<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
The Open Space for the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (<a
href="http://civicrm.jrpc.org/rising-from-the-ashes">http://civicrm.jrpc.org/rising-from-the-ashes</a>)
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.<br>
<br>
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...<br>
<br>
"there should have been a 5-minute or so thinking time."<br>
<br>
"Some people needed more quiet time to gather there thoughts."<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Any thoughts, suggestions?<br>
<br>
Thank you!<br>
Harold<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Harold Shinsato<br>
<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com">harold@shinsato.com</a><br>
<a href="http://shinsato.com">http://shinsato.com</a><br>
twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/hajush">@hajush</a></div>
</body>
</html>