A duty to take part?

[Chris Corrigan]

This is true Michael, this bit about blurring the line between in and
out.

Earlier this year I did a similar thing with a retreat for an
organization in a lot of pain.  One group of staff formed a discussion
group and struggled with how to create a respectful work environment.
They asked me if I had any tools.  There was a lot of pain in the group
and I made the conscious decision to go there and simply be with them,
ask a few questions and probe a few assumptions. In the end, the
conversation took off when I asked them to what extent each of them had
contribute to the environment of the organization, and (using a piece of
Appreciative Inquiry) asked them to remember a time when they had been a
part of something good.  And what were the differences in their own
stances in each situation?

Once the juice flowed, I left, choosing to be out again, and extend my
attention to the whole.

I think when we play with metaphors of "holding space" we can think
about rigidity, like being a box, or elasticity, like being a bag.  Some
days I'm more bag than box.

My suspicion though is that it takes a great deal of experience working
with groups to know what flavour of space holding is required in any
given moment.  I would say that I'm far from an expert, and sometimes I
make egregious blunders.  But in general, I've learned that as my
practice of Open Space has deepened, so too has my ability to discern
subtly in the application of the process.  It's overcoming the old
problem embodied by the metaphor "if all you have is a hammer, every
problem is a nail."  OST is a great hammer, but hammers can be used in
all kinds of ways in a skilled hand.

At any rate, this notion of blurring the in and out is an interesting
one.  I was recently in a great OST session facilitated by Bill
Cleveland, an experienced practitioner of art-based community
development (he practically invented the field).  He was trained in OST
by Larry Peterson in Toronto (nice job Larry!) and he was opening space
on the topic of an art-based community development project we are all
involved in.  Because the issue was near and dear to his heart, he
bumblebeed around getting involved in conversations to various degrees.
His curiosity was infectious, and his style was constantly inviting and
I made scads of mental notes on this very topic watching him float
around.  In the end I concluded that done with attention to the very
subtle nature of influencing systems, it is possible to relax the
separation between facilitator and group on a continuum between
Michael's case of "becoming a participant" to Bill's example of doing
both by growing the role of facilitator to include some participation.

It is so tricky to do well though that it probably shouldn't be talked
about much!  :-) It's one of those things learned through experience,
felt in the gut and supported with some resolute backbone.

Chris


Etc...



---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com

(604) 947-9236

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