Hi Harrison,
Curiosity motivates my original search, dating back to 2011 or so. Words
and phrases are important symbols and so I am curious about these
symbols, and their origin, and what these symbols might now mean.
And so I wonder if 'holding space', as /you/ use it, might mean 'holding
void'.
Also, I am hoping there might be previous post or two, perhaps located
in OSLIST archives, where your earlier thoughts on this term may be found.
Kind Regards,
Daniel
On 10/21/14 10:56 AM, Harrison Owen via OSList wrote:
I'm not quite sure what motivated the search for the "earliest"
reference to "holding space" or Open Space, but I can assure anybody
who cares that in one form or another it substantially predates the
Quakers and, obviously, me. As Jeff correctly observes, my usage was
first in context that had nothing to do with OST, if only because I
had yet to drink the cool aid. But I had been thinking a lot about the
process of transformation, an interest that dates back to the early
60's. And in many traditions, particularly Buddhist, there is a
critical period/phase/moment of silence and nothingness. Goodness
knows what the original words were, in whatever language... but a
typical English translation is "void." Works for me, but I guess I
found "open space" to be more congruent with my intent and experience.
Anyhow, that's how it came out.
Harrison
Winter Address
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
301-365-2093
Summer Address
189 Beaucaire Ave.
Camden, ME 04843
207-763-3261
Websites
www.openspaceworld.com <%20www.openspaceworld.com>
www.ho-image.com
OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives of OSLIST Go
to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
*From:*OSList [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] *On
Behalf Of *Jeff Aitken via OSList
*Sent:* Tuesday, October 21, 2014 12:34 AM
*To:* Harold Shinsato; World wide Open Space Technology email list
*Subject:* Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space}
While tangential, it may be useful to remember that Harrison's own
first definition of Open Space was not the methodology we know.
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.)
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.
'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...'
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.'
And so we give thanks for Open Space Technology, which helps make all
that work SO much easier.
Jeff
-------- Original message --------
From: Jeff Aitken
Date:10/20/2014 8:21 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: Harold Shinsato ,World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space}
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jeff
-------- Original message --------
From: Harold Shinsato via OSList
Date:10/20/2014 1:40 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Earliest known reference to {holding the space}
Hi Jennifer!
Thanks for referencing such a great research tool. I looked at all the
books listed from 1900-1981. Check this out!
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.
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.
1953 - Princeton Alumni Magazine - "holding space" for slots in a
talent show at Princeton.
1971 - The New Yorker Volume 46, Part 7 - page 85 - "Farther toward
Green, a young woman named Vaughan Kaprow, shivering in the evening
cold, began /holding space/for another organization that had a special
greeting for Billy Graham --- the Pasadena Women's Liberation Group."
1973 - A Paper about Leibniz's Philosophy which looks at space
differently, "/holding space/ to be relational."
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.
1976 - Ecology - Volume 57, Issues 1-3 - Page 286: "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
/holding space/."
1976 - The Philosophy of Kant Explained - Page 89 - "It is thus
obvious that we can only explain how we can have legitimate a priori
synthetic judgments in geometry by /holding space/as..."
1977 - Object Relations Family Therapy - Page 72 - " the family
therapist gets transference information from the interactions in the
shared /holding space/of the family." Still a noun.
1977 - All quiet on the Eastern front: the death of South Vietnam:
"Time was a secondary dependent variable, a function of our success in
winning and /holding space/."
1978 - 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 /holding space/in another sense altogether"
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."
1981 - Kant and the Transcendental Object - "And to all these
impressive reasons for /holding space/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 ...
1981 - Robert Nozick: Philosophical Explanations Page 83 - " The word
"I" might be the marker for the blank, /holding space/in which the
self can appear."
Regards,
Harold
On 10/20/14 7:41 AM, JenniferHurley-HFA via OSList wrote:
If Google Scholar is any indication, the usage, at least in print,
seems fairly recent:
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
Jennifer Hurley
Hurley-Franks & Associates
267-971-4598
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 20, 2014, at 9:20 AM, Daniel Mezick <d...@newtechusa.net
<mailto:d...@newtechusa.net>> wrote:
This is extremely helpful, Jennifer! Thank you
On 10/20/14 9:14 AM, JenniferHurley-HFA wrote:
I have no idea about the earliest usage, but it's a phrase
often used by Quakers.
Jennifer Hurley
Hurley-Franks & Associates
267-971-4598
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 19, 2014, at 7:33 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList
<oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
<mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
Since July 2011, I continue to wander, searching for
the earliest known reference to the term "holding the
space." Anybody know?
http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/2011-July/334185.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSn2Y-b6wI
--
Daniel Mezick, President
New Technology Solutions Inc.
(203) 915 7248 (cell)
Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter
<http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
Examine my new book:The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>:
Tools for the Agile Manager.
Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>
and Coaching.
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
Explore the Agile Boston
<http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/>Community.
_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org
<mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org>
To unsubscribe send an email to
oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org
<mailto:oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org>
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
har...@shinsato.com <mailto:har...@shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
--
Daniel Mezick, President
New Technology Solutions Inc.
(203) 915 7248 (cell)
Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
Examine my new book:The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the
Agile Manager.
Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching.
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>Community.
_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
