. They suspect that Leif Eriksson’s parents were also cousins. In investigating that they uncover unanswered political questions and consider opening a specialty clothing store. It doesn’t work out. He leaves to pursue zen masters who use bovines as teaching tools and she takes a crash course in the manners of her new adopted homeland.

The lesson: don’t expect all the answers when visting Parking Lot.

And don’t marry if you are cousins

Whilst Googling himself, Harrison Owen came across an old interview he gave to a German journalist on Open Space, leadership and self-organization back in 1998. It’s a neat summary of Harrison’s thinking at the time, and still refreshingly current to me even now. Here’s a taste:

Lovely. That has certainly been my experience, especially in the last two events I have facilitated, one for a global financial services company and one for a Native Friendship Centre. Two wildly different groups, and the same kinds of result. All of the management theories and sociological analyses one can muster falls away in the face of opening space, where anything is possible, and true, authentic manifestations of these things show up all the time.

We celebrated Pete’s life yesterday at the First Nations Longhouse at the University of BC. It was a lovely time, just the kind of party that Pete wanted, with stories, music, and food. There were prayers offered in the Secewpmec, Buddhist and Catholic traditions, a slide show of Pete’s life and the whole thing ended in a big drum circle facilitated by Pete’s partner in rhthym, Lyle Povah. It was a kick to see family, colleagues, students, and Scottish country dancers in full kilts pounding away on djembes while Pete’s wife Nola, my partner Caitlin and our son Finn pounded out a rhythm on a big buffalo skin mother drum.

As Merle Ace. one of Pete’s long time academic colleagues said, the greatest honour is to be remembered in the way in which you wanted to be remembered. Pete would have loved that celebration.

UBC has set up a site to collect stories about Pete and there’s information there on a scholarship that has been started in his name.

I’ve been working with the Sliammon First Nation up the coast a little ways for over a year now. Sliammon is in the process of reviving traditional governance structures and practices but they are giving them a modern day tweak to work with the existing Indian Act governance structures and the realities of governing a modern community in a resource rich territory.

The process we have been animating is called “Sijitus” which means “advisory” in the Tla’amon language. Traditionally Sijitus was a gathering of family heads who met to provide direction and advice for the community’s leadership. Sliammon has revived Sijitus using Open Space Technology. For the past year we have met about once a month in Open Space with representatives from the families of Sliammon to look at issues facing the community and to craft recommendations and advice to the various governing institutions of the community. Overall the process has worked well to create an inclusive forum for voices to be heard and for overcoming some of the differences that can deeply split small communities.

Today I note that Sliammon has revived its treaty society website and they have posted their tradtional teachings toolbox. This work represents years of interviews with Elders, studies of anthropological sources and work on the land to assemble a Sliammon history, a set of guiding principles and a very deep collection of Kwuth Ta-ow: traditional teachings. These teachings cover everything from leadership to medicines to the ways in which the community traditionally provided for itself, and they are fascinating to read. Sliammon families practice their culture today in a myriad of ways and so the toolbox is meant to capture the underlying values behind these practices. We have used this document for the past year to work with and shape our Open Space meetings to align them with the community’s culture and to bring this reincarnation of Sijitus in line with both the traditional and contemporary realities of Sliammon community governance, and now I really pleased that it’s available to a wider audience.

Have a read through the toolbox and ask yourself these questions: in your community or organization do you have a clear understanding of the origins of your governance and leadership proactices? Are they rooted in a solid historical foundation that informs but does not constrain their expression? Can you imagine doing something like this?

Pretty cool altogether.