Hi folks:

I’m getting myself prepared for OSonOS and, like every learning journey, I am preparing a couple of questions for myself. I’m specifically interested in these two issues at the moment:

• How can we move work from an Open Space event back into the organization’s “business as usual” setting while maintaining the spirit and invitation to transform that OST offers? I’m thinking here specifically of strategy work and an integral approach to strategy.

• I’m learning about Spiral Dynamics at the moment, and have used Ken Wilber’s integral thinking as a map for my work for years now. So this question relates to that area of thinking specifically: How does OST facilitate a integral transformation and how can we propagate these shifts to move towards second tier consciousness in individuals and organizations? (I’m hoping Larry Peterson will be in Halifax for this one!)

So those are two questions I have. They mostly deal with the echo of Open Space, the music it makes as it rearranges our world. If you are coming to Halifax in August and these pique your interest, give them some thought. They’ll probably still be somewhat top of mind for me in a month!

And as an invitation to others, what are the questions you are turning over in your mind? And if you are not coming to Halifax, what would you offer if you were there?

Rob Paterson points to a great article on the amazing evolution of the Wikipedia page on the London bombings. It’s a fascinating example of real time collaboration on design, content and truth.

Switching servers, so there is some interruption happening.

Sorry for any inconvienience.

Nanaimo, BC

For the past little while I have been engaging in a practice I’ve called “making do.” I can’t remember where I stumbled upon this idea, but it has deepend and grown in me as a response to materialist impulses.

Materialism and the acquistion of stuff infects so much of our lives, and goes way beyond simply acquiring material goods. We accumulate all kinds of other things too: practices, tools, ideas, paths, teachings. Sometimes, when we are most lost in this downward spiral, we think if I just had one more theory, one more facilitation tool, one more spiritual practice, I would be complete.

And the truth is, we rarely utilize all that we do have to it’s fullest potential. We confuse span with depth, as Ken WIlber would put it: we think “more” equals “better.”

You could for example acquire a whole range of meditation practices, or you could simply sit for twenty minutes a day for the rest of your life and be mindful of breathing. I would be surprised if anyone could truly plumb the depths of breath practice completly, but how many people simply make the decision to “make do” with one practice and devote the rest of their life to it?

“Making do” means stopping the act of skimming surfaces and settle down into deep appreciation of what we have around us. It is subtly different from “good enough” becasue it is not about accepting mediocrity. It is rather about deepening the uses and possibilities of what we have – finding the aristocracy in the clover.

Dickenson’s poem reminds me of that practice, that the bee looks to every clover flower as aristocracy and makes honey from what he finds there, without regard for whether or not it contributes to any sort of pedigree beyond what it is.