Totally present absolutely invisible

Thu Jun 3 14:05:38 PDT 2010

WHERE you take nap might have some significance

On 6/3/10, Phelim McDermott <phelim at mac.com> wrote:
> I'm Interested in this wonderful skill:
>> Being totally present and absolutely invisible
>>
>
>
> It is what I aspire to every time I faciltate orvdirect a show and
> relates very closely to stage presence as It is what I have worked
> with puppeteers in training to do over the years. (it is especially
> useful dramatically when you want to disappear and appear as if from
> nowhere onstage at just the right time. A skill some of the best
> facilitators have or so I have heard!
>
> There is another aspect about this I am interested in which for me
> relates to what some cultures would call the dreaming aspects of
> reality.
>
> So here's the question: Is it possible to be in this state of presence/
> invisibilty whilst on another space in the room? Or outside the room?
> Or whilst asleep?
>
> So can one be totally present, absolutely invisible and take a nap?
>
> Phelim
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 3 Jun 2010, at 21:23, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> Michael – it would be really interesting to hear some actual situati
>> ons where what you are describing is true. I’ve never seen it, but I
>>  did hear of one. It happened in South Africa where a local consulta
>> nt took Open Space as a license for absence. He literally left for m
>> ost of the day. As it turned out (as I heard from one of the partici
>> pants) the group really didn’t miss him, and was basically sorry to
>> see him return. And that same participant was sure that there had to
>>  be something more than he had seen. As a consequence he came to a “
>> training program” (back in the days when I used to do something like
>>  that J) and subsequently opened space all over the place. So I gues
>> s there was a happy ending after a rocky start. Or something.
>>
>>
>>
>> But you really put your finger on something – “active
>> listening” – which is not so much about doing anything but rather
>> Being intensely.  Definitely hard to describe but my best shot is th
>> e enigmatic phrase – Being totally present and absolutely invisible.
>>  In my experience this is a matter of intention and practice. And th
>> e best part is that it is all definitely rewarding, not only in term
>> s of facilitating Open Space, but equally in terms of self understan
>> ding and personal presence. It feels good.
>>
>>
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>>
>>
>> Harrison Owen
>>
>> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>>
>> Potomac, MD 20854
>>
>> USA
>>
>> Phone 301-365-2093
>>
>> www.openspaceworld.com
>>
>> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
>>
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
>> oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
>> :
>>
>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>>
>>
>>
>> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Michael Herman
>> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 2:41 PM
>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Subject: Re: On "Failure"
>>
>>
>>
>> i have a teacher who likes to put little reminders on pencils and
>> pass them around.  one of my favorite pencils says:  "really easy is
>> often quite difficult."
>>
>> i think this is true of open space.  i've seen a number of
>> situations where the facilitator or the process itself was assumed
>> to be a bit of magic, so nobody needed to do much else to make it
>> happen.  this makes all kinds of large and small "failures" possible
>> -- all owing to some lapses in the quality of attention, awareness,
>> relationship.
>>
>> somebody once told me that carl rogers (some sort of psychologist, i
>> think) used to listen so intently that he would often break out in a
>> sweat -- just listening to someone.  sometimes i think open space
>> takes this sort of quality or intensity of attention... or maybe of
>> awareness.  that the heart is this active, even if the body is
>> apparently doing nothing.  like when so many muscles are engaged in
>> walking a balance beam, or timing a jump.  actively pulsing,
>> checking, on and off, holding and releasing, inviting and reporting.
>>
>> i'd guess a fair number of "failures" have their roots in forgetting
>> that os is this sort of active practice, even if a lot of the action
>> is not outwardly visible or dramatic or difficult.  weirdenss seems
>> to flow from gaps in clarity, in attention, in awareness, in
>> relationship.  not so much, i think, from gaps in actual outer
>> logistics.
>>
>> m
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Michael Herman
>> Michael Herman Associates
>>
>> http://www.michaelherman.com
>> http://www.ronanparktrail.com
>> http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
>> http://www.openspaceworld.org
>>
>> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 12:07 PM, VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
>> <mail at visuelle-protokolle.de
>> > wrote:
>>
>> Harrison and all,
>>
>> Another example of an OS that went terribly wrong:
>>
>> It was a factory producing printing machines, both in Eastern and
>> western Germany, and the participants were mixed from both areas. We
>> had the o.k. from the four directors, to whom we had illustrated
>> what to expect, and a final conference after the OS was already
>> determined. One of the directors, the one who seemed to be the most
>> employee-oriented, was choosen to say some words at the end of the
>> OS. Our partner in the company was a young man from HR, very active,
>> with good contacts to the directors. So he insisted that he should
>> brief the director what to say at the end of OS.
>>
>> Everything went fine. The groups worked with joy and enthusiasm. We
>> accompanied the whole OS with 3 people visualizing everything, and
>> that was a big success, because  everybody could see what had
>> happened everywhere. After we had shown the pictures in a final
>> slideshow, the director stood up and destroyed everything within 5
>> minutes. He said that he was disappointed, had expected other
>> outcomes, and that the managers wood have a hard time to use some of
>> the results.
>>
>> That was the end of the project for us, but much worse all the
>> participants were angry and a big chance was lost for the company.
>>
>> Of course the mistake was to let the young HR-man brief the director.
>>
>> Reinhard
>>
>> Reinhard Kuchenmüller
>> Dr. Marianne Stifel
>> VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
>> Kuchenmüller & Stifel
>>
>> +39-0566-88 929
>> www.visuelle-protokolle.de
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Am 03/06/10 18:12 schrieb "Ralph Copleman" unter <rcopleman at comcast.net
>> >:
>>
>> Harrison and all,
>>
>> I've had a few that sort of fell flat.
>>
>> One involved a group concerned about availability of services for
>> senior citizens across an entire US state.  Two-thirds of the room
>> consisted of seniors themselves and, frankly, a lot of them ran out
>> of energy about an hour after lunch.  So they sat around, a number
>> slumping in chairs with eyes closed.
>>
>> Another involved an exploration of customer service issues for an
>> airline.  Lots of corporate leaders from the airline present, along
>> with their booking agents (this pre-dates internet booking sites),
>> frequent flyer customers, and corporate travel execs who make travel
>> policy for their companies.  A great mix, actually.  We were set to
>> go from 8:00 a.m to 4:00.  About 2:00, a group of participants more
>> or less seized control of the meeting somehow (I wasn't in the room
>> when it occurred) and got everyone to agree to shorten the meeting
>> by a full hour.  When I returned at 3:00, someone simply informed
>> me, and asked that I begin the closing circle.  So that's what I
>> did.  I never found out what actually happened.
>>
>> Not sure how to think about that last one, since I never found out
>> how it all developed, but the following one is more like a true
>> failure.
>>
>> I was asked to convene a two-day open space gathering for about 200
>> folks from around the US.  It would be the annual meeting of an
>> association of a certain type of public health officer (cannot
>> recall the details).  The whole thing was pretty dead from the
>> outset –– I mean 200 people posting a total of only 15 sessions
>> for two whole days!?  I found out the theme was all wrong.  The plan
>> ning committee chose an idea that turned out to have no juice for th
>> e association's members.  I had spent hours in conference calls with
>>  the leadership group and the planning committee, and they'd assured
>>  me that the idea they chose was at the heart of the challenges faci
>> ng them and their organizations.  Turns out that was dead wrong.  No
>> body else cared.  I don't know how I might have seen through this si
>> tuation ahead of time.
>>
>> I essentially agree with you, H.  If the conditions are appropriate,
>> it will work.  But, if the three experiences above teach me
>> anything, it's clear that stuff can always happens.
>>
>> Ralph Copleman
>>
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