I'm Interested in this wonderful skill:
Being totally present and absolutely invisible
It is what I aspire to every time I faciltate orvdirect a show and
relates very closely to stage presence as It is what I have worked
with puppeteers in training to do over the years. (it is especially
useful dramatically when you want to disappear and appear as if from
nowhere onstage at just the right time. A skill some of the best
facilitators have or so I have heard!
There is another aspect about this I am interested in which for me
relates to what some cultures would call the dreaming aspects of
reality.
So here's the question: Is it possible to be in this state of presence/
invisibilty whilst on another space in the room? Or outside the room?
Or whilst asleep?
So can one be totally present, absolutely invisible and take a nap?
Phelim
Sent from my iPhone
On 3 Jun 2010, at 21:23, Harrison Owen <[email protected]> wrote:
Michael – it would be really interesting to hear some actual situati
ons where what you are describing is true. I’ve never seen it, but I
did hear of one. It happened in South Africa where a local consulta
nt took Open Space as a license for absence. He literally left for m
ost of the day. As it turned out (as I heard from one of the partici
pants) the group really didn’t miss him, and was basically sorry to
see him return. And that same participant was sure that there had to
be something more than he had seen. As a consequence he came to a “
training program” (back in the days when I used to do something like
that J) and subsequently opened space all over the place. So I gues
s there was a happy ending after a rocky start. Or something.
But you really put your finger on something – “active
listening” – which is not so much about doing anything but rather
Being intensely. Definitely hard to describe but my best shot is th
e enigmatic phrase – Being totally present and absolutely invisible.
In my experience this is a matter of intention and practice. And th
e best part is that it is all definitely rewarding, not only in term
s of facilitating Open Space, but equally in terms of self understan
ding and personal presence. It feels good.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
www.openspaceworld.com
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Michael Herman
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 2:41 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: On "Failure"
i have a teacher who likes to put little reminders on pencils and
pass them around. one of my favorite pencils says: "really easy is
often quite difficult."
i think this is true of open space. i've seen a number of
situations where the facilitator or the process itself was assumed
to be a bit of magic, so nobody needed to do much else to make it
happen. this makes all kinds of large and small "failures" possible
-- all owing to some lapses in the quality of attention, awareness,
relationship.
somebody once told me that carl rogers (some sort of psychologist, i
think) used to listen so intently that he would often break out in a
sweat -- just listening to someone. sometimes i think open space
takes this sort of quality or intensity of attention... or maybe of
awareness. that the heart is this active, even if the body is
apparently doing nothing. like when so many muscles are engaged in
walking a balance beam, or timing a jump. actively pulsing,
checking, on and off, holding and releasing, inviting and reporting.
i'd guess a fair number of "failures" have their roots in forgetting
that os is this sort of active practice, even if a lot of the action
is not outwardly visible or dramatic or difficult. weirdenss seems
to flow from gaps in clarity, in attention, in awareness, in
relationship. not so much, i think, from gaps in actual outer
logistics.
m
--
Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.ronanparktrail.com
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
http://www.openspaceworld.org
312-280-7838 (mobile)
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 12:07 PM, VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE <[email protected]
> wrote:
Harrison and all,
Another example of an OS that went terribly wrong:
It was a factory producing printing machines, both in Eastern and
western Germany, and the participants were mixed from both areas. We
had the o.k. from the four directors, to whom we had illustrated
what to expect, and a final conference after the OS was already
determined. One of the directors, the one who seemed to be the most
employee-oriented, was choosen to say some words at the end of the
OS. Our partner in the company was a young man from HR, very active,
with good contacts to the directors. So he insisted that he should
brief the director what to say at the end of OS.
Everything went fine. The groups worked with joy and enthusiasm. We
accompanied the whole OS with 3 people visualizing everything, and
that was a big success, because everybody could see what had
happened everywhere. After we had shown the pictures in a final
slideshow, the director stood up and destroyed everything within 5
minutes. He said that he was disappointed, had expected other
outcomes, and that the managers wood have a hard time to use some of
the results.
That was the end of the project for us, but much worse all the
participants were angry and a big chance was lost for the company.
Of course the mistake was to let the young HR-man brief the director.
Reinhard
Reinhard Kuchenmüller
Dr. Marianne Stifel
VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
Kuchenmüller & Stifel
+39-0566-88 929
www.visuelle-protokolle.de
Am 03/06/10 18:12 schrieb "Ralph Copleman" unter <[email protected]
>:
Harrison and all,
I've had a few that sort of fell flat.
One involved a group concerned about availability of services for
senior citizens across an entire US state. Two-thirds of the room
consisted of seniors themselves and, frankly, a lot of them ran out
of energy about an hour after lunch. So they sat around, a number
slumping in chairs with eyes closed.
Another involved an exploration of customer service issues for an
airline. Lots of corporate leaders from the airline present, along
with their booking agents (this pre-dates internet booking sites),
frequent flyer customers, and corporate travel execs who make travel
policy for their companies. A great mix, actually. We were set to
go from 8:00 a.m to 4:00. About 2:00, a group of participants more
or less seized control of the meeting somehow (I wasn't in the room
when it occurred) and got everyone to agree to shorten the meeting
by a full hour. When I returned at 3:00, someone simply informed
me, and asked that I begin the closing circle. So that's what I
did. I never found out what actually happened.
Not sure how to think about that last one, since I never found out
how it all developed, but the following one is more like a true
failure.
I was asked to convene a two-day open space gathering for about 200
folks from around the US. It would be the annual meeting of an
association of a certain type of public health officer (cannot
recall the details). The whole thing was pretty dead from the
outset –– I mean 200 people posting a total of only 15 sessions
for two whole days!? I found out the theme was all wrong. The plan
ning committee chose an idea that turned out to have no juice for th
e association's members. I had spent hours in conference calls with
the leadership group and the planning committee, and they'd assured
me that the idea they chose was at the heart of the challenges faci
ng them and their organizations. Turns out that was dead wrong. No
body else cared. I don't know how I might have seen through this si
tuation ahead of time.
I essentially agree with you, H. If the conditions are appropriate,
it will work. But, if the three experiences above teach me
anything, it's clear that stuff can always happens.
Ralph Copleman
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