<div>I have some random responses;</div>
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<div>- Eastern Philosophy; Craig, your comments, and the image it gives me, reminds me of this poem;</div>
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<div><big><font size="2">Horses have hooves to carry them over frost and snow, and hair to protect them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their tails and gallop. Such is the real nature of horses. Ceremonial halls and big dwellings are of no use to them. One day Polo (famous horse-trainer), {44} appeared, saying, "I am good at managing horses." So he burned their hair and clipped them, and pared their hooves and branded them. He put halters around their necks and shackles around their legs and numbered them according to their stables. The result was that two or three in every ten died. Then he kept them hungry and thirsty, trotting them and galloping them, and taught them to run in formations, with the misery of the tasselled bridle in front and the fear of the knotted whip behind, until more than half of them died. The potter says, "I am good at managing clay. If I want it round, I use compasses; if rectangular, a square." The carpenter says, "I am good at managing wood. If I want it curved, I use an arc; if straight, a line." But on what grounds can we think that the nature of clay and wood desires this application of compasses and square, and arc and line? Nevertheless, every age extols Polo for his skill in training horses, and potters and carpenters for their skill with clay and wood. Those who manage (govern) the affairs of the empire make the same mistake. I think one who knows how to govern the empire should not do so. For the people have certain natural instincts -- to weave and clothe themselves, to till the fields and feed themselves. This is their common character, in which all share. Such instincts may be called "Heaven born." ... (see the rest here <a href="http://www.mindgazer.org/tao/chtzu_hoves.htm">http://www.mindgazer.org/tao/chtzu_hoves.htm</a>)</font></big></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><big>- In terms of people approaching the facilitator, I am reminded of "The Work" of Byron Katie, where a lot of the facilitation seems to be about asking what is really the truth, and getting people to let down their stories. Once in Gestalt class, I remember my client went quite bizerk over some seemingly miniscule thing from a dream, and scared me. My teacher sensed my fear and reminded me that it was not my job to be in charge of this client, or their behavior, it was my job to hold space. My words on this do not carry much experience, but from what I gather, in OS the facilitator must really resist being drawn into this stuff.</big></div>
<div dir="ltr"><big></big> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><big>- I have also seen a very effective strategy in simply naming the experience for people. Once in a workshop a participant became nauseous, and the solution employed successfully by the facilitator, was to acknowledge the nausea, having the participant say out loud, "I feel nauseous." Much to the relief of all the participants, the acknowledgement was sufficient to get past the nausea and get to the real issue.</big></div>
<div dir="ltr"><big></big> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><big></big> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><big>love and light,</big></div>
<div dir="ltr"><big>Steve</big></div>
<div dir="ltr"><big></big> </div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 7:17 AM, Craig Gilliam <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com">wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div>
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<div>I appreciate dealing with the challenge of difficult people in groups, the practical notion of closing space, and the story.</div>
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<div>What I am hearing is--How do we or how does a group control or help regulate those who cannot seem to regulate themselves?</div>
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<div>My first response is--What insight does the Eastern Wisdom shed on this--To give a cow or sheep a large, spacious meadow is the best way to control him.</div>
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<div>More elaboration--If a sheep or cow is nervous or anxious, the temptation is to make the pasture smaller to control them. The better way, that is more counter-intuitive, might be to give them more pasture, then they will become less anxious or less nervous.</div>
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<div>What insight does this offer to the conversation, if any? Is the need to close space about them or is it really about us and our inability to trust the group? These are some random thoughts.</div>
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<div>Thanks,
<div>Craig</div>
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Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:21:27 +0000
<div>From: <a href="mailto:marty@becomingme.com" target="_blank">marty@becomingme.com</a></div>
<div>Subject: Re: [OSLIST] An Experiment in Closing Space</div>
<div>To: <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a> </div>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Steve</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">I love this story, and your insight. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">I will definitely remember this and try it out. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">I have run some other kinds of workshops (not Open Space), where it's not unusual for people to get in touch with strong emotion, such as anger. My sense is that people who are very angry, deep down, really just need a hand on the shoulder or a hug, but the challenge is getting close enough to them -- without getting hit ;) . Just standing near them is a good starting point.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">(I would probably one little touch … that perhaps when standing next to a person in a difficult frame of mind, a moment or two of silent meditation might be useful. Something about compassionate intent … and not seeing them as the 'problem'.)</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Your story reminds me of a familiar scenario in Open Space: Someone charges up to the facilitator, demanding that some change be made to the format, and when the facilitator says, "Why don't you suggest it to the group," the participant goes away and does nothing. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">It seems that people have different codes of behavior, depending on whether they are anonymous (e.g. internet chatrooms), in public, being seen by someone in authority, seen by the group, etc.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Definitely something to keep in mind …</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Thanks for sharing this,</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Marty</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" color="black" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"> </span></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">De:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> OSLIST [mailto:<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a>] <b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">En nombre de </span></b>Steve Engle
<div><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Enviado el:</span></b> jueves, 15 de enero de 2009 02:50 p.m.</div>
<div><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Para:</span></b> <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a></div>
<div><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Asunto:</span></b> [OSLIST] An Experiment in Closing Space</div></span></font><span lang="ES"></span></p></div></div>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hello, my name is Steve Engle, I am a recent graduate of the Lisa Heft school of Open Space facilitation, having happily attended her December workshop in San Francisco.</span></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></font></p></div>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">During our practice Open Space in Lisa's class, one of the sessions discussed the problem of dealing with personalities that were too big for the Open Space. By this we meant people who would overpower or otherwise possibly negatively affect the container. One of the strategies we came up with was from some reading in some of the OS materials where a facilitator spoke of Closing Space on potentially destructive personalities to the container by simply standing near them.</span></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></font></p></div>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Last night I was attending my daughters High School basketball game, and near us was a parent who found it necessary to comment loudly and negatively about the quality of the refereeing. While we could have easily taken on the burden of ignoring this annoying person, I decided to conduct an experiment, and I "closed space" on this person by reseating myself right next to him. I never established eye contact, or spoke to this person, I merely sat next to him. The result was very successful, and the person's negative comments ceased.</span></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></font></p></div>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">love and light,</span></font></p></div>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 71.4pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span lang="ES" style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Steve</span></font></p></div>
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