I’m a sucker for principles, because principles help us to design and do what is needed and help us to avoid bringing pre-packaged ideas and one-size-fits-all solutions to every problem. And of course, I’m a sucker for my friend Meg Wheatley. Today, in our Art of Hosting workshop in central Illinois, Tenneson Woolf and Teresa Posakony brought some of Meg’s recent thinking on these principles to a group of 60 community developers working in education, child and family services, and restorative justice. We’re excited to be working nwith these principles in the work we’re doing with Berkana Institute. Here’s what …
My twitter friend Durga pointed me to this article from Euan The Potter.on the Japanese aesthetic concept of “Wabi sabi” Etymologically, “Wabi sabi” is based on the root forms of two adjectives, both of which are generally translated as “Lonely”. “Wabishii” however focuses on the object which is lonely, where as “Sabishii” focuses on the absence which makes the object lonely. The principal of “Wabi sabi” is therefore; Beauty reduced to its simplest form, and that form brought to a peak of focus by its relationship with the space in which it exists. That is to say, the presence …
A poem by Ralph Copleman a longtime Open Space practitioner, posted this week on the OSLILST The Days of Now On the night before Now we all clambored over and greeted each other by the gateway. Now came the first morning. We opened for each other many conversations and passed cups around the shining circle. On the second of Now, I could see a long way in people’s eyes which cleared to let in the light. On the third of Now, everyone started dialing up tomorrows, released laughter and embraced every future Now with braided voices and sweat-slicked arms. Each …
I’ve just opened space at a conference here with Viv McWaters, Geoff Brown, Anne Pattillo and Johnnie Moore. We’ve got a two day, full on participatory conference on evaluation with 179 people. 40 topics have gone up for our day and a half OS. It’s sweet for me being here in Melbourne, which for me is the spiritual home of Open Space in Australia (would you agree Brendan? :-)). Of course for me that impression largely comes from the fact that this was Father Brian Banibridge’s home, and I regret that I never made it here while he was alive, …
I’m sitting in a hotel ballroom in the basement of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Atlanta with about 350 people who work for the exoneration of wrongfully convicted and imprisoned men and women all over the United States and in eight other countries besides. We are at the annual gathering of the Innocence Network, a network of groups and projects that help free wrongfully imprisoned men and women, Among the participants here are 86 men and women who have been exonerated for crimes they did not commit. One of these people, James Bain served over 35 years in prison in …