[OSList] Exploring the Principles: Whenever it starts is the right time

[paul levy]

I agree, and sometimes, (and sometimes quite often), clock time is part of
our naturally occurring sense of of pacing and flow. Different kinds of
music, different kinds of beat - but hey, 4-4 has brought us plenty of
lovely rhythmic music as well.


On 30 October 2013 15:36, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:

> I think it was St Augustine who remarked that he knew exactly what time
> was except when he had to explain it. Slippery creature! Raises some
> interesting questions, like Who’s time? What time? Which time? Some years
> ago in West Africa, I learned that the “right time” (as in being ontime)
> depended totally on where you were. If you were in the capitol city, one
> hour +/- was OK. In a regional center it was 1 day +/-. When out in the
> bush, it was 1 week +/-. It also seems to be true that time is pretty much
> what we think it is. So in a small Midwest town in the US, some people
> think it is “fast time” and others are for “slow time.” Here’s the story.
> In this small town about half of the people make their living as farmers.
> The other half work in a manufacturing facility. When daylight savings time
> comes along, problems arise. The manufacturing folks need to integrate with
> the national shipping system to get their products out “on time” – Fast
> time. Cows on the other hand don’t wear watches, and wouldn’t shift their
> milking time anyhow – Slow Time. The dividing line is the Main Street, and
> crossing the street takes you from fast time to slow time – and you just
> have to remember which side of the street you are on. Or something...****
>
> ** **
>
> When it come to Time in Open Space, my learning has been that emergent
> systems create their own time. Which is to say there is a naturally
> occurring sense of pacing and flow – all of which have little or nothing to
> do with “clock time.” ****
>
> ** **
>
> Harrison ****
>
> ** **
>
> Harrison Owen****
>
> 7808 River Falls Dr.****
>
> Potomac, MD 20854****
>
> USA****
>
> ** **
>
> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)****
>
> Camden, Maine 04843****
>
> ** **
>
> Phone 301-365-2093****
>
> (summer)  207-763-3261****
>
> ** **
>
> www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20> ****
>
> www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website)****
>
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> OSLIST Go to:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:
> oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of *paul levy
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 30, 2013 6:56 AM
> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list
> *Subject:* [OSList] Exploring the Principles: Whenever it starts is the
> right time****
>
> ** **
>
> Sharing one more of three. Your comments and insights most welcome...****
>
> ** **
>
> warm wishes****
>
> ** **
>
> Paul Levy****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> We can become trapped by all kinds of dogma in our lives. One of them is
> start times. Businesses clock people in and out and there are sanctions for
> poor timekeeping. We grow up with school timetables and many of us probably
> remember being told off or even punished for being late to class.****
>
> ** **
>
> In music, if the orchestra doesn’t start together, the music will not
> sound pleasant! Yet, in purely  improvised jazz, anyone can start. We join
> in as and when.****
>
> ** **
>
> In open space, we are encouraged not to get hung up over time. When it
> starts is when it is meant to start. The dogma of starting on time is a
> dogma of forcing. It becomes another imposed structure. It might turn out
> we all do turn up for a session bang on time and start bang on time as
> well. Or it might be that some pre-start chit-chat turns out to be just the
> buzz needed for us to start a little later.****
>
> ** **
>
> The start time of an open space session is not set and imposed. The start
> time in the agenda is an intention at the time the session is offered. “I’d
> like to offer a session on Time Management in the Red Room at 11am. The
> time set is experienced as true at the time it is set. And, already the
> world has changed; we have moved on, the narrative may shift significantly.
> One session may over-run and the follow-on session may wait for those
> people, or may not. The right time emerges out of the need of the moment.*
> ***
>
> ** **
>
> This can and does free us up. It offers the chance to be lazily late, or
> to simply allow the time to start to emerge as needed by the situation.
> What stops this principle descending into a lazily, chaotic programme?
> According to Jack Martin Leith, one of the few people who has ventured to
> critique open space, it all comes down to awareness. At an open space event
> there is a collective responsibility to be aware of the reason the Open
> Space event was created and also of the other people attending: “I believe
> that each participant should maintain awareness of these outcomes
> throughout the conference. This awareness should extend to the conscious
> use of time and space, such as starting meetings on time (because people
> are aware that time is limited) and not letting them overrun (because they
> are aware that other people need the space).” (Reference, with case
> examples,  here -
> http://www.jackmartinleith.com/more-effective-ost-and-rtsc/)****
>
> ** **
>
> Start time should never be a rule; it is more of an impulse. It’s often
> remarkable how, on reflection, allowing the start time to “show itself”, is
> often viewed afterwards as just the right time to start.****
>
> ** **
>
> This doesn’t come easy to those addicted to structure, those who need to
> know what lies up ahead in the fixed plan. It comes easier to those who
> like to go with the flow, who like to improviser, and also those who are
> lazy and also those who are relaxed. Different cultures treat start times
> differently and open space conferences that involve a meeting of different
> cultures can really show these different views and behaviours in action.**
> **
>
> ** **
>
> “Whenever it starts is the right time” isn’t an invitation to be lazy with
> time, nor to never agree a start time and stick to it. It is an invitation
> to view start times as emergent.****
>
> ** **
>
> A group or community, in open space, can often sense together when
> something needs to start. And that isn’t always the time stated in the
> programme.****
>
> ** **
>
> When we live by the principle “whenever it starts is the right time” in
> open space, we give permission to others to flow in their own way. We give
> them space to be, and in doing that, we also give the community space to be
> an, as a result, space for possibility opens more easily. There’s another
> side to this coin: When a group meets in a circle (physical or symbolic) or
> a conversation or to do work together, a collective responsibility can
> form. The group becomes an organism, even as it is made up for individuals.
> The group can find, often without words, the right time to start. One
> person can take the needed in-breath, and then we all start to sing.
> Sometimes we all breath together. This is captured beautiful in the words
> of philosopher, Rudolf Steiner:****
>
> ** **
>
> “A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the
> whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the
> strength of each one is living.”****
>
> ** **
>
> So, the right time to start can be born from one person’s impulse, from
> the nod between two people, or even from the synchronicity of the whole
> group.****
>
> ** **
>
> There’s a lovely paradox here that many open space facilitators have
> failed to understand. Some people hold firmly to a start time and attempt
> to uphold it. They create a dogma out of the start time. And this is also
> fine. If an individual manages to persuade or even cajole an entire room
> into starting at a fixed time, then this is the right time to start, if the
> people in the room follow that lead. Along the line of “it starts when it
> starts” and “it starts in exactly three an a half minutes” are all kinds of
> people, will impulses and skills of assertiveness. To impose the principle
> as a rule that excludes time fixedness is as bad as excluding the principle
> itself. So some sessions will start just as planed earlier in the day, down
> to the last second and others won’t. And both are perfectly lovely.****
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20131030/6b2d505e/attachment-0008.htm>