I was working with a group yesterday that was making a number of small decisions as they worked their way through an agenda. The meeting was semi-formal and my role as facilitator was mostly to hold space and draw attention to process where appropriate. I let the group talk, asked questions from time to time and noted the decisions that they had made. As I was observing this group working, I noticed something interesting about their process. Frequent readers will know that I use the diamond of participation often as a map to organize and design meeting processes. …
Raffi Aftendelian has released the final version of Living Peace: the open space of our lives. It features contributions from all over the world, including a piece from my life and business partner Caitlin Frost about parenting in Open Space. Another free book from the Open Space community. Thanks Raffi and everyne who contributed!
Raffi Aftendelian unearthed a beautiful gem today. Writing on the OSLIST, he quoted something Harrison Owen had written 40 years ago when he was unknowingly being inspired to create Open Space Technology. As a text to a photo essay on life in a Liberian village, Harrison wrote: A very special part of any village celebration is the appearance of the various “devils.” The word devil is very misleading, and was undoubtedly the unwanted gift of an early missionary The devils are not evil, but rather represent a respected (albeit feared) part of the village. Nothing of importance happens unless they …
I awoke this morning and read two scary articles courtesy of the terror of my RSS feeder. First, Dave Pollard counted down the order in which his domino theory of outright planetary collapse may unfold. Then, I read Andrew Simms article on why we only have 100 months left before reaching the tipping point for runaway climate change. Neither of these scenarios are unfamiliar me, but something about waking up this morning and reading them straight off got my attention. I started thinking about what to do and started reflecting on some of the things that I …