A colleague passed last week. Laurel Doersam was my co-host for the Open Space on Open Space in 2001 in Vancouver. We met originally when she sent me an email asking about Open Space and after connecting, she decided to go to Berlin in 2000 to OSonoS where she made the offer on behaf of the both of us to come to Vancouver in 2001.
Laurel ran the business end of the operation, which was not something either of us really had passion for, but she took it on and made sure we didn’t lose any money or any people that wanted to come. During the event itself I opened and closed space on the first and last days and she held space for the evening and morning news sessions, lending us a casual but intentional presence which supported the processing of the day’s work. After the conference was over, she hosted many friends including Lisa Heft, Nuran Yurgit and John Engle among others, showing them a little bit of BC and a lot of her heart and hospitality.
Shortly after OSonOS, Laurel was diagnosed with the cancer that took life last week. I heard from her a couple of times after OSonOS and tried to hook up with her and Rick the few times I was in Victoria, to no avail. I think the last time I saw her was actually at OSonOS, when I handed her a small gift of a medicine bundle to show my appreciation for her partnership in co-hosting the conference.
I have lost loved ones to cancer, and I know what Rick and Chelsea and the others are going through. I wish them peace and solace over the next weeks, months and years as Laurel’s spirit flies.
Here is a link to my opening comments at OSonOS IX in Vancouver. Laurel was there in the room with us all, as she is now.
[tags]Laurel Doersam[/tags]
I am pleased to announce the release of a small book I have been working on for the last three years. It is called “The Tao of Holding Space” and it is a collection of interpretations of the 81 short chapters of the Chinese classic Tao te Ching as they apply to my experience of holding space. I started this book three years ago, when I began noting parallels between Lao Tzu’s words and my experience of leadership, facilitation and living in Open Space, something many of us have done. In some ways this book chronicles the essence of my own emergent practice of Open Space. In looking over it one more time, I realized that almost everything I know about Open Space is somehow distilled into these chapters
The book is to be shared, so feel free to pass it along and use it whereever that makes sense
Download: The Tao of Holding Space in English
Download: The Tao of Holding Space in Chinese
At the Open Space List, there has been an interesting little discussion about the evolution of Open Space Technology. Michael weighed in with a lovely observation and then Harrison Owen himself summed it all up:
Michael You said, ” i would say that i think there is *definitely* a next generation of ost… and another and another… but it’s not the *process* that’s changing — it’s the facilitator!”
I think that is a marvelous insight! It is certainly true for me. The essentials of OST, and the way I “do” them has changed so little in 20 years (with the exception of some omissions — several things I thought of NOT to do) that it seems almost frozen. Had it been anything else, we would have now been on version 22.5 — and the truth of the matter is that I am really at 1.0. Well maybe 1.2 or 3 🙂
But the same cannot be said for me. Still feels like me, but hardly the person I saw in the mirror 20 years ago. Bigger, broader, spacious, comfortable — I like it! Was it all OST? Probably not, but much of it happened in, or thanks to, OST.
It is journey I would covet for anybody. And truth to tell setting new people on that journey, at least getting them to the head of the trail, is probably the only reason I still “do” Open Space. Sounds odd I guess, but turning people on to themselves and their world is magic — hopefully for them, and definitely for me.
This is such an eloquent summation of my whole career too. If you are a facilitator looking to deepen your practice, heed this lesson: it is not the tools that need changing and constant improvement; it is you. Let your use of tools shape you to working with people in the ways which feel most natural. From that place, we develop the approach of inviting leadership. From inviting leadership we develop excellence and ease in making good.
Peggy Holman and I were talking about this the other day. She is in the final stages of completing the second edition of The Change Handbook, which will be a mammoth collection of tools and processes. And despite this “last word” on the tools of dialogue and deliberation, we agreed that even that tome is simply the proverbial hand pointing at the moon.
Immerse yourself in these tools, practice and then see how YOU change. That is the secret, the golden elixir, the pearl. Master practice, practice mastery.
[tags]inviting leadership, michael herman, harrison owen, peggy holman[/tags]
For the past two years, I have been active in the Art of Hosting fellowship. This is a global community of practitioners dedicated to uncovering the new and emerging forms of meaningful conversation and organizational shape. Together we have been conducting trainings, working together on projects and deeply learning our patterns.
Several of our mates in this fellowship have been working hard to bring about an online presence for our work, and today it went live. So I introduce to you the brand new Art of Hosting site, a place that describes what we are doing, how we are doing it and invites you to join us. Please take some time to poke around there and draw some inspiration from the amazing resources and content that has been assembled.
And if you are interested in exploring this pattern more deeply, there are several opportunities to do so in upcoming trainings, including one here on Bowen Island BC in a couple of weeks.
[tags]art of hosting[/tags]
Just a poem that came to me today, a day in which I’m opening space here in Prince George:
The sense of things
I have seen the texture of space
felt the sound of silence, falling in a wide open offering
tasted hesitancy and the sweetness of light
touching timewe sense into the most astonishing places together, you and I
into the tight cracking of possibility
screaming for releasewe let the humour of despair rest on our tongues,
choke our eyes with tears and scour our nostrils
with tendrils of acrid smoke.we walk together in circles
dizzy with the sensation of silent music
anxious that the soft holding
be strong enough to withstand the wails of pain and joy
that accompany liberationI have seen the music of leadership
arise to dance with chaos;watched the bitterness of hunger
fade into the dark recesses of the palette;heard the smooth and cool surface of flow
course through networks of veins;tasted the colour of peace:
its pure yellow flavour flecked with crimson notes;smelled the birth of worlds and the shifting of lives;
in ever opening space.