Hosting and holding space
Michael M Pannwitz
mmpanne at boscop.org
Wed Jul 7 13:58:24 PDT 2010
Thanks Wendy and Doug, got it.
Facilitating ost events is a professional role and activity for me, I
make a living at doing this.
In some situations, I was closer to the issues and the "business
question" than in others (I faciliated a series of ost-events in the
highschool that all of our six kids graduated from...after they
graduated, my service being pro bono).
Hosting I see as an activity of the sponsor of the event, he is the
host. So, for me, host and facilitator always were clearly seperate roles.
In the close to 200 events I was involved in there were two occasions
where I was both host and facilitator which made me feel very
uncomfortable, unhappy, torn, unfocused...miserable enough not to try
that again...in all the other events I felt different degrees of
liberation, happiness, wholeness...
Reflecting on this I feel that I have no stakes in the aspect of "what
they need to thrive in the space". My stake and focus and interest
centers on the aspect "self-organisation". What can I contribute to
expand space and time for selforganisation to do its thing? As I am
travelling down that road it becomes clearer to me (still am in a haze
on how to do this really effectively)that my main contribution is to
step back. And collecting glasses and cups has been a means for me to
stay away from doing anything else but that.
I guess, I am clearer on the assumption that what people need to thrive
in "the space" (in the sense of space in which selforganisation is more
readily active) is something they will take care of themselves.
Still, assisting the sponsor in the planning of an OST event, I do spend
a lot of time on going through all the stuff he can and should do to
reduce barriers for selforganisation to unfold...and that also means
paying attention to safety, catering, material, fresh air...and the
myriad of other things a host would attend to BUT with the focus on the
relationship to the unfolding of selforganisation (and with this I
really mean selforganisation itself and not how participants organize
things themselves).
One thing that keeps popping up for me is the medicine man at a spirit
session at one of the OT events ho used to organize...the only thing
that he did say during the several hours we were together was: I love
you but I dont care for you.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
Wendy Farmer-O'Neil schrieb:
> Hi Michael,
>
> To clarify, it was Doug who asked the question. My post was a response
> to it. Doug's post is below:
>
> W
>
> On 7-Jul-10, at 12:34 PM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
>
>>>>
>>>> Hi--
>>>>> In a recent post, http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=2839 Chris
>>>>> Corrigan says "there is no outside."
>>>>>
>>>>> Chris has got me thinking again of the interplay of hosting and
>>>>> holding
>>>>> space.
>>>>>
>>>>> As I see it today, holding space means having a view towards the
>>>>> health
>>>>> of the whole system that is in the room—a global view that is larger
>>>>> than the participants might have. So it is not noticing themes,
>>>>> because
>>>>> my experience is that the facilitator is not into the trees enough to
>>>>> notice the paths in the woods.
>>>>>
>>>>> It is more that the facilitator is seeing that the woods is healthy
>>>>> for
>>>>> all the beings there—little animals and large, birds and insects and
>>>>> flowers and trees. Of course that is an impossible task, since no
>>>>> one is
>>>>> managing the forest. The forest self organizes itself.
>>>>>
>>>>> So we pick up the coffee cups and candy bar wrappers and pop cans that
>>>>> people semi-consciously leave behind and we let those who are
>>>>> active in
>>>>> the conversations know by our invisible presence that they are doing
>>>>> things exactly right: whatever happens....
>>>>>
>>>>> So can this be done from within the system? Is there any outside? Is
>>>>> there not a certain hubris in thinking we can stay above and
>>>>> outside and
>>>>> hold the space...what? Together?
>>>>>
>>>>> How is hosting related to holding space? When can the space holder
>>>>> enter
>>>>> the conversation swirling about?
>>>>>
>>>>> :- Doug.
>>>>>
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
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>>>>>
>>>> Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
>>>> CEO Prospera Consulting
>>>> wendy at xe.net
>>>> 1-800-713-2351
>>>>
>>>> The moment of change is the only poem. -- Adrienne Rich
>>>>
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>>
>> --
>> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
>> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
>> ++49-30-772 8000
>> mmpanne at boscop.org
>> www.boscop.org
>>
>>
>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 396 resident Open
>> Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 141 countries
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>
> Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
> CEO Prospera Consulting
> wendy at xe.net
> 1-800-713-2351
>
> The moment of change is the only poem. -- Adrienne Rich
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org
Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 396 resident Open
Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
Have a look:
www.openspaceworldmap.org
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