[OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space}

Tue Oct 21 07:56:02 PDT 2014

I’m not quite sure what motivated the search for the “earliest” reference to “holding space” or Open Space, but I can assure anybody who cares that in one form or another it substantially predates the Quakers and, obviously, me. As Jeff correctly observes, my usage was first in context that had nothing to do with OST, if only because I had yet to drink the cool aid. But I had been thinking a lot about the process of transformation, an interest that dates back to the early 60’s. And in many traditions, particularly Buddhist, there is a critical period/phase/moment of silence and nothingness. Goodness knows what  the original words were, in whatever language... but a typical English translation is “void.” Works for me, but I guess I found “open space” to be more congruent with my intent and experience. Anyhow, that’s how it came out. 

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From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Aitken via OSList
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 12:34 AM
To: Harold Shinsato; World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space}

While tangential, it may be useful to remember that Harrison's own first definition of Open Space was not the methodology we know. 

Rather it refers to the mysterious place in a journey of transformation - for the individual, for the organization - 'between what was and what might become.' (In 'Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations' 1987.) 

While the methodology showed up in 1985 to later become a powerful means to support individuals and organizations 'across the open space' it was not mentioned in the book.

'For the organization standing at the edge of open space with a full realization that the old way isn't working anymore, and the new way has yet to be found, the primary issue is the passage through that Open Space, and the articulation of a new story... a new way of being there. ... It would not be stretching a point to understand the process at hand as a dramatic event or sequence of events, with the leader as director or conductor...'

The job of the leader is 'leadership by indirection, which orchestrates a new, positive story, created so far as possible out of the existing elements of mythos, which captures and excites the organizational Spirit, and focuses it in productive directions.'

And so we give thanks for Open Space Technology, which helps make all that work SO much easier.

Jeff

-------- Original message --------
From: Jeff Aitken 
Date:10/20/2014 8:21 PM (GMT-08:00) 
To: Harold Shinsato ,World wide Open Space Technology email list 
Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space} 

Brilliant work Harold. I also was thinking about the famous pediatrician and therapist Winnicott and his theory of the mothering 'holding environment' in which children develop. As the child grows, the space being held grows too, tho not named that way specifically.

Another child therapist Sandner literally talked about an Open Space held by the mother role along similar lines. He once came to a talk by Harrison.

Nozick reminds me of good old Werner Erhard saying we are a 'clearing' in which bodymind and the world show up. Influenced by Heidegger et al.

Which takes us to the Kabbalist notion of 'tzimtzum' as the ein sof gets lonely and contracts so that a space appears for a universe to emerge. Jewish people who follow torah are rereading the first chapters of genesis this week. But that's another story.

Jeff

-------- Original message --------
From: Harold Shinsato via OSList 
Date:10/20/2014 1:40 PM (GMT-08:00) 
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list 
Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space} 

Hi Jennifer!

Thanks for referencing such a great research tool. I looked at all the books listed from 1900-1981. Check this out!

Nothing before '51, and over half of the 342 references were from 1951-54. There was a dark age of holding space from '55-'70, with no references. And of the 342, over 96% treated "holding space" as a noun, rather than a process. They are about physical containers for stuff, livestock, or prisoners.

Below I list the exceptions - some of which seem to hint at the way "holding space" as an element of facilitation, though none do so directly. The Leibniz and Kant papers were interesting in that they peered into the concept of space itself, holding the concept if not actual space. Very interesting is that the military concept of "holding space" related to the Vietnam war starts to come close to the facilitation sense, but the last one by Robert Nozick seems to come the closest.

1953 - Princeton Alumni Magazine - "holding space" for slots in a talent show at Princeton.

1971 - The New Yorker Volume 46, Part 7 - page 85 - "Farther toward Green, a young woman named Vaughan Kaprow, shivering in the evening cold, began holding space for another organization that had a special greeting for Billy Graham — the Pasadena Women's Liberation Group."

1973 - A Paper about Leibniz's Philosophy which looks at space differently, "holding space to be relational."

1973 - the Michigan Library talked about "holding space" for sign ups for tickets (flights to New York), similar to the holding space for slots in a talent show in 1953.

1976 - Ecology - Volume 57, Issues 1-3 - Page 286: "Porter (1974) speculated that the high degree of coexistance on Caribbean reefs is due to a "balance of abilities" divided among the Caribbean corals, such that no one species is competitively superior in acquiring and holding space."

1976 - The Philosophy of Kant Explained - Page 89 - "It is thus obvious that we can only explain how we can have legitimate a priori synthetic judgments in geometry by holding space as..."

1977 - Object Relations Family Therapy - Page 72 - " the family therapist gets transference information from the interactions in the shared holding space of the family." Still a noun.

1977 - All quiet on the Eastern front: the death of South Vietnam: "Time was a secondary dependent variable, a function of our success in winning and holding space."

1978 - BBC transcript - Many reasons why: the American involvement in Vietnam - "it's because you're holding this space in the territory of the rural areas. Also you're holding space in another sense altogether"

1979 - Arts Magazine - Volume 53, Issues 6-8: "Moss now opens wide gaps in the grid, erasing large segments of the retaining wall that had been holding space 'back'. A new spontaneity and elasticity develops between color and field: an energy."

1981 - Kant and the Transcendental Object - "And to all these impressive reasons for holding space and time to be phenomenal, Kant adds the further reason that there are a great many axiomatic principles which govern things in space and time, which are not logically necessary, since ...

1981 - Robert Nozick: Philosophical Explanations Page 83 - " The word "I" might be the marker for the blank, holding space in which the self can appear."

    Regards,
    Harold

On 10/20/14 7:41 AM, JenniferHurley-HFA via OSList wrote:

If Google Scholar is any indication, the usage, at least in print, seems fairly recent:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Holding+space <https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Holding+space&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CHolding%20space%3B%2Cc0> &year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CHolding%20space%3B%2Cc0

Jennifer Hurley 

Hurley-Franks & Associates

267-971-4598

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 20, 2014, at 9:20 AM, Daniel Mezick <dan at newtechusa.net> wrote:

This is extremely helpful, Jennifer! Thank you

On 10/20/14 9:14 AM, JenniferHurley-HFA wrote:

I have no idea about the earliest usage, but it's a phrase often used by Quakers. 

Jennifer Hurley 

Hurley-Franks & Associates

267-971-4598

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 19, 2014, at 7:33 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

Since July 2011, I continue to wander, searching for the earliest known reference to the term "holding the space." Anybody know?

http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/2011-July/334185.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSn2Y-b6wI

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