Keepin' Busy

[Michael Herman]

worth noting, i think, as we are so often saying that open space is
easier, feels good, etc., that really easy is often quite difficult --
and doesn't *always* feel a lot better.  feeling good may happen,
surely does, more and more over time, but feeling a lot better, in any
one moment, isn't a very reliable criteria for deterimining if
anything is or is not open space.

then...

it seems important to be able to distinguish for ourselves between the
bad feeling that comes from contraction, compression and space being
closed and when it comes from having our views, our hearts and our
responsibility stretched and expanded beyond the edge of normal
comfort.  as you say later in your message, harrison.  the pain of
*growing.*

following this thread a bit further...

i am willing to consider that the pain is always the latter.  and so
if space is really open, it will always stretch us and always cause
pain.  but like i say, we don't always put that in the brochure!

...except that we're always talking about 'passion', which actually
means 'suffering.'   whoops!

maybe that's the really counter-cultural bit about open space, at
least in western cultures... we admit, acknowledge and willingly
explore our suffering.

and so...

the usual sorts of questions about action and results seem to be quite
misleading and distracting to really open space -- because nothing
needs to get 'done' except the suffering, and when it does, there
isn't any 'action' required at all.

so we 'feel a lot better' after we have finished with the suffering,
but how to put that in the brochure?  dangerous passion, these
brochures!   and what to tell the client who 'feels really bad' in
open space?

christopher has a good line about that, something he borrowed from an
author somewhere... about the 'groan zone.'  the middle of the
hourglass.  the tight spot(s) that don't feel a lot better.

seems important to be able to make this case in mid-space, in the
groan zone, when open space doesn't (yet) feel a lot better... that
it's still open space, is working, does hurt, and will change, soon
enough, even if not soon as we'd like it.

michael





On 1/14/06, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> What happens in an OS event, I think, is that we do what we always do, but now with clearer focus and intention and so it works a lot better and feels a lot better.
>

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Ave #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
Phone: 312-280-7838
mherman at globalchicago.net
skype: globalchicago

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki
http://www.openspaceworld.org

Executive Facilitation ...getting
the most important things done in
the easiest possible ways.

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist