Henryvlle, Indiana

I’m here at the Wooded Glen Retreat Centre in Henryville, which is in southern Indiana running an Art of Hosting with my mates Teresa Posakony, Tenneson Woolf, Tuesday Ryan and Howard Mason.   It’s hot and humid here, punctuated by heavy downpours which feels as if the air is just wringing itself out.   By contrats the rooms we are in are cold enough to hang meat, as Howard said, so it’s a little funny.

Prior to being here I was in Camden, Maine joining Harrison Owen and 40 Open Space faiclitators at a little Open Space on Open Space.   I have lots to report on from that gathering, and I feel like just doing it in bits and pieces, so here’s the first set of notes, focusing on Open Space and life.

In Camden I joined with 40 or so Open Space practitioners from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Korea and Taiwan.   Harrison Owen, in all of his eminence grise, hosted us beautifully, inviting us to explore the question of Open Space in our lives and in the world.   There were some really juicy sessions posted and great connections made among friends new and old.   It is quite remarkable to be in conversation with 40 people who, as one participant said, could step up and run a 500 person Open Space at the drop of a hat.   It is a real privilege to be able to take a couple of days just to talk shop with people who have as strange a view of organizations, communities and work as I do.   And it was especially lovely to be with a large number of people who have been close to Harrison for many years, helping him form and shape the practice of Open Space in the very early days.   Open Space Technology was a very early and radical departure from facilitation theory and practice and it shone the light on new ways of looking at human organizations in the OD world.   Many organizational development professionals who discovered Open Space in the eighties began rethinking their approach to OD, looking at organizations as living systems and looking at change with an entirely different set of eyes.   Many of the folks who walked that path 20 or more years ago were in attendance in Camden, and it was a real treat to meet them and hear some of their stories.

What is interesting to me these days is the application of Open Space practice in everyday life, indeed, the tagline for this weblog sorts of states this as my overall learning mandate.   Consequently, I took in sessions that had more to do with the Open Space life, and what I call the Open Space worldview rather than sessions about the process itself.   For example, Suzanne Maxwell held a beautiful session on living with cancer stemming from the fact that she was informed of a positive diagnosis for breast cancer on the way to Camden.   She came anyway, and opened herself to us, her fear and resolve and confusion and sadness palpable as she posted her session.   I caught the end of the circle and heard stories of others who had lived with frightening health issues.   What was brilliantly clear was that a life spent practising Open Space is solid training for facing the biggest fear in one’s life.   I was reminded that everything we face is training; from a martial arts perspective, you train constantly in the dojang so that in that one moment, when your body is called upon to parse a moment into thin slices in order to defend yourself, you can find the resourcefulness there.   The way Suanne opened and held space showed the expereince and wisdom that comes from a lifetime of working with oneself in the service of others is the training that is needed to deal with the fear and uncertainty of a big unexpected space being opened.   How else could one deal with a cancer diagnosis except to open space?

On a similar track of exploring Open Space in life, Phelim McDermott hosted an interesting session on Open Space and love and relationships.   It was another candid and open conversation that explored an Open Space worldview taken to interpersonal relationships. It was really great to meet Phelim and spend time with him   He’s a remarkable person, a theatre director, Open Space artist and a generous soul.   He showed a brilliant 15 minute time lapse film of a two-day Open Space held at the Battersea Arts Centre in London which stunningly captures the motion, flow and life of a group of people working in Open Space.   We’re going to work to get it on the web soon.

[tags]openspacetech, osonos, harrison owen, phelim mcdermott, suzanne maxwell[/tags]