<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body >While tangential, it may be useful to remember that Harrison's own first definition of Open Space was not the methodology we know. <div><br></div><div>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.) <div><br></div><div>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.</div></div><div><br></div><div>'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...'</div><div><br></div><div>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.'</div><div><br></div><div>And so we give thanks for Open Space Technology, which helps make all that work SO much easier.</div><div><br></div><div>Jeff</div><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Jeff Aitken <r.jeff.aitken@gmail.com> <br>Date:10/20/2014 8:21 PM (GMT-08:00) <br>To: Harold Shinsato <harold@shinsato.com>,World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> <br>Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space} <br><br>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.<div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Jeff</div><div><br></div><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Harold Shinsato via OSList <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> <br>Date:10/20/2014 1:40 PM (GMT-08:00) <br>To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> <br>Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space} <br><br>
Hi Jennifer!<br>
<br>
Thanks for referencing such a great research tool. I looked at all
the books listed from 1900-1981. Check this out!<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
1953 - Princeton Alumni Magazine - "holding space" for slots in a
talent show at Princeton.<br>
<br>
1971 - The New Yorker Volume 46, Part 7 - page 85 - "<span class="st">Farther toward Green, a young woman named Vaughan
Kaprow, shivering in the evening cold, began <em>holding space</em>
for another organization that had a special greeting for Billy
Graham — the Pasadena Women's Liberation Group.</span>"<br>
<br>
1973 - A Paper about Leibniz's Philosophy which looks at space
differently, "<i>holding space</i> to be relational."<br>
<br>
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.<span class="st"><br>
<br>
1976 - Ecology - Volume 57, Issues 1-3 - Page 286: "</span><span class="st"><span class="st">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 <em>holding
space</em>."</span><br>
</span><br>
1976 - The Philosophy of Kant Explained - Page 89 - <span class="st">"It is thus obvious that we can only explain how we can
have legitimate a priori synthetic judgments in geometry by <em>holding
space</em> as</span>..."<br>
<br>
1977 - Object Relations Family Therapy - Page 72 - "
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<span class="st">the family therapist gets transference information
from the interactions in the shared <em>holding space</em> of the
family."</span> Still a noun.<br>
<br>
1977 - All quiet on the Eastern front: the death of South Vietnam: "<span class="st">Time was a secondary dependent variable, a function of
our success in winning and <em>holding space</em>."</span><br>
<br>
1978 -
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<span class="st">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 <em>holding
space</em> in another sense altogether</span>"<br>
<span class="st"></span><br>
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."<br>
<br>
1981 - Kant and the Transcendental Object - "<span class="st">And to
all these impressive reasons for <em>holding space</em> 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 ...</span><br>
<br>
1981 - Robert Nozick: Philosophical Explanations Page 83 - "
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<span class="st">The word "I" might be the marker for the blank, <em>holding
space</em> in which the self can appear</span>."<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Harold<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/20/14 7:41 AM, JenniferHurley-HFA
via OSList wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:3C9A539B-4460-421A-BD58-7AA5792DDC98@HFAdesign.com" type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">If Google Scholar is
any indication, the usage, at least in print, seems fairly
recent:</div>
<div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="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">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</a></span><br>
<br>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Jennifer Hurley</span>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Hurley-Franks &
Associates<br>
<div>267-971-4598</div>
<div>Sent from my iPhone</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br>
On Oct 20, 2014, at 9:20 AM, Daniel Mezick <<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:dan@newtechusa.net">dan@newtechusa.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">
<div class="moz-signature">
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv="Content-Type">
This is extremely helpful, Jennifer! Thank you<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/20/14 9:14 AM,
JenniferHurley-HFA wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:26A9817D-86F7-47F3-B325-25AD013B0EF0@HFAdesign.com" type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<div>I have no idea about the earliest usage, but it's a
phrase often used by Quakers. <br>
<br>
Jennifer Hurley
<div>Hurley-Franks & Associates<br>
<div>267-971-4598</div>
<div>Sent from my iPhone</div>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
On Oct 19, 2014, at 7:33 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList <<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv="Content-Type">
Since July 2011, I continue to wander, searching for the
earliest known reference to the term "holding the
space." Anybody know?<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/2011-July/334185.html">http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/2011-July/334185.html</a><br>
<blockquote cite="mid:D069F5E5.35BFD%25k.royle@wlv.ac.uk" type="cite"> </blockquote>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSn2Y-b6wI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSn2Y-b6wI</a><br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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<p class="p1">Daniel Mezick, President</p>
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