\Holding space

[Ralph Copleman]

On 4/28/02 5:28 PM, "Audrey Coward" <abc at interlog.com> wrote:

> I invite any and all of to share what you know or practise beside picking
> up coffee cups.

Not much.

What I tell first-time open space facilitators who ask me about this is that
what I do is act as though absolutely anything that is happening is okay.

Because it is.

So I'm not really "acting as though" at all.

Which brings me back to "not much".  I guess we each find our own with this
one.

A few words about picking up coffee cups...  I was doing that in other kinds
of meetings long before I read the phrase in Harrison's book.  Seeing those
particular words in print made me smile.  That's when I knew I had to take a
stab at doing what I'd already seen him do many times.  Glad I did it.
Thanks, H.

Also: one participant in a meeting I was facilitating tripped on a cup,
fell, and broke her arm.  Everybody in the place stopped everything they
were doing and came to the rescue.  A magnificently self-organized group of
60-plus became a semi-frantic group of amateur first-aid freaks.  It was
awful ­ a real space contractor.  (Finally the local emergency squad arrived
and took the woman to a nearby hospital.)

Safety first.

Ralph Copleman

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