SV: Holding space in the small group

[douglas germann]

Harrison--

Harrison, no, I don't think I am seeing any problem here at all. My
question is what do you do to hold space in that situation? It is a
"living in open space" kind of question about which I seek ideas.

This situation of the "large small group" touches something you or
others have mentioned here in the past: when people want to combine
topics into one, it is worthwhile to point out to them that two or three
smaller groups can encourage more ideas, and involve more people. The
conversations in the smaller groups could not possibly be the same as
the larger, nor as in the other group(s).

And in the example I gave, I was learning something and wanted to stay,
so using my two feet was not going to happen. I just found that I was
not able to contribute. And that might have been good for the other
members of the group!

			:- Doug.


On Mon, 2007-03-05 at 08:27 -0500, Harrison Owen wrote:
>  Doug -- Perhaps you are making a problem where none exists? When you have a
> group with 3-4 people doing most of the talking, I understand that the
> conventional group process thinking says that this is a situation to be
> avoided and that some sort of intervention is required. That would clearly
> be the case in a traditional setting where the folks are forced to be in
> attendance. But in Open Space when I see a group like that, my assumptions
> are rather different. First off, some percentage of that group probably just
> wants to listen -- which is by no means bad :-). Others are choosing to make
> their contribution with minimal words, or no words at all. I have no idea
> where the figure came from, but some wizard tells us that 95% of all useful
> communication is non-verbal. Certainly we have all seen situations where an
> arched eyebrow totally says it all! 
> 
> And of course, there may be a few folks there who are feeling totally
> miserable, put upon, oppressed, and angry. But if I was the facilitator of
> that OST, everybody would have been alerted at the beginning when I
> introduced the Law of Two Feet -- that if they were neither learning nor
> contributing, they should use their two feet. I also make it clear that
> should they choose to be miserable, that is their choice, but that in any
> event they and they alone are responsible for the quality of their learning
> experience. Only they can know what has heart and meaning for them -- and
> only they can exercise those two feet in a way that works for them. 
> 
> Granted it takes some people a little longer to find their feet and get them
> moving, but it usually seems to happen eventually, and when it does that is
> a truly liberating experience.
> 
> Harrison  

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