Hom much planning and preparation time do you find you need?

[Richard Norris]

Hi folks,

My name is Rich Norris and I have been following the conversations on
planning and preparation on the OSlistserve.  I have not facilitated an
Open Space event yet, but I sense, from the listserve conversations, that I
have had much practice holding the space for others as a routine part of
life (home, work, school etc.).  Never called it "holding space" but always
viewed it simply as authentic leadership. For me the authentic variable
makes leadership "holding space" hard work and completely drains my energy.

Interestingly, I too am a musician like Chris and play Blues Harmonica.  I
greatly value the space shared with other musicians and audiences.  When I
have a particularly heavy day coming up I always try to find a group to
play Blues with.  It seems to provide me a superb outlet to "visit with
self" and charges up my siritual batteries.  At the same time it tunes me
up and sharpens my senses and awareness of collaboration and the dynamics
that evolves from the complexity of interdepency and interrelatedness of
creating music.  I find that when I did not have the opportunity to do this
it felt like I was not wholly prepared for the next day.  The mechanics
were there but the spiritual connection and awareness was not at its
fullest vibrancy.  It was at these times that I felt less than completely
authenitic.  In a nut shell I didn't feel fully present.

I look forward to facilitating an Open Space event for the first time in
the near future.  From my perspaective, the conversations on the listserve
are superb and enlightening.  I am positive they will serve this novice
well. Thank you all for sharing your wisdom and experiences.

Rich Norris


At 01:23 AM 2/18/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Harrison:
>
>I actually got very interested in preparation after being in a workshop
>with you a couple of years ago and hearing about your own preparation
>rituals.
>
>That started me thinking about things I do before facilitating anything
>and especially before an Open Space.  One thing I try to do if at all
>possible is to play music with my friends.  I play Irish Traditional
>music (jigs and reels) predominately in a session environment.  The
>session is a curious space to be in.  Like the rest of life it is
>thoroughly infected with the principles of Open Space.  We aim to reach
>a tight groove, which means establishing a dissociated and shared
>emotional centre for the music and holding it there -- another form of
>holding the space.  The reason for the tight groove is that it enables
>the musicians to experiement with the music, and introduce small
>variations and innovations to the tune.  Irish dance music is a very
>conservative and limited canvas, as only very small changes are
>permitted, no outright improvisation.  This constriction generally has
>the same effect as writing poetry to a predetermined scheme, like the
>A,B,C form of the contest we had last fall on this list.
>
>Playing in a session the night efore an OS grounds me very securely in
>the operational principles of holding the space.  It's both a practice
>session and an outlet, allowing me to unleash expression and creative
>variation.  I find this really helps with the opening which tends to be
>a variation of my standard form.  All essential preparation.
>
>And that's just one example of something I try to do.  Since the
>workshop with Harrison that started my thinking on preparation I have
>paid close attention to others who are resoponsible for opening and
>holding space.  I look to my partner, who is a tremendous mother and who
>opens and holds space daily in our household for both my daughter and
>I.  She is predictably exhausted at the end of each day, and she uses
>various techniques to reestablish her centre.  Parenting with her is a
>constant reminder of how important holding space is in life.  It's good
>preparation for doing OS too.
>
>I have done some research into the preparation of National Hockey League
>goalies who are renowned for their preparation rituals.  So much rides
>on their shoulders that they have to be perfectly prepared before every
>game.  And because hockey is as much a game of momentum as anything
>else, goalies tend to play an important role in holding the space for
>their team.  Teams with great goalies are often said to be able to play
>from the net out, in other words, the forwards and defenders can
>concentrate on their game without worrying about pucks going in the
>net.  Skaters will use terms like "liberating" to describe a game played
>in front of great goaltending.  My sister was a very high class goalie,
>almost making it to the national women's team, so I have some personal
>experience with this area as well.
>
>Finally, I have looked to some of the people I sweat with in traditional
>sweat lodge ceremonies.  (Being Irish and Ojibway opens one up to a lot
>of cultural experiences!).  People who run sweats are never said to be
>"leading" them, unlike a preist or a Minister who "leads" a Church
>service.  Instead, people "run" sweats, and you can hardly find a more
>pure form of opening and holding the space.  Sweats are spaces that are
>opened for tremendous things to occur within, like dealing with
>emotional trauma, experiencing extremely visceral spiritual events and
>so on.  Anything can happen in a sweat.  I was once in one where a man
>passed out and lay unconscious for five minutes.  When he came to he
>told us what he had seen, which was that a bear had grabbed him and
>taken him out of the sweat lodge and showed him a vision which he then
>shared with us.  Ursa Spiritualis as the ultimate space invader!  People
>who run sweats have to leave the space open and hold it very carefully
>for things like that to happen.
>
>All of this research has made me aware that preparation is critical to
>charge myself up in exactly the way that Harrison has described.  I
>think that the more you surround yourself in situations where you are
>aware that you are holding space, the better prepared you will be.  It
>goes to the heart of Ralph's conclusions.  I have found that since I
>have been doing OS events on a regular basis it has required me to live
>my life in constant awareness of the potential of opened space, and the
>critical and sometimes sacred trust that comes with holding it open.
>
>Chris
>
>
>Harrison wrote:
>
>"All of which raise (for me) a very serious issue. Creating space and
>holding space takes a lot out of you. Which means there
>must be a lot there to start, it is essential to conserve energy as you
>go along, and when its over -- you are going to need a
>break. As we all know, this is not about "doing" a whole mess of things.
>God forbid -- if we tried to operate in Open Space
>with the sorts of behaviors we used to use (taking care of all the
>details etc) --- ultimate fatigue would be the best result.  Rigor
>mortis is more likely.
>
>Keep napping Chris.
>
>Harrison"
>
>--
>CHRIS CORRIGAN
>108-1035 Pacific Street
>Vancouver BC
>V6E 4G7
>
>Phone: 604.683.3080
>Fax: 604.683-3036
>
>
Richard Norris
(407)779-0531
<rnorris at digital.net>