Open space magic
I facilitated Open Space tonight with a room of library directors and trustees facing an uncertain future - in this case more together than apart. One participant in the closing circle remarked that the group was able to be quite productive around some very large elephants in the room because it has a history of trust transactions and collaborations.
It was also interesting seeing their ability to embrace their power within the small window of proactivity, without which the state with its history of wisdom-constraints, would take their collective fate away from them.
A great example of how a group’s capacity to open space is intrinsically linked to its history of doing so in so many small ways previously. It also helps that the convening heads of the group are clearly unwilling to take the group’s power away from them for themselves.
It’s the classic open space magic: crisis + self-empowerment + complexity + trust + open space = transformation.
