In the OSLIST discussion on circles and presence, I added some thoughts, which I thought I’d republish here… My experience of the circle is first of all, that there has never been a group I have worked with – not business people, airplane engineers, entrepreneurs, government officials, community members – that hasn’t been just fine in a circle. No one has ever asked me not to set the room up a different way, although plenty of people have expressed their doubts that any of it would work. I’ve also done OST in other formats as well, like lecture halls, semi …
Here is a selection of interesting papers for your summer reading: Is it time to unplug our schools? – Almost everything published in Orion is interesting. This article looks at what schools are doing to teach a deep relationship to nature. Altar calls for true believers – on the challenge of practicing what we preach with respect to sustainability. This is a good piece on why systemic change in general doesn’t necessarily correlate with necessity. Horse Power – Old technology for a new world. No coffee – A great piece on Jurgen Habermas, coffeehouses and the power of conversation. Modern …
Harrison Owen muses on circles, presence and Open Space on the OSLIST: As I have listened to this conversation (a very rich one!) random thoughts came to mind – which may actually fit together? The first one went something like this. We speak, understandably, about “doing an Open Space” – but I suspect that may box us into a corner we need not be stuck in. “Doing and Open Space” implies that we are following a certain set of prescribed procedures, after all Open Space Technology is a method. This is true, but it may also hide a larger truth, …
From whiskey river: “Basically, there can only be two answers. One is to overcome separateness and find unity by regression to the state of unity that existed before awareness ever arose; this is, before man was born. The other answer is to be fully born, to develop one’s awareness, one’s reason, one’s capacity to love to such a point that one transcends one’s own egocentric involvement and arrives at a new harmony – at a new oneness with the world.” – Erich Fromm It’s amazing how the stories we tell ourselves perpetuate our own suffering and inability to fully participate …
Nick Smith has a nice post on common vision and team building in which he offers a few useful approaches for building common bonds, prefaced by this: I’ve never been comfortable with the word ’empowerment’. It’s speak to me of something manipulative and I’ve never found that motivation works that way. I tend to agree with what Henry Miller said, “The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.” I like that.