the dark side of circle practices

[Harrison Owen]

I look forward to the follow-on. I guess if people want to be miserable they
can certainly do it. Question: Do "THEY"call this Open Space?

ho
----- Original Message -----
From: "chris macrae" <wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 2:24 AM
Subject: Re: the dark side of circle practices


> For example, imagine twenty people spend two day together in a retreat
> and its intent is to sustain and maximise communal intelligence around
> an invitation that sets up a huge change area. Such a retreat often
> rotates between a big circle (with taking stick and timeout clangers)
> and breakout groups, but the hosts/directors of the 2 day's format
> thereby:
>
> --miss opportunities to create markets for breakouts
>
> --Make the main circle time almost impossible culturally to use 2 feet
> from without upsetting everyone's belief in we are communal/collective
>
> The process starts erring to absolute democracy of everyone must have
> equal time contributions to speak at each phase (to the extent that
> energy gets lost if this doesn't happen); yet the truth might be that
> there are certain deep experiences in the room which at stages during
> the 2 days either need to be outed in direct conversation or written up
> and circulated so that everyone has access to the
> experienced/conflicting view before they leave the 2 days. In other
> word's the circle's communal harmony only permits it to pass through one
> type of conflicts ; in fact it can co-creates such deep love of nice
> behaviours to each other that it misses the biggest spiral out above our
> communal thinking's common denominator
>
> I'm in a rush today (to catch a plane). If this doesn't clarify a
> nagging problem I have about how an increasing fashion for circles in
> big change arenas without having a deeply experienced open space
> facilitator there, forgive me if I have a second bite in a few days
>
> Chris macrae
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Harrison Owen
> Sent: 08 July 2004 21:45
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: the dark side of circle practices
>
> I guess I am in the darkside of the darkside. What is/are circle
> practices -- in the West or anywhere else????
>
> Harrison
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "chris macrae" <wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk>
> To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 2:57 PM
> Subject: the dark side of circle practices
>
>
> > From some recent experiences, I have realised that it would be jolly
> > useful to have some open space guidelines for circle practitioners in
> > the west who never quite get to open space but also believe in the
> > 'democracy' of speak when you have the talking stick, and gong when
> the
> > group needs a timeout
> >
> > The strength and weakness of circle culture (divorced from other rules
> > of open space) is that it takes everyone's equal right to chat about a
> > context to democratic extremes. I realise that this is useful where
> the
> > eldest are the most confused; but its not always useful in the case
> > where the youngest are the least systemicly connected either in their
> > own experiences or in the stories they are able to tell representing a
> > diversity of views (beyond that the person actually holds)
> >
> > Enough said to start a conversation, or do I need to amplify?
> >
> > Cheers, chris macrae
> >
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