Chris,
Your talk about containers reminded me of an exchange on this list from
several years ago (below). As I re-read it, it occurred to me that the
question about "how much space" is relevant to givens which constrain space.
BTW, I've come to understand the theme, coupled with OS's essential
message -- take responsibility for what you love -- bound the space,
creating the container. What is most striking to me is that the container
is bounded from within both for the collective (via the theme) and by each
individual, as they listen to what they love and act accordingly.
cloud-covered in Seattle,
Peggy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peggy Holman" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: Self-Organization is What Consciousness (Spirit) Does
>From Harrison:
Specifically in terms of other large group interventions and the place
that
Open Space may hold
amongst them -- we might ask, how much space does each intervention
offer?
I
can't say that I have been through all 18 (if that is the magic number),
but I
can say that some of those 18 which i have experienced make me feel
absolutely
claustrophobic, and others less so.
And Ralph:
It's not only the 18(?) so-called large group interventions I'm referring
to. How about therapy or other one-to-one interventions? In my
experience,
these can thwart as well as free folks.
Similar to Ralph and Harrison, I have run screaming (to myself) from the
room when observing/participating in several large group interventions
that
made me feel closed in. At the other end of the spectrum, I had a
conversation with someone, a deeply experienced practitioner of another
whole system method, who spent a week in Open Space. She wasn't at home
in
it, spending much of her time in her room. A perfectly valid choice, of
course. Did she get value from the experience? No question. Would
another
"method" with more closely held boundaries allowed her to get even more
value? I don't begin to know but believe that it might have.
I think Harrison hit the critical questions with:
"How Much Space? Can you stand. Can you create. Can the "client" tolerate?
And choose your weapons accordingly."
I recently was given a gift of an image around this that I've found quite
helpful. A Buddhist priest attended Spirited Work (a learning community
that gathers quarterly in OS). He used an image of hands for holding
space.
Actually, here are Master Chang's words:
Since I left Whidbey Island, I've constantly thought of OS and its
spiritual manifestation in earthly conditionings. It's dawn[ed] on me that
we constantly create mental boundaries and then transfigure them into
organizational rules, etc., which we call containers. Thus, there are
levels upon levels of containers, depending on levels of minds that we
have. What OP[OST] methodology attracts me is the way it can
facilitate and accommodate multi-levels of containers by very few simple
rules of gathering and interaction. The challenge for me in >creating an
OP[OST] organization is to be able to make available (and to promote)
evolutionary & consequential levels of
unfoldment ... so one can evolve from "container/2 hands cupped, facing
each other" to "supporter/2 hands open, facing upwards" to
>"being/handless
gesture" ...
I LOVE this picture of hands reflecting the evolution of space, perhaps
because it mirrors my own growing comfort with space. (While I aspire to
it, I'm not sure I'm ready to hang out in the space of "look ma, no
hands!")
It reminds me that we are all at different places of comfort with
openness.
I may go screaming from the room when the space feels too closed and
someone
else go running to their room because the space is too open.
Ain't our diversity great?
Peggy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Corrigan" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Givens -- Again : some comments
On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 13:28:11 EST, [email protected] <[email protected]>
wrote:
1. When an ant carrying a stick comes to another stick, it puts its
stick
down.
2. When an ant not carrying a stick comes to a stick, it picks the
stick
up (and carries it until rule 1 occurs).
That will build an ant hill within the space of the travel abilities of
the
ants (the container) but you cannot say where it will emerge, but emerge
it
will.
That's certainly the kind of givens I am speaking of, and the kind
Harrison means too I think when he talks about gravity and
self-organization (although gravity is a part of
self-organization...how else did all those galaxies clump together in
the first place!)
But what strikes me here is Paul's use of the word "container" and I
resonate with that. When I hold space, I do often have a sense that I
am holding a container. Some First Nations Elders here on the west
coast of North America talk about it using the metaphor of the feast
bowl, an ornately carved dish in which food is served at feasts. The
expression "the common bowl" is often used to refer to the collection
of people and resources available for a task at hand: "What is in the
common bowl?"
Interestingly, I have recently been reading about Bohmian dialogue
again, especially as it was explicated by Peter Senge et. al. in The
Fifth Discipline and especially the new book, Presence.. They use the
term "container" as well. In Presence, there is a lovely quote from
John Cottrell, the president of local 13 of the the United
Steelworkers of America who used dialogue in labour relations. He
likened dialogue to the craft of steelmaking:
"We work with energies that can kill you, The essence of our craft
lies in containing these energies. If we fail, people die. The same
is true for human beings: we generate energies that can kill one
another. The question is, can we hold these energies, or will they
destroy us? Just as the cauldron contains the energies of molten
steel, dialogue involves creating a container that can hold human
energy, so that it can be transformative rather than destructive."
I think when we work with groups as facilitators we do hold these
energies. Those of you in very conflicted parts of the world will
know better than I the tremendous strength needed to create and
sustain a container for these energies that is transformative. My
father in law called us toxin handlers: those who held those energies
in a way that allow groups of people to function in a healthy way.
Sometimes I think we need explicitly stated givens to do this. In
most cases though I think that the universal givens of
self-organization are the ones we need to invoke, invite and hold
space for. This is huge, huge work. But when we fashion the
containers well, the results speak for them selves. Peace, as
Harrison has noted, requires space and self-organization to emerge.
These are givens, and they are worth holding.
Chris
--
-------------------------
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology
Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
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