An Experiment in Closing Space

[Martin Boroson]

Steve

 

I love this story, and your insight.  

 

I will definitely remember this and try it out.  

 

I have run some other kinds of workshops (not Open Space), where it's not
unusual for people to get in touch with strong emotion, such as anger.  My
sense is that people who are very angry, deep down, really just need a hand
on the shoulder or a hug, but the challenge is getting close enough to them
-- without getting hit ;) .  Just standing near them is a good starting
point.

 

(I would probably one little touch . that perhaps when standing next to a
person in a difficult frame of mind, a moment or two of silent meditation
might be useful.  Something about compassionate intent . and not seeing them
as the 'problem'.)

 

Your story reminds me of a familiar scenario in Open Space:  Someone charges
up to the facilitator, demanding that some change be made to the format, and
when the facilitator says, "Why don't you suggest it to the group," the
participant goes away and does nothing.  

 

It seems that people have different codes of behavior, depending on whether
they are anonymous (e.g. internet chatrooms), in public, being seen by
someone in authority, seen by the group, etc.

 

Definitely something to keep in mind .

 

Thanks for sharing this,

 

Marty

 

 

 

 

  _____  

De: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] En nombre de Steve Engle
Enviado el: jueves, 15 de enero de 2009 02:50 p.m.
Para: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Asunto: [OSLIST] An Experiment in Closing Space

 

Hello, my name is Steve Engle, I am a recent graduate of the Lisa Heft
school of Open Space facilitation, having happily attended her December
workshop in San Francisco.

 

During our practice Open Space in Lisa's class, one of the sessions
discussed the problem of dealing with personalities that were too big for
the Open Space.  By this we meant people who would overpower or otherwise
possibly negatively affect the container.  One of the strategies we came up
with was from some reading in some of the OS materials where a facilitator
spoke of Closing Space on potentially destructive personalities to the
container by simply standing near them.

 

Last night I was attending my daughters High School basketball game, and
near us was a parent who found it necessary to comment loudly and negatively
about the quality of the refereeing.  While we could have easily taken on
the burden of ignoring this annoying person, I decided to conduct an
experiment, and I "closed space" on this person by reseating myself right
next to him.  I never established eye contact, or spoke to this person, I
merely sat next to him.  The result was very successful, and the person's
negative comments ceased.

 

love and light,

Steve

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