[OSList] No silence in opening

[Harold Shinsato via OSList]

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 <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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