Doug -- Perhaps you are making a problem where none exists? When you have a group with 3-4 people doing most of the talking, I understand that the conventional group process thinking says that this is a situation to be avoided and that some sort of intervention is required. That would clearly be the case in a traditional setting where the folks are forced to be in attendance. But in Open Space when I see a group like that, my assumptions are rather different. First off, some percentage of that group probably just wants to listen -- which is by no means bad :-). Others are choosing to make their contribution with minimal words, or no words at all. I have no idea where the figure came from, but some wizard tells us that 95% of all useful communication is non-verbal. Certainly we have all seen situations where an arched eyebrow totally says it all!
And of course, there may be a few folks there who are feeling totally miserable, put upon, oppressed, and angry. But if I was the facilitator of that OST, everybody would have been alerted at the beginning when I introduced the Law of Two Feet -- that if they were neither learning nor contributing, they should use their two feet. I also make it clear that should they choose to be miserable, that is their choice, but that in any event they and they alone are responsible for the quality of their learning experience. Only they can know what has heart and meaning for them -- and only they can exercise those two feet in a way that works for them. Granted it takes some people a little longer to find their feet and get them moving, but it usually seems to happen eventually, and when it does that is a truly liberating experience. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of douglas germann Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 8:11 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: SV: Holding space in the small group Thomas-- Thank you for your response. I particularly liked your point that we try to give each person an opening to bring their voice into the circle. One thing I noticed from the OSonOS in Halifax was that in most groups it was easy to bring one's voice into the circle. However, there was one group with about 25 participants and it became difficult for all but the 3 or 4 persons who spoke up the fastest or most. Have you noticed the same thing? When you are in a group of this nature, and are a regular participant, what do you do to try to open the space more, or hold the space? :- Doug. Germann On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 00:29 +0100, Thomas Herrmann wrote: > Dear Doug > In my OS-meetings I always provide a little paper for the conveners to bring > to their group, inviting to start with a round, like your point A and > actually also finishing with a round. > .... > it is an extraordinarily good way to get everyone to > use their voice, check in and get an interest in listening to each other by > hearing so many different perspectives at once. > > I´ve actually been to small groups where I never felt invited to share my > thoughts - during OS-meetings - actually OSonOS´s * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist