Beyond
Borders' Twelve Year Experiment
Twelve years ago, two organizations were formed: Limye Lavi,
a Port-au-Prince-based Haitian foundation, and Beyond Borders,
a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization. Central to
their founding principles was a commitment to a non-hierarchical,
liberating structure at the staff level. It was determined
from the outset that responsibility would be tied to interest
and commitment rather than to job titles, and that decisions
would be reached by consensus, not imposed. From the beginning,
Limye Lavi and Beyond Borders used a form of Open Space
for their meetings.
The
collective experience of Limye Lavi and Beyond Borders has
demonstrated several things:
