Thoughts on a Town Crier

[Michael Herman]

enjoying this thread here in wintry chicago, in the middle of rewiring
my house, and couldn't resist dipping in a little, probably because
this is such a common experience, this wrestling with timing or not
timing.  rebuilding an old house, by the way, is also a practice in
understanding the flow and space of time!  ...and the work seems never
to be over!

in facilitating open space, i've had my share of "let's not and see
what happens..." moments, as well.  my favorite was when one organizer
came and asked me to ring to announce that the ice cream was ready.
and of course, when we just put it out on the counter, and took some
for ourselves, everyone joined right in with us, no bells required!

so i'm definitely one of us who'd rather not bother at all.  open and
let 'em go where and when they will.  AND i understand what harrison
is saying, and koos, in particular, about ppts choosing their own
time, without warning or arrows.  The arrow seems to me to be just
there, as harrison says, very much, to me, like the times i suggest on
the post-it notes.  so i've never done an arrow, but might, in some
cases, short cases, add that to the post-it notes grid.  it has a way
of pointing to something that is true about open space.  i wonder what
would happen if we added a question mark:  "now?"

sometimes in very short sessions, i've been inclined, but almost
always requested, on some level, to mark the time.  i never liked
this, but also saw the utility of it.  half-hour sessions, 1.5-hour
sessions, half-day, 2.5 days... it's all arbitrary.  we suggest 2.5
days and the client group says "such and such meeting has always been
and is currently budgeted and already scheduled as a 2-day meeting.
that is them choosing their own time and i always do what i can to
work with them in that time.  same goes when they choose short
sessions, often not appreciating the full power of ost, but i can only
show them that in small doses, if that's what they are choosing.

so when i have made ringings between sessions, from the first time i
ever did this, feeling it was an intrusion, and always having those
moments be in very short, half-day or less, sessions -- i have rung
the bells and announced that it was such and such a time, "that i'm
not telling you what to do, but rather reminding you that you have a
choice to do what you have been doing or to do something else, like
the next session...".  i always try to make these reminders as much
about noticing choice as noticing time.  usually these short sessions
also include other moments of noticing how the space might have been
longer, bigger, whatever... pointing in whatever easy ways i can... to
what more open space might look like.  it fits with my usual style of
keeping company and also keeping alert for moments when i can point
out for one or more ppts something that is happening that is
distinctly open space, or might be opening just around the corner or
the moment.

what i see now is that when i do find it in line with the group's
choosing, to make these time reminders, i can make them at all
different times, not necessarily just at the mosted time changes.
this answers that short-space companion question about what to when
nobody uses the law of two feet.  nothing is necessary, of course, and
these random time/choice reminders might be understood to serve teh
same function, of pointing out space and time for self-choosing.

i find that short spaces bring their own roughness to the flow of time
and ideas.  habitual personal and organizational rigidities don't
always loosen up in short or even long sessions.  sometimes very
peaceful and gentle bodyworkers use considerable force in working with
clients.   that is their art.  and ours, i suppose, is determining
just how much to stretch the bounds of what our clients recognize as
"organization."

and now i suppose that stretching might be best offered like ice
cream, we make it visible, take some of it for ourselves, trading
knowing smiles with those who join us and offering whatever small
signs of enjoyment that we can, to those who dare not in that moment!

thanks, all.

michael





-- 

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.openspaceworld.org
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org

312-280-7838 (mobile)

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