Head on a Stick

[Tree Fitzpatrick]

THANKS, Doug, for this report. My goodness, lawyers in open space. What will
they think of next?

I used to practice law myself. I have heard it said countless times that the
legal profession might be the field most highly resistance to meaningful
dialogue, most highly resistant to any kind of org. development work or
process design.

I am relieved to know there are groups of holistically-aspiring lawyers out
there.



On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 12:58 PM, douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com>
wrote:

> Hi friends--
>
>                            Head on a Stick
>
>
>
> The International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers held their annual
> convention near Detroit, Michigan, for 3 days in mid-May, 2008. Gathered
> were about 2 dozen lawyers with interests in collaborative law, a coach
> approach to law practice, healthy practices, and so forth.
>
> The convention started with a six directions circle ceremony and then a
> viewing of the film, "One," on Thursday evening. Friday through Saturday
> morning were a half-dozen presentations to the circle of lawyers.
> Saturday afternoon was given over to Open Space.
>
> The time allotted was from 1:00 to 5:30 pm. Two break out sessions of 90
> minutes were invited. In the first half hour, 12 topics were posted by
> the 18 or so people who were in attendance. Three of these sessions were
> combined to one. The topics were:
>
>     1. Holistic Lawyers doing their own inner work.
>
>     2. Balance teaching.
>
>     3. What's next—back rubs.
>
>     4. I secretly wanted to be L-- and K-- in law school. How do they
>        and others get to joy?
>
>     5. Planning 2009 conference.
>
>     6. Teaching other lawyers how to do what we do.
>
>     7. Evolution of consciousness new physics and the coming legal
>        profession.
>
>     8. Languaging the movement.
>
>     9. Grounding technique.
>
>    10. Who sees clients' auras?
>
>    11. How to market holistic law so the customer buys!
>
>    12. Getting paid for doing good.
>
>
> About 30 minutes into the second session time, one of the organizers
> observed to me that the conversations seemed to be falling apart, that
> several people had left, and asked me what should we do? Indeed, her
> observation seemed accurate—people were milling about, speaking in
> groups of twos and threes, some were working on their computers, a
> couple were sleeping on large pillows in the middle of the floor. What
> seemed to generate this state of affairs was that near the end of the
> first session time, many of the hosts for the second time slot gathered
> around another conversation not yet complete and were ardently engaged
> in that conversation for another 20 minutes or more. I suggested we just
> trust the people to work it out for themselves.
>
> At the appointed time for the closing circle, 16 people showed up! One
> said that he had gone to his room for a nap and felt quite refreshed.
>
> The comments in the closing circle on "What has this afternoon meant to
> you?" were rich and deep, more than many open spaces I have observed.
> There were tears and laughter, a sense of coming together. The listening
> stick was from a presenter the day before, an object she called "a head
> on a stick." This captured the sense of the group that they wanted to
> move beyond being a head on a stick to full human beings. Their
> conversations seemed to have done that work.
>
> Photos of the event are here:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/8850949@N06/sets/72157605178783304/
>
> Of course, this is now my classic getting down to work in OS picture:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/8850949@N06/2512207700/in/set-72157605178783304/
>
> :- Doug.
>
> *
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-- 
Love rays,
Tree Fitzpatrick

http://thecultureoflove.blogspot.com/

. . . 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

1335 Montecito Ave Apt. 35
Mountain View, California 94043
(650) 967-9260

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