Shy people... (?)

[Jon Harvey]

Dear all

 

You won’t be surprised to know that I have never had a problem speaking (and
even performing) in public. This isn’t just because I have a lot of passion
and desire to make the world a better place (and entertain people!) – it is
because I have a good dollop of confidence. I probably blame my parents for
this as they always had lots of confidence in me.

 

So when it comes to speaking up in an Open Space and saying what session I
would like to run, there is no problem for me. But there does appear to be a
problem for some people. Maybe. When I am facilitating an Open Space, I aim
to do all I can in the introduction to make it easy for anyone, no matter
how shy or lacking in confidence they are, to come forward. Whilst I almost
always step outside of the circle, I hang about near the microphone
sometimes, or not. I place chocolates in the middle to lure people into
declaring their passion and offering to run a session. I look calmly on and
simply ‘be’ when no one is coming forward... (sometimes). 

 

And then the sponsor says, perhaps people are just too shy, speaking into
the microphone is just too daunting, will you offer to speak for people if
they write it out first, shall I do this, could they just place the meeting
notice on the agenda wall, is Open Space only for confident people, do we
need more structure...? (etc.) I feel uncomfortable, I know that people have
ideas and questions they would like to discuss and I know some people find
speaking to a group (big or small) really, really scary. I want to stay
‘true’ to the principle of passion in OS – but I also want to help... Or am
I in danger of intervening too much? Whatever happens is the only thing
which could have, and whoever turns up is the right people...

 

I could go on... but I hope you get my gist. 

 

What do you do? How do you create the space in which everyone who has a
passion, no matter how scared they feel, comes forward with their offer? How
do you make that daunting threshold of speaking to a group, just so ‘right’
that no one feels too shy to come forward – if they want to come forward...?


 

All the best

 

Jon

 

____________________________________________________________________________
___

 

Jon Harvey

Director

 

"  <http://www.jonharveyassociates.co.uk/> www.jonharveyassociates.co.uk

 

( +44 (0) 7771 537535

( +44 (0) 1280 822585

›   <mailto:jon at jonharveyassociates.co.uk> jon at jonharveyassociates.co.uk

¹  Skype: jonsharvey

 

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