Harrison Owen sources his inspiration for Open Space technology in his Peace Corps experience in the tiny rural indigenous villages of West Africa, where this is how meetings ran, with no flipcharts or leaders



Open Space is a way of meeting and taking action that replaces old-guard paradigms like conferences and such. Basically, a bunch of people come together over a theme they feel energy for. Then, a leader introduces them to the idea, and says "Whoever has an issue or opportunity relating to our theme that they feel passionate about and will take responsibility for running a meeting on, please write it down and put it up on the wall." Then, after scores of topics go up, they all get organized into meeting times and places, and then Bam! Everybody goes to the topics that interest them. It's really quite simple, and ruled by the Law of Two Feet: If you don't feel you're learning or contributing where you are, only you have the mobility to put yourself where you are learning and contributing. Following this law creates "bees" who cross-pollinate from one meeting to another. It may or may not sound revolutionary, but believe me, people wet their pants at these Open Spaces. It transforms workplaces and communities (at least during the Open Space, but sometimes longer!). Great stuff.

Harrison Owen sources his inspiration for Open Space technology in his Peace Corps experience in the tiny rural indigenous villages of West Africa, where this is how meetings ran, with no flipcharts or leaders

It's All About Peace

You know, for a long time, I've had this little scar on my left hand. I got it at a Tracker school class in a fishing spear construction accident. I'll leave the back story at that. Suffice to say, the little damn scar is the perfect replica of a broken arrow!

I've had people remark on it, as if I purposely went to a piercing parlor to get it done. It's always kinda confused me - one of those messages from beyond that hits you with a repeating dull thud, without providing insight or clarity, until you get used to it. Like the time my Dad was in a transitional period of life, and out of the blue, was constantly bashing one of his elbows into things until it started to get quite swollen. I don't know that he ever figured out why that was happening, but one day it just stopped. If you're not a believer in messages from beyond, that's fine; even us believers end up ignoring them.

I mean, what do you do? There it is. A little broken arrow.

I've been slowly bringing together several different areas of passion and interest, trying to turn them into some kind of mosaic picture. What do they have in common? There's the Mythmap, of course (if it needs explaining, I came up with a good one sentence jobber: "The Mythmap - Community, Nature, and Landscape as a whole mythic being, like a sleeping Giantess, kept alive and healthy by Story, Song, Riddles, Secrets, Quests, and most of all - Celebration."). There's Nonviolent and needs-based communication. There's the Iroquois Confederacy and the Great Law of Peace. There's connection to Nature. There's martial-arts. Then, most recently, I was reading about something I've been interested in for a while, yet never really experienced: a revolutionary social technology for human gatherings called Open Space.

Open Space is a way of meeting and taking action that replaces old-guard paradigms like conferences and such. Basically, a bunch of people come together over a theme they feel energy for. Then, a leader introduces them to the idea, and says "Whoever has an issue or opportunity relating to our theme that they feel passionate about and will take responsibility for running a meeting on, please write it down and put it up on the wall." Then, after scores of topics go up, they all get organized into meeting times and places, and then Bam! Everybody goes to the topics that interest them. It's really quite simple, and ruled by the Law of Two Feet: If you don't feel you're learning or contributing where you are, only you have the mobility to put yourself where you are learning and contributing. Following this law creates "bees" who cross-pollinate from one meeting to another. It may or may not sound revolutionary, but believe me, people wet their pants at these Open Spaces. It transforms workplaces and communities (at least during the Open Space, but sometimes longer!). Great stuff.

So, I was reading more about this, and the "inventor" of Open Space, Harrison Owen, mentioned that really what it was all about was Peace. Open Space, in his experience, created Peace. Not lack of chaos or confusion, but room for chaos and confusion. People weren't any smarter or less selfish or "better", but there was just more room for everybody to be who they were, and it created what he felt was Peace.

He gives credit where credit is due, and sources his inspiration for this technology in his Peace Corps experience in the tiny rural indigenous villages of West Africa, where this is how meetings ran, with no flipcharts or leaders.

Peace. I don't know, but there might be something here - and it makes me wonder, if Open Space creates Peace (the classic example Owen gives is of a meeting of Palestinians and Israelis in Italy that started very tense and ended up quite different), then what might the Mythmap create? Most of us humans are busy warring against something most of the time - each other, Nature, what have you. Maybe Peace is what connects that list of things together.

I think what did it for me, was when Owen, in explaining all this, unconsciously (I assume) paraphrased an Iroquois author I had just read. Owen said "Peace is infinitely more than just the cessation of hostilities."

If the opposite of War is not Peace, then what is Peace? Owen's opinion: "Peace without chaos, confusion and conflict is no Peace, not because we would not prefer it that way, but because each member of this unholy trinity makes a positive contribution to the process of living. Equally, Peace without ending and death is productive of an idealized, static life, stuck in its ways – precluding the possibility of any sort of evolution."

I like the sound of this exciting version of Peace! If Peace is a process, not a goal, if Peace is a journey, not a destination...isn't that what most of us are doing, Questing for Peace? I never though of myself as a peaceful "age of aquarius" type of person, but I'm starting to see how that doesn't describe Peace anyway. The most Peaceful community is the natural world itself. The Law of Life is a peace-keeping law. Being someone else's food was not something to take personally, until one culture amongst thousands of cultures made it so: ours. About 10,000 years ago. So, I guess, of course it's all about Peace.

Never thought of it that way before. Maybe that's what the little scar is saying. I wonder where this'll all go next?

When this story was posted in April 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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The Peace Corps Library The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory. New: Sign up to receive PCOL Magazine, our free Monthly Magazine by email. Like to keep up with Peace Corps news as it happens? Sign up to recieve a daily summary of Peace Corps stories from around the world.

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PCOL readership increases 100% Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

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History of the Peace Corps PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help.

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PC announces new program in Cambodia Director Vasquez and Cambodia's Deputy Chief of Mission Meng Eang Nay announced a historic new partnership between the Peace Corps and the Kingdom of Cambodia that will bring volunteers to this Southeast Asian country for the first time. Under King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia has welcomed new partnerships with the U.S. government and other U.S. organizations.

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Top Stories: March 23, 2006 Peace Corps celebrates 45th Anniversary 9 Mar Celeste joins Stonebridge International 21 Mar Spain plans Peace Corps 20 Mar Rita Botts learns about living in layers in Ukraine 18 Mar Melanie Boyer writes "About Last Night" 17 Mar Pat Waak files campaign complaint 15 Mar Tom Bissell is a 'Yooper' 15 Mar Toledo keeps Peru's dispute with Yale in the public eye 14 Mar Lack of teachers for 'Critical Languages' 14 Mar Keith and Jenny Gelber met as PCVs in Zambia 10 Mar Bush presents award to Amber Davis-Collins 9 Mar Brian Singer founded Project Zawadi 9 Mar Christopher R. Hill speaks on East Asia in Transition 9 Mar Edmund Hull says patience will win war on terrorism 7 Mar Miriam Gray reconnects with Brazil RPCV after 40 years 5 Mar Ashley Tsongas keynotes Women's Week Breakfast 5 Mar Sari Long says PC has much to teach us 3 Mar Dana Priest calls for Peace Corps for the 21st Century 4 Mar Vasquez says PC needs to be more racially diverse 4 Mar Peace Corps Fund ready for first round of grants 2 Mar Shriver Peaceworkers Celebrate 12 Years 1 Mar White House plans to close Americorps NCCC Program 1 Mar

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Peace Corps suspends program in Bangladesh Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez announced the suspension of the Peace Corps program in Bangladesh on March 15. The safety and security of volunteers is the number one priority of the Peace Corps. Therefore, all Peace Corps volunteers serving in Bangladesh have safely left the country. More than 280 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Bangladesh since the program opened in November 1998. Latest: What other newspapers say.

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Invitee re-assigned after inflammatory remarks The Peace Corps has pulled the invitation to Derek Volkart to join the Morocco Training Program and offered him a position in the Pacific instead after officials read an article in which he stated that his decision to join the Peace Corps was in "response to our current fascist government." RPCV Lew Nash says that "If Derek Volkart spoke his mind as freely in Morocco about the Moroccan monarchy it could cause major problems for himself and other Peace Corps volunteers." Latest: Volkart reverses stance, takes new assignment in Paraguay.

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March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency: "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. "

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Paid Vacations in the Third World? Retired diplomat Peter Rice has written a letter to the Wall Street Journal stating that Peace Corps "is really just a U.S. government program for paid vacations in the Third World." Director Vasquez has responded that "the small stipend volunteers receive during their two years of service is more than returned in the understanding fostered in communities throughout the world and here at home." What do RPCVs think?

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RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case.

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Military Option sparks concerns The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is allowing recruits to meet part of their reserve military obligations after active duty by serving in the Peace Corps. Read why there is opposition to the program among RPCVs. Director Vasquez says the agency has a long history of accepting qualified applicants who are in inactive military status. John Coyne says "Not only no, but hell no!" and RPCV Chris Matthews leads the debate on "Hardball." Avi Spiegel says Peace Corps is not the place for soldiers while Coleman McCarthy says to Welcome Soldiers to the Peace Corps. Read our poll results. Latest: Congress passed a bill on December 22 including language to remove Peace Corps from the National Call to Service (NCS) military recruitment program

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Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

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Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

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