[OSList] No silence in opening

[Harold Shinsato via OSList]

Thanks, Micheal, those were both structures I was considering.

My neighbors in Missoula have lots of facilitated silence in other things
they do, like yoga, spiritual retreats, etc. I should not have been
surprised some felt deprived.

Has anyone else received such feedback, and if so how did you process it.

Thanks again!
Harold
On Jun 15, 2015 12:37 PM, "Michael Herman" <michael at michaelherman.com>
wrote:

> i think you can build it in, as much or as little as you feel is right for
> each situation, harold, just in the pacing of your opening briefing, if you
> like.  you ring the bells, silence happens.  you decide when to bump that
> silence with walking into the circle.  you decide when to break it when you
> start talking.  you put space between sentences and the different parts of
> your briefing.
>
> i saw a video of myself in a circle of about 300, one big circle.  my
> pacing was, for me, excrutiatingly slow to watch.  but i also had what felt
> like a lot of ground to cover, to get around and engage with folks all
> along that circle.  when i finished, people literally ran to the center of
> the circle.  so i think it worked pretty well.
>
> lisa kimball suggested to me recently that a minute of silence is one of
> the simplest possible liberating structure.  (liberatingstructures.com)
>  she describes taking a minute at the beginning of a meeting, not in a
> woo-woo way, but in a very practical way:  we're all busy people, coming
> from different places, let's take EXACTLY on minute to let brains finish
> where they've been and get ready for the work we're about to do here...
> will be long for some and too short for others, but promise it will be
> EXACTLY a minute... and then we'll dive into [the work].  her liberating
> structures materials might be posted somewhere at groupjazz.com
>
> m
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> http://MichaelHerman.com
> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Harold Shinsato via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>>  The Open Space for the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (
>> http://civicrm.jrpc.org/rising-from-the-ashes) I facilitated this
>> Saturday went extremely well. We had a full day of sessions and high levels
>> of engagement, and the center's Executive Director said it way exceeded her
>> expectations.
>>
>> After sitting in the glow of so many thank you's, gratitude, and "good
>> job" the day of the event and afterwards - I was surprised and quite
>> annoyed by a bit of feed back second hand through email...
>>
>>     "there should have been a 5-minute or so thinking time."
>>
>>     "Some people needed more quiet time to gather there thoughts."
>>
>> As people become more familiar with Open Space, my personal experience is
>> that rather than a long awkward and anxiety filled pause as facilitators
>> worry if anyone will post a session - instead, especially in public OST
>> events, people launch and line up to populate the agenda. This has bothered
>> me, but this is the first time I've heard the complaint of a *lack* of
>> silence in the opening.
>>
>> After my initial annoyance, and speaking with an Open Space colleague, my
>> wife, and another space holding professional, I wondered if this weren't
>> actually something that can help there be authentic open space, and not
>> just a cargo cult going through the motions.
>>
>> I'm pondering a way to help there be space before people come to the
>> center to announce their sessions - but without doing some heavy
>> facilitated silence or meditation process.
>>
>> Any thoughts, suggestions?
>>
>>     Thank you!
>>     Harold
>>
>>
>> --
>> Harold Shinsato
>> harold at shinsato.com
>> http://shinsato.com
>> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>>
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