An Experiment in Closing Space

Wed Jan 21 08:07:29 PST 2009

I have some random responses;

- Eastern Philosophy; Craig, your comments, and the image it gives me,
reminds me of this poem;

Horses have hooves to carry them over frost and snow, and hair to protect
them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their
tails and gallop. Such is the real nature of horses. Ceremonial halls and
big dwellings are of no use to them. One day Polo (famous horse-trainer),
{44} appeared, saying, "I am good at managing horses." So he burned their
hair and clipped them, and pared their hooves and branded them. He put
halters around their necks and shackles around their legs and numbered them
according to their stables. The result was that two or three in every ten
died. Then he kept them hungry and thirsty, trotting them and galloping
them, and taught them to run in formations, with the misery of the tasselled
bridle in front and the fear of the knotted whip behind, until more than
half of them died. The potter says, "I am good at managing clay. If I want
it round, I use compasses; if rectangular, a square." The carpenter says, "I
am good at managing wood. If I want it curved, I use an arc; if straight, a
line." But on what grounds can we think that the nature of clay and wood
desires this application of compasses and square, and arc and line?
Nevertheless, every age extols Polo for his skill in training horses, and
potters and carpenters for their skill with clay and wood. Those who manage
(govern) the affairs of the empire make the same mistake. I think one who
knows how to govern the empire should not do so. For the people have certain
natural instincts -- to weave and clothe themselves, to till the fields and
feed themselves. This is their common character, in which all share. Such
instincts may be called "Heaven born." ... (see the rest here
http://www.mindgazer.org/tao/chtzu_hoves.htm)

- In terms of people approaching the facilitator, I am reminded of "The
Work" of Byron Katie, where a lot of the facilitation seems to be about
asking what is really the truth, and getting people to let down their
stories.  Once in Gestalt class, I remember my client went quite bizerk over
some seemingly miniscule thing from a dream, and scared me.  My teacher
sensed my fear and reminded me that it was not my job to be in charge of
this client, or their behavior, it was my job to hold space.  My words on
this do not carry much experience, but from what I gather, in OS the
facilitator must really resist being drawn into this stuff.

- I have also seen a very effective strategy in simply naming the experience
for people.  Once in a workshop a participant became nauseous, and the
solution employed successfully by the facilitator, was to acknowledge the
nausea, having the participant say out loud, "I feel nauseous."  Much to the
relief of all the participants, the acknowledgement was sufficient to get
past the nausea and get to the real issue.

love and light,
Steve

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 7:17 AM, Craig Gilliam <wcraiggilliam at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  I appreciate dealing with the challenge of difficult people in groups,
> the practical notion of closing space, and the story.
>
> What I am hearing is--How do we or how does a group control or help
> regulate those who cannot seem to regulate themselves?
>
> My first response is--What insight does the Eastern Wisdom shed on this--To
> give a cow or sheep a large, spacious meadow is the best way to control him.
>
> More elaboration--If a sheep or cow is nervous or anxious, the temptation
> is to make the pasture smaller to control them.  The better way, that is
> more counter-intuitive, might be to give them more pasture, then they will
> become less anxious or less nervous.
>
> What insight does this offer to the conversation, if any?  Is the need to
> close space about them or is it really about us and our inability to trust
> the group?  These are some random thoughts.
>
>
> Thanks, Craig
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:21:27 +0000 From: marty at becomingme.com
> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] An Experiment in Closing Space
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>
>
>
> 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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