Dear all
You wont be surprised to know that I have never had a problem speaking (and even performing) in public. This isnt just because I have a lot of passion and desire to make the world a better place (and entertain people!) it is because I have a good dollop of confidence. I probably blame my parents for this as they always had lots of confidence in me. So when it comes to speaking up in an Open Space and saying what session I would like to run, there is no problem for me. But there does appear to be a problem for some people. Maybe. When I am facilitating an Open Space, I aim to do all I can in the introduction to make it easy for anyone, no matter how shy or lacking in confidence they are, to come forward. Whilst I almost always step outside of the circle, I hang about near the microphone sometimes, or not. I place chocolates in the middle to lure people into declaring their passion and offering to run a session. I look calmly on and simply be when no one is coming forward... (sometimes). And then the sponsor says, perhaps people are just too shy, speaking into the microphone is just too daunting, will you offer to speak for people if they write it out first, shall I do this, could they just place the meeting notice on the agenda wall, is Open Space only for confident people, do we need more structure...? (etc.) I feel uncomfortable, I know that people have ideas and questions they would like to discuss and I know some people find speaking to a group (big or small) really, really scary. I want to stay true to the principle of passion in OS but I also want to help... Or am I in danger of intervening too much? Whatever happens is the only thing which could have, and whoever turns up is the right people... I could go on... but I hope you get my gist. What do you do? How do you create the space in which everyone who has a passion, no matter how scared they feel, comes forward with their offer? How do you make that daunting threshold of speaking to a group, just so right that no one feels too shy to come forward if they want to come forward...? All the best Jon ____________________________________________________________________________ ___ Jon Harvey Director " <http://www.jonharveyassociates.co.uk/> www.jonharveyassociates.co.uk ( +44 (0) 7771 537535 ( +44 (0) 1280 822585 <mailto:j...@jonharveyassociates.co.uk> j...@jonharveyassociates.co.uk ¹ Skype: jonsharvey JHAL logo.jpg Helping you connect the prose and the passion to deliver superlative results <http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/> http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/ for ideas about how to improve the efficiency & effectiveness of public & third sector services <http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/> http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/ for articles & ideas about leadership and organisational change from a whole systems perspective <http://twitter.com/JonSHarvey> http://twitter.com/JonSHarvey for conversations, ideas & questions to help build a more ambitious, creative and fair world <http://tinyurl.com/JonHarveyLI> http://tinyurl.com/JonHarveyLI to connect with me on LinkedIn Jon Harvey Associates Ltd Registered Office: Chandos House, School Lane, Buckingham, MK18 1HD Company Number 6661588. VAT Registration Number 936 2921 11 Please consider the environment before printing this email. Thank you. All business mileage is offset with <http://www.carbon-clear.com/uk/index.php> http://www.carbon-clear.com * * ========================================================== 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
