Naming the tension

[douglas germann]

Craig--

On Wed, 2007-10-17 at 11:32 +0000, Craig Gilliam wrote:

> Does the same principle apply to OS.  When we put a "handle" on it,
> when we "name it," on one hand, we might be making it easier for
> people to deal with it, but also by naming it are we removing some of
> the power and creative voice trying to emerge?  By naming it, we might
> be making it smaller to alleviate anxiety, but might that be robbing
> the group of growth, and the issue of its mystery?


I think you are on to something, Craig. I also agree that naming can be
used to break an impasse. Harrison's "Vagueness...creates a lot of space
and people fill in the blanks as only they can do" I think may be the
answer to the implicit "How" question. Is there another way? Maybe
noticing what is going on in some cases pulls the group in the wrong
way?

That then brings us to Sandra's reminder of the principle of observer
participancy, to which I can hear the man in the hat saying something
like "At some point you just have to throw caution to the wind
and...open some more space!"

Does this extend our learning?


Harrison--

<<Oh yes – The People. Can you really trust them? My experience is that
you don’t have much choice, and one thing you can trust is that given
the space The People will make choices that they perceive to be life
enhancing.>>

In this I am hearing complexity. We want to think we can control the
group, clamp down on them as you say, but people are more complex than
that. Even "life enhancing" is much more complex than we know.

			:- Doug.

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