A long time ago a good friend, Ralph Copleman, was to be found in the middle of a large circle of peers dressed in a flowing cape and repeating the words, “Everything is moving, Everything is moving.” Odd to say the least and some doubted Ralph’s sanity. Some still do, but that image has stuck in my febrile brain ever since – and as time has passed it occurs to me that Ralph had it precisely right: This is an energetic cosmos. The problem arises when we (and that includes all of us some of the time) desperately want everything to stop and stand still. So desperately in fact that we have created a mental image of our environment exclusively populated by static things which include everything from mountains to super nova along with the oddments of our life like professions, chairs, relationships, organizational structures, corporations, countries and empires. Unfortunately this mental image is a radical illusion, one might say delusion. Ralph is right. Everything is moving and what we perceive as stable structures are but the momentary, slice in time, freeze-frame constructs of our imagination.

Heresy? Psychobabble? Advanced esoteric insight? – None of the above, I think. As a matter of fact, Ralph’s observation is nothing but a short (poetic?) version of the (now) standard scientific understanding of the nature of the cosmos. Starting with the Big Bang it is all flowing energy, albeit now clumped in momentary configurations – but still flowing energy for all of that. Scratch any rock hard enough and its essential nature comes through – a whirring bunch of quarks and neutrons doing the cosmic dance. Doubtless my physicist friends would take issue with my phrasing – but not, I think, with the core message. Everything is moving.

So what does all this have to do with the price of eggs? Or for that matter – Open Space and our role as facilitators and consultants? A lot, I believe.

Starting with Open Space which is many things to different people. For some it is a Large Group Intervention. Others might see it as an aberrant phenomenon peculiar to a cultish few. For myself Open Space is a trial ride in the flow of life which has a lot of similarities to my boat.

My boat is smallish in size (32 feet) but definitely larger than the average punt. She is very seaworthy and shares a common heritage with the local Lobster Boats here in Maine. We have many visitors, most of whom have never been on a boat such as the Ethelyn Rose. When you walk on board, things look sort of familiar. Chairs for sitting, a comfortable nook for dining, and even an oriental rug on the floor – excuse me, sole. If you look further there are the standard amenities such as a shower and commode, all sequestered in their separate quarters. Even a complete landlubber will feel more or less at home.

But the moment we leave the dock the world changes – apparent stability yields to constant motion. Everything is moving even if it seems to be staying in the same place! In the harbor motion is minimal, but the moment we clear the breakwater marking the harbor entrance the experience can be radically different. Sea swells from the open Atlantic Ocean take us up and down in distances measured in yards, and should we have a good cross wind the surface chop adds an interesting side to side motion. The Ethelyn Rose is right at home, but some of our visitors have a different impression. And navigating in these conditions is a definite learning experience. Even a simple walk through the main cabin can be a challenge. Hand holds that you had carefully plotted at the start of your journey suddenly changed position relative to you as you made your way. What was up is now down and who knows what is happening in between. Interesting, and as they say, It ain’t Kansas.

Most people meet the challenge and after a few educational bumps to various parts of their anatomy they learn not to fight reality. No matter what you may have thought you were going to do, the only useful option is to go with the flow. And the next level of learning is that when you do that well (flow) you can actually arrive where you need to be. Wonderful! Sounds a lot like Open Space.

We start in the static stability of a circle. This may seem strange to some, but there is a place for everybody and everybody finds a place. A familiar and enduring structure for sure. Then it happens. The circle crumbles in bits and pieces as people come to center, announcing their passions – only to be briefly restored as they return to their seats. However the restoration is but momentary. Shortly everybody leaves their seats to join a chaotic gaggle at the wall. So much for static structure, and it goes downhill from there.

Ebbing and flowing, groups form and reform all without benefit of the standard constraints essential for orderly organizational life—or so we might have thought. Pre-arranged agenda (sometimes called Mission, Goals, Objectives) is nonexistent. The Schedule might be posted but never followed – things start when they start. Assigned participation is nowhere to be found, and yet the right people show up. And to make things even worse, the air is filled with buzzing and flutters as Bees and Butterflies do their thing. Madness! To be sure there may be a few people who are utterly flummoxed as the hand holds they may have expected (see above under “Ethelyn Rose at Sea”) disappear . . . or reappear in unexpected places. Their condition is not helped, for should they ask what to do the answer is likely to come back as a question – What would they care to do?

A trifling few will lose heart and head for the shore – perceived stability. But the vast majority, as we have seen over the years and around the globe, will be totally captivated by the moment, and a smaller group will experience that moment as total exhilaration. They are doing what their prior life experience taught them could not be done – seriously and intentionally going with the flow. And rather than being rank hedonism, the experience proves to be massively productive and fulfilling. Doing well and good – and feeling great. A hard to beat combination.

And then we come to Monday Morning. Back to reality, as they say. But is it? The truth, I believe is rather different. They have experienced reality and come to the edge of shedding illusion/delusion. In the words of friend Ralph, “Everything is moving” – and this is now a fact of life to be savored and enjoyed. No longer a terrifying unknown, it is to be affirmed and embraced. Not without a few “white knuckle” moments to be sure – but infinitely better than hanging onto the (illusory) rock of stability.

So what about us – those privileged folks who have accepted the honor of opening space in people’s lives? Short answer: Invite our guests over the edge. Please note I did not say, Push them over the edge.

Crafting this invitation is always a matter of personal style and must come from the heart. The invitation I have in mind never appears on a piece of paper (or the electronic equivalent). It arrives in our personhood – who we are and how we present ourselves, which is to say, from the heart. Not to be confused with a gushy valentine or formulaic presentation, the invitation manifests in our simple presence, revealing our own acceptance and joy in the moving flow of life. Without words we express the swimmer’s call: Come on in, the water is fine! Of course you have to be in the water for that call to have any credibility.

It is perhaps easier to say how NOT to create this invitation. First off, it is not a matter of rational argument and presentation of facts. Most people already know the facts at some level, and I think the case could be made that it was “rational argument” that has gotten us into the bind we experience. Given the “fact” of a moving, changing world which can be very uncomfortable, it is quite “rational” to define that world in terms of controllable static chunks that may be contained, or better, bent to our specifications. This has led us to such wonderful things as “Flood Control” which works until such time as Mother Nature and Old Man River decide to take a different course. It turns out that The River is not a static, definable thing but part of a vast ever changing system. Effective Flood Control would require close management of the Planet’s atmosphere to say nothing of the cosmos beyond. Good luck!

Also under the heading of “NOT to be included” are well intentioned efforts to sugar coat the pill, as it were. Which is to say that we might propose certain limitations that will restrict the possibility of change in Open Space. Some of us have called these “givens” but so far as I can tell the only given is change itself. And to suggest otherwise is not so much to violate the “Spirit of Open Space” but rather the essence of the cosmos itself. Ralph had it right: Everything is moving. In this context, Open Space Technology is a minimal consideration.

I am by no means suggesting that our invitation look like the back panel of some medication listing every possible adverce reaction, if in fact unexpected change is such an adverce reaction. And truth to tell I find the appearance of unexpected change in the midst of an Open Space to be one of its (OS’s) most delightful consequences. I also think that it is important to note the OS is not the engine of change. It simply provides the space for change to show up and the cosmos (or whatever) takes care of all the heavy lifting.

For me an invitation to Open Space is an opportunity to include friends and strangers in the deepest experience of (my) life. It has little to do with selling a product, doing a process, excersizing some sort of professional competence – although there are doubtless elements of all of that. Fundamentally it is my invitation to experience life at its fullest in which chanagability is not the enemy to be suppressed but rather the rich tapestry of an evolving future. I don’t make it, I can’t predict it – but I can participate both as a sojourner and a co-creator. Stuart Kauffman speaks of being “At Home in the Universe.” That is my elemental experience, and I am always looking for playmates.

1. People support what they create. Where are you NOT co-creating?  Even the most participatory process always have an edge of focused control or design.  Sometimes that is wise, but more often than not we design, host and harvest without consciousness.  Are we engaging with everyone who has a stake in this issue?

2. People act most responsibly when they care. Passion and responsibility is how work gets done.  We know this from Open Space – as Peggy Holman is fond of saying, invite people to take responsibility for what they love.  What is it you can’t NOT do?  Sometime during this week I have heard someone describe an exercise where you strip away everything you are doing and you discover what it is you would ALWAYS do under any circumstances.  Are we working on the issues that people really care about?

3. Conversation is the way that humans have always thought together.  In conversation we discover shared meaning. It is the primal human organizing tool.  Even in the corridors of power, very little real action happens in debate, but rather in the side rooms, the hallways, the lunches, the times away from the ritual spaces of authority and in the the relaxed spaces of being human. In all of our design of meetings, engagement, planning or whatever, if you aren’t building conversation into the process, you will not benefit from the collective power and wisdom of humans thinking together.  These are not “soft” processes.  This is how wars get started and how wars end.  It’s how money is made, lives started, freedom realized. It is the core human organizing competency.

4. To change the conversation, change who is in the conversation. It is a really hard to see our own blind spots.  Even with a good intention to shift the conversation, without bringing in new perspectives, new lived experiences and new voices, our shift can become abstract.  If you are talking ABOUT youth with youth in the process, you are in the wrong conversation.  If you are talking about ending a war and you can’t contemplate sitting down with the enemy, you will not end the war, no matter how much your policy has shifted.  Once you shift the composition of the group, you can shift the status and power as well.  What if your became the mentors to adults?  What if clients directed our services?

5. Expect leadership to come from anywhere. If you expect leadership to come from the same places that it has always come from, you will likely get the same results you have always been getting.  That is fine to stabilize what is working, but in communities, leadership can come from anywhere.  Who is surprising you with their leadership?

6. Focus on what’s working, ask what’s possible, not what’s wrong. Energy for change in communities comes from working with what is working. When we accelerate and amplify what is working, we can apply those things to the issues in community that drain life and energy.  Not everything we have in immediately useful for every issue in a community, but hardly anything truly has to be invented.  Instead, find people who are doing things that are close to what you want to do and work with them and others to refine it and bring it to places that are needed.  Who is already changing the way services are provided?  Which youth organize naturally in community and how can we invite them to organize what is needed?  What gives us energy in our work?

7. Wisdom resides within us. I often start Open Space meetings by saying that “no angels will parachute in here to save us.  Rather, the angel is all of us together.”  Experts can’t do it, folks.  They can be helpful but the wisdom for implementation and acting is within us.  It has to be.

8. Everything is a failure in the middle, change occurs in cycles. We’re doing new things, and as we try them, many things will “fail.”  How do we act when that happens?  Are we tyrannized by the belief that everything we do has to move us forward?

9. Learning is the only way we become smarter about what we do. Duh.  But how many of us work in environments where we have to guard against failure?  Are you allowed to have a project or a meeting go sideways, or is the demand for accountability and effectiveness so overwhelming that we have to scale back expectations or lie about what we are doing.

10.  Meaningful work is a powerful human motivator. What is the deepest purpose that calls us to our work and how often do we remember this?

11. Humans can handle anything as long as we’re together. That doesn’t mean we can stop tsunamis, but it means that when we have tended to relationships, we can make it through what comes next.  Without relationships our communities die, individuals give up, and possibility evaporates.  The time for apologizing for relationship building is over.  We need each other, and we need to be with each other well.

12. Generosity, forgiveness and love.  These are the most important elements in a community. We need all of our energy to be devoted to our work.  If we use our energy to blame, resent or hate, then we deplete our capacity, we give away our power and our effectiveness.  This is NOT soft and cuddly work.  Adam Kahane has recently written about the complimentarity of love and power, and this principle, more than any other is the one that should draw our attention to that fact.  Love and power are connected.  One is not possible without the other.  Paying attention to this quality of being together is hard, and for many people it is frightening.  Many people won’t even have this conversation because the work of the heart makes us vulnerable.  But what do we really get for being guarded with one another, for hoarding, blaming and despising?

We could probably do a full three workshop on these principles (and in the circle just now we agreed to!).  But as key organizing principles, these are brilliant points of reflection for communities to engage in conversations about what is really going on.

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 of an object and the presence of the space interacting to strengthen each other.

The idea that space has presence is not new. Two and a half thousand years ago the Greek philosopher Parmenides proposed that it is impossible for anything which exists to conceive of anything which does not exist and that therefore even the space between objects “exists”. This remains in modern English as the concept that “I have nothing”. In Japanese however, it is grammatically impossible for “Nothing” (Nanimo) to exist (aru). “Nothing” (Nanimo) must be followed by “Is not” (nai). The idea of the presence of a space was therefore revolutionary.

To take it one step further, a tea bowl, being a vessel, is defined by the space it contains. It is not the pot which is important, but the space. In the tea bowl it is therefore possible to have the object (Wabi) and the space (Sabi) interacting within the same pot.

I think it is fair to say that, as in the art of tea, the art of hosting works with this idea to create both containers and spaces that provide the conditions for generative activity.  It’s an elusive concept, the idea of creating beauty from things that aren’t really there, but that is why we call it an art, and when it comes off well, you can feel the strength of a well held container and the quality of the enclosed space.

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 night Now the sky

came down to join us,

like an animal testing the scents.

On the fourth of Now

we saw magic inside ourselves

and blew gently the embers in each other.

On the fifth day Now transformed

into pieces of hours and sounds.

There was baying and mirth

and sweet fresh rubbing of skin on skin.

The sixth of Now saw us

plain and fearful, thrilled and drawn

to each other in new forever dreams.

On the seventh of Now

we redrew all our lines,

filled all the hollows, as Now expected.

At last the night Now

draped velvet and quiet

as hushed we prepared our ascent.

This night is that night Now.

It has unquenchable questions

and the same different beginning.

On top of morning Now

and all through evening Now

we waxed and shined the circle again

sipped each other’s songs

and touched old and new alike.

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, only able to meet him over the years at various OSonOS gatherings or when he stopped by our place on retreat or en route to elsewhere.

Brian of course was such a stalwart member of our community…he and Viv have hosted trainings in Australia for years and of course they took the mantle of hosting OSonOS X in 2002 after Laurel Doersam and I co-hosted it in Vancouver. It’s such a pleasure to be here working with Viv and our team in this place, with Brian’s presence very much in our mind.

And so as way of honouring Brian in our own little way today we took the unprecedented step of officially adding a fifth principle to the Open Space canon.  Of course the four principles are very important and probably all we need, but Brian always posted a fifth one up when he worked: Be Prepared to be Surprised.   For years I have also made a poster with that one on it and put it up in the room, but today in my opening I elevated that most excellent phrase by making it the third principle of five.  It comes right after Whoever comes… and Whatever happens…  Be Prepared to be Surprised.  And then When it starts… and when it’s over…lovely.

It seems a perfectly natural place to put it, and, being here in Melbourne,  it seemed a perfectly natural act to just say out loud “Open Space has 5 principles and one law…”  Viv and I both got a little shiver up our spine, our own little testimonial to a great friend of our community of practice whose presence we miss dearly.

So from now on it’ll be five principles for me, and in reciting them I always see in my own mind Harrison’s call to simplicity, Anne Stadler’s call to take simplicity seriously (which helped Harrison get the principles right – that IS the story, right?) and Brian’s mischievous imperative to be open to surprise.

So as we prepare to gather here in Melbourne on May 11 for a little OSonOS with 40 or so local OS-workers, and our community of friends and colleagues gathers internationally in Berlin, Viv and I invite you to officially adopt Brian’s fifth principle not for sentimental reasons, but just because it makes sense, and it lightens the invitation in just the right way.

It’s all good.

Today we held a circle with about 50 people, just to hear who was in the room and what they did time for and where.  It was incredible to hear some of these stories and beyond to see what these men and women are doing now.  Not a single one of them has had an easy go of freedom and yet to a person they are doing what they can to free others who have been wrongfully imprisoned.  This ranges from running groups, and starting organizations to meeting exonerees at the prison gates and pressing $100 bills in their hands to get them started.  Unlike guilty convicts who are able to access a system of resources upon serving their time, exonerees are often assumed to be satisfied with freedom and justice itself.  But when you have spent 10, 15 , 20 or more years in prisons like Sing Sing, Utica and Angola, freedom is not an easy transition to make.  So to have 86 exonerees gathered here together is a precious moment, to connect and share stories, ask questions of each other and establish bonds of experience and support.  Tomorrow we will Open Space with them so they can create and be in the conversations that are most important for them to be in.

Last night we went out for dinner with a couple of amazing people.  Curtis McCarty served 22 years in prison in Oklahoma, 19 of them on death row for a murder he did not commit and Fernando Bermudez, who got out in November from Sing Sing where he was incarcerated for 18 and a half years. What strikes me about these two and the dozens of others I have met is that they are at the same time some of the happiest people I have ever met, and yet there is a deep core of sadness for both what was taken from them as well as what is being taken from others who are behind bars because of mistakes, lies and ignorance.  They are imbued with a core purpose that awakens the potential in others, that inspires and invites and draws others to their cause.  Curtis is a tireless advocate for social justice, a photgrapher and a death penalty abolition activist whose wife Amy is an ACLU lawyer.  The Innocence Network is growing and expanding around a fierce core to extract truth from power and restore freedom to people who are losing decades of their lives to some of the worst prisons in the world as a result of atrocious and tragic miscarriages of justice.

I was struck today how much the United States is tipping towards a culture of presumed guilt.  In receiving an award for an investigative series, two journalists from the Columbus Dispatch related the fact that the question they are most asked is “How do you know if someone is innocent?”  It is a question that forgets the foundation of justice in the United States and Canada: that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.  It is a sign of the times that people are being forced to prove their innocence.  Every person in this room is working with every ounce of will to ensure that justice is upheld in this country.

I am amazed and humbled at their work, their commitment and their stories.

Session 1

11:00 – 12:15

• How to develop intergenerational programming (ie seniors and youth)
• How do we engage children who come from families dealing with addictions?
• How can we drastically improve reading instruction in your child’s school?  These top 5 items from research can be supported in a half-hour daily routine in the classroom.
• How do we start the process to develop a children’s charter in Kamloops?
• What opportunities are out there to use youth wilderness programs to engage youth in meaningful community development?
• How do we better connect youth/schools to the local food system?  For example: engaging shcools to start gardnes or increasing local food sold in schools?
• How to create a culture to encourage families at perinatal stage to have access to services and supports which are integrated with traditional service providers?

Session 2

12:15-1:45

• Wow! Statistics!
• I would like to better understand our needs and gaps so that I can better support the community.
• How do we develop and sustain our networks?  What are the possibilities of our networks?
• How to create service for parents with disabilities?
• How can we reduce unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in sexually active youth?

Session 3

1:45-3:00

• How to develop fitness/physical literacy program for 2.5 to 5 year olds?
• How to keep children and youth engagement authentic, original and fresh so they have the agenda and don’t get bored?
• How do we better connect school and community centres and programs for collaborative work?
• How do we reduce stigma attached to social programs to include more children youth and family?
• Teachers and youth workers as gardners, hiking guides and community development professionals.
• How do we collectively support and empower parents in our communities to recognize that they have such a crucial role?

Jutta Weimar’s New Video: “Open Space – The Power of Self-Organization”.

Father Brian, Photo by Peggy Holman

The Open Space community has lost one of it’s stalwart elders, Father Brian Bainbridge, a Catholic priest and corporate consultant from Melbourne, Australia.  Brian was a dear friend and colleague and offered much to the shape and form of Open Space although his contributions were quiet and behind the scenes.  He trained and taught many, many Australian Open Space facilitators, wrote an informally published ebook about his experiences creating and Open Space organization in his parish and was a stalwart for the integrity of the process, curious in the multiple ways self-organization and complex adaptive systems could work.  Today on the OSLIST I shared my own recollections of Brian:

Ah.

What a blessing it was to know and be loved by Brian…a man absolutely generous in his equanimity, achingly funny and self-deprecating and absolutely committed to the integrity and effectiveness of Open Space.  I have several audio recordings of conversations I spent with him over the years.  If I can find them and clean them up, perhaps I’ll get them uploaded somewhere.

As far as I know one of Brian’s enduring legacies to the Open Space community was the coinage of the unofficial fifth principle: Be Prepared to Be Surprised.  Perhaps others can concur, but I always associated him strongly with that principle.  And in his death he surprised us all!  All I can think of is his mischievous smile and quiet bubbling chuckle.

The other phrase that entered my vocabulary from Brian was “It’s all good.”  And indeed I notice that today his death has given me a chance to revisit my feelings of tenderness and admiration and love for him, to connect with people in the OS world I haven’t head from for a while and generally spend some time in my virtual home.

My favourite Brian story, a story he told me:  Once when working with a group of Australian IBM managers he listened patiently while they told him of their struggles working so far away from headquarters in an extremely hierarchical structure with an almost dogmatic approach to things.  Brian listened sympathetically for a while and then made the incisive observation: “You call yourselves Big Blue.  Well, Catholic priests have suffered this same management challenge for 1500 years and ore.  Call us Big Black.”

My family is finally travelling to Melbourne in May to do some work with Viv McWaters and Anne Patillo and Geoff Brown and Johnnie Moore and we were really looking forward to seeing Brian in his own place. Alas, we won’t have that chance now, but you can bet when we open space together Brian will be invoked and I will relish the chance to raise a glass and tell some stories about our patron Father, our mentor, teacher and friend.