the law of two feet

my mom asked me the other day about "that space thing that i'm involved in." she was referring to open space technology, but i kind of like calling it that space thing! often i trip over my words when i describe open space to others, "technology" kind of tumbles out of my mouth after the fresh release of "open space"! many people use this process as a means for facilitating groups, and many of those same people live their lives in open space. when chris weaver first turned me on to open space, i felt an immediate resonance with it and a congruence with the way that i was aiming to live my life.
 
recently Zelle Nelson posted a great account of the law of two feet, one of my favorite tools used in open space. the law of two feet states that if at any moment you find yourself in a situation where you are not learning from nor contributing to, it is your responsibility to use your two feet to go somewhere where you can be more productive. Harrison owen says,

All too often we sit politely, getting angrier and angrier, while our time is being wasted. The lost time will not be redeemed, and the anger pollutes the environment with negative energy.

but not always do we use our power to move as a means to escape from anger. the main reason that we are moving is because we've become interested in something else, our attention has shifted into a new direction. it is our responsibility as living beings to be aware of our attention and, depending on how we choose to live our lives, to allow our attention to responsibly follow our passions. so, here's what zelle nelson posted to the oslist:

we choose our responsibility as it matches our passions in each moment, rather than sticking to a responsibility choice made 10 minutes ago or 10 years ago.
 
Some examples...I've experienced it in Open Space so many times...You go to the Marketplace, it's session 1, you choose to attend topic Q that looks compelling which will be held in session 3, you tell your friends you'll definitely be at topic Q, session 3 rolls around and topic Q that was a passion 3 hours ago is now not as compelling, or something else has become more compelling, you don't go to topic Q. In Open Space you've just used your two feet and you feel good about yourself, where you're going, what you're doing. No one questions your integrity - they praise you for it.
 
That same situation outside of OST...It's 10am, you plan to go to a cafe to meet some friends at 1pm, you tell others that you're so excited about meeting your friends at the cafe at 1pm and tell them to join you, 1 pm rolls around and you've used your two feet and are in the park reading a great book, you don't go to the cafe. You're not in "formal" Open Space and your friends wonder where you are, they question your ability to be responsible, to keep your word, you've failed to do what you said you were going to do, you might feel guilty.
 
Thankfully many of my friends do not question where I was, or why I didn't let them know I wasn't coming after I said I was. They don't question my integrity. Still, some of them, sometimes, do.
 
I usually don't question my identity or my ability to be responsible when I choose a different passion at a moment when I said I was going to be somewhere else. But sometimes I do. Sometimes I feel guilty for following my two feet when I'm not in the bounded realm of OST. Sometimes I question my identity when I'm not somewhere I planned to be, even if I never told anyone but myself that I would be somewhere or do something at a certain time. And that's just in a space of 3 or 4 hours. And in my experience, I'm not the norm in our society.
 
What about the person who's done the same thing, held the same kind of responsibility, for years. Do they have the space to question what passions they will follow now that they've discovered something new? Will they stop doing something that has been seen as valuable by themselves, or their peers, or their organization without the space to even decide to choose where their passion and responsibility lie?
 
I believe we have a roll as facilitators to hold that space where people can answer the questions: "what is our shared vision? what do we need to stop doing to make space for what we want to start doing? how do we honor what we will stop doing? and, how do we walk forward and create our future together?

comments;

i have similar feelings about the technology appendage... having learned open space before the word technology was added to it (and actually that was done originally in jest) i've never gotten used to it.

i know that people also feel a certain weightiness in the full three words. ok, i can live with OST among friends...
jeff aitken | Email | Homepage | 07.22.04 - 2:34 am | #

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So THAT'S what it's all about!

I've been ondering myself these long years!
Chris Corrigan | Email | Homepage | 07.23.04 - 7:21 pm | #

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...only one perspective!
ashley | Email | Homepage | 07.23.04 - 8:59 pm | #