<p dir="ltr">Harold thank you for posting this. What great wisdom has emerged. I almost feel myself opening space with everyone who commented. You brought attention to something I didn't really think about, just doing it in the moment as I felt the group though I'm sure I have my own ritual. <br>
Once I remember a long period of silence as the host was waiting to speak and people were settling in. I could feel the tension of people sitting awkwardly in this circle setting, with posters and strange signs arranged around the room, papers and markers on the floor. One woman stood up as we waited, dressed very business like and with her purse held tightly, her high heel shoes resonating on the hard wood floor, she walked out from the far end of the circle to the exit, without a word or a look towards any of us. No one ran after her. I could not know what she was thinking and amazingly, the Open Space proceeded without a word being said about it. The host welcomed the group. And I opened the space. I remember feeling a deep calm settle over me as if feeling the pain of that person though I do not know what exactly happened and also feeling the heightened tension in the room. It was a group of 50, the marketplace wall filled quickly, the tension disappeared, people vibrantly engaged. I still see them in my mind so relaxed, hearing their intense conversations and laughter bubbling through. Closing circle was like another world. Everyone so connected, relaxed and lively. I'm always struck by the difference between opening circle and closing circle.<br>
As for complaints, I have heard different ones over time, sometimes whispered and not told directly, other times in the form of suggestions. I have learned to let go as I realized that Open Space opens up deep spaces inside people bringing up emotions that can show up in different ways (it seriously did that for me). Many times people suggest things that they feel could be done differently to help the process of Open Space work better. Often I just say thank you. Sometimes I'll explain a little bit.<br>
Suzanne</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jun 15, 2015 10:25 PM, "Chris Corrigan via OSList" <<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">Yes to this…<div><br></div><div>These days no matter what process I am doing, if I offer a minute of silence, instead of looking at a clock, I just count twelve slow breaths. That way you don;t make people anxious and you get a little meditation practice in. The longest I ever did this for was 15 minutes with a group of 180 theological educators. I counted 180 breaths. Many of them said they had never sat that long in silence with other human beings before. We did it to allow people to reflect on an important and energetic conflict in the gathering. It changed everything, and was indeed the simplest liberating structure I can think of.</div><div><br></div><div>C</div><div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jun 15, 2015, at 10:37 AM, Michael Herman via OSList <<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div dir="ltr">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. <div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>lisa kimball suggested to me recently that a minute of silence is one of the simplest possible liberating structure. (<a href="http://liberatingstructures.com/" target="_blank">liberatingstructures.com</a>) 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 <a href="http://groupjazz.com/" target="_blank">groupjazz.com</a></div><div><br></div><div>m</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div> <br>--<br><br>Michael Herman<br>Michael Herman Associates<br><a href="http://michaelherman.com/" target="_blank">http://MichaelHerman.com</a><br><a href="http://openspaceworld.org/" target="_blank">http://OpenSpaceWorld.org</a><br><br></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Harold Shinsato via OSList <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
The Open Space for the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (<a href="http://civicrm.jrpc.org/rising-from-the-ashes" target="_blank">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!<span><font color="#888888"><br>
Harold<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>-- <br>
Harold Shinsato<br>
<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com" target="_blank">harold@shinsato.com</a><br>
<a href="http://shinsato.com/" target="_blank">http://shinsato.com</a><br>
twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/hajush" target="_blank">@hajush</a></div>
</font></span></div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
OSList mailing list<br>
To post send emails to <a href="mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">OSList@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br>
To unsubscribe send an email to <a href="mailto:OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br>
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:<br>
<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><br>
Past archives can be viewed here: <a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>
_______________________________________________<br>OSList mailing list<br>To post send emails to <a href="mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">OSList@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br>To unsubscribe send an email to <a href="mailto:OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br>To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:<br><a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org" target="_blank">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><br>Past archives can be viewed here: <a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
OSList mailing list<br>
To post send emails to <a href="mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org">OSList@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br>
To unsubscribe send an email to <a href="mailto:OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org">OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br>
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:<br>
<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><br>
Past archives can be viewed here: <a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br></blockquote></div>