advanced butterfly

Wed Aug 23 06:54:46 PDT 2006

Good morning, Justin.  I love your thoughtful questions.

On 8/23/06, Justin T. Sampson <justin at krasama.com> wrote:

>
> As a shy/quiet person myself, I really like the idea of having a
> facilitator present to effectively hold the space open for me
> right then and there when I have some thoughts to get out.
> Otherwise the thoughts might just fester and keep me distracted
> while I try in vain to find the right/safe time to jump in.
>
On the other hand, the times when I've felt this need most intensely have
> been not in Open Space, but in work or personal settings in the
> presence of some kind of dominance relationship (such as a
> manager/boss).

Until I began to live in OS, Justin, I almost never got to say what I was
thinking in group settings.  I am an introvert (a Chatty-Cathy kind of
introvert but, nonetheless, I draw my energy from within) and I would be
inwardly absorbed and it often seemed like just when I was finally ready to
say something, the group moved on or someone else was talking.  Also, I used
to believe that having a facilitator directing a group's conversation would
help insure that the introverts in a group would get a chance to talk.

Now that I live in OS, now that I know that I am always one of the right
people, now that I know that when I speak is the right time, I am open and I
tend to participate a whole lot more.  My own internal sense of my own power
opens up when I am consciously in open space.  It is not just my internal
process, either.  When a whole group is in OS, the whole group is listening
to themselves and each other in a different field of energy.  Having a
directive facilitator means, to me, having someone else TRY to hold the
energy for the field . . . this can't actually be done but the world is
going to be full of such facilitators for a long, long time.  So. . . . an
introvert like me is more likely to contribute my true thinking when my
colleagues in a group are all in the field created in OS.

For me, I learned that it was not a question of what a facilitator was
doing. . . but how I saw my own voice/value.  I can't tell you how the
principle "whoever comes are the right people" has changed my self-concept,
how it has empowered me to believe that even when I am not acting right,
even when I know I am the wild card that a conventional facilitator might
dread seeing, I am one of the right people.  And, gosh golly, the right
people had better speak up. . . so I speak up.

Also, I believe that the point you have raised, Justin, indicating that as a
quieter person, you sometimes experience that you don't get to say what you
want. . . I believe the world needs to hear what you have to say in order
for the whole to be whole.  I believe such wholeness becomes more possible
when a whole group is individually and collectively aspiring to live in OS.
The whole co-creates a field that is very different, much richer, more
'whole' than any facilitator can direct. . . no matter how great said
facilitator is.  Every voice is needed to co-create the 'right' field.  I
think a directive facilitator actually blocks the richer, collective field,
co-created in OS.

Come to think of it, I also felt this need in the NCDD workshops
> where there was a presenter with some structure for the workshop,
> but not in the sessions of the brief Open Space. Do you all find
> that to be the case, that the simple fact of convening
> spontaneously in Open Space makes a more active facilitator less
> necessary? Do you still see circumstances where you'd prefer or
> recommend a small-group meeting with a more active facilitator
> over a larger-group Open Space event?

As another angle, actually the most affecting and inspiring thing
> for me at NCDD was the Playback Theatre showcase session. After a
> day of intellectually interesting but otherwise somewhat stale and
> disconnected sessions, Playback snapped me right back into
> presence and connection both with the actors and the other
> audience members in a very powerful way. Playback could be seen as
> being another "active facilitator" process -- the actors stand
> before the audience to draw out and reflect their feelings and
> stories and ideas through improvisational acting. How do you all
> see this relating to the issues above? In a perfect Open Space
> event, how might a Playback Theatre session take place?

I will share a Playback Theatre experience from the Seattle Practice of
Peace (held in Nov. 2003).  One of our invited guests, John L. Johnson, is a
gifted Playback Theater director/trainer.  The event was one evening and
then 3 days in OS.  John L. posted a session on Playback Theater.  I
expected the session to be an opportunity to learn how John L. uses Playback
Theater in the transformative work he does in inner city D.C. and conflict
resolution. . . and this would have been a fine session for me.  Instead,
John L. offered a direct experience of Playback Theater.  We all got to
play.  That evening, many participants offered an evening's entertainment.
There was a juggler, a laughing meditation. . . and our little Playback
Theater troupe, formed in John L's session, "performed".  John L. allowed
the audience (the audience was comprised of the OS participants. . . well,
all of the OS participants who wanted to show up for the show!) to tell us
what to do. . . and then we did it. So the audience and our improvised
theater troupe co-created the experience in OS.

I note that a group experiencing a multi-day OS does not always realize that
they can do things in the evening, like hold a talent show, offer one's
juggling or do Playback Theater. . .
Sometimes people ask the open space holder if they can 'perform' during
Evening News. . . or in the morning circle. . . and this can also be okay.
It all depends on the specifics of a situation.  I love it when a group
realizes "hey, we can hang out in the evening, too, here in OS".  And I also
love it when some folks, perhaps, learned a song or dance in a session and
want to share it with the whole during Evening News.

I regret that I did not get to the NCDD Playback Theater session.  It must
have been held in the evening. . . how did I miss it?!  Sigh!

Cheers,
> Justin
>
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-- 
Love rays,
Tree Fitzpatrick

. . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with Augustine,
"I want you to be," without being able to give any particular reason for
such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.  -- Hannah Arendt

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