Re:Do y'all think we are creating space or are we opening space?
Aside from suggesting that we never all think this or that.
And:
My assumption is that I do neither.
Creating space assumes that there is no space.
Opening space assumes that there is a closed space.
Both those assumptions I dont share.
When I talk about my work as facilitator I try to say something about
EXPANDING time and space for the force of selforganisation to do its
thing (I know this in itself is ridiculous... The Ceasar of Roman times
had someone near him uttering every now and then "Ceasar, you are not
immortal).
Saying that, I am talking about something I THINK, I am contributing to.
And I do it without knowing what the "force of selforganisation" is.
I think it is that force that has been around since the big bang and is
responible for things we conceive as reality.
There is nothing I can do to influence that force, let alone organise it.
However, knowing something about the preconditions under which life arose
---relatively safe place,
---multitude of elements available,
---the elements start out with sparse connections to each other and
---there is chaos driving things towards order and which,
in open space work, I call
---complex issue to which no one person has the solution/answer,
---high diversity in the folks attending,
---urgent issue (not topic or theme) with a
---decision time of yesterday,
---high real or potential conflict and, this has also proven helpful,
--- voluntary participation on the basis of a genuine invitation. With
genuine I mean an invitation that you can say yes or no to
I as facilitator can do a whole bunch of stuff at the very first contact
I have with a sponsor, in a contact meeting of all those individuals
belonging to the sponsor and in the planning meeting which, in relation
to the preconditions, to promote the preconditions to be in place.
In the event itself... etc. Here I suggest the text by Harrison (users
Guide, which I read cover to cover ahead of each os-event I facilitate)
or for those fluent in German, the text I have written.
Dear Lucas,
I didnt study your email beyond your first question which is due to me
finding that a wonderful question that I just had to respond to.
Cheers to all of you
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
On 02.09.2015 15:47, Lucas Cioffi via OSList wrote:
That's an interesting thread you started, Daniel, about inviting
non-invitation.
Harrison writes yesterday:
Here’s a thought... Space/time is infinite, defined by our minds,
and limited by our imagination. So “constraints” are only what you
make them out to be. AND... it is always nice to have as much
“space/time” as possible. A “genuine invitation” creates a LOT of
space/time.
*Do y'all think we are creating space or are we opening space? It's an
important distinction, because creating implies a win-win but opening
could be a win-lose situation. *I'd say none of us is ever creating
space, just opening it, and that someone or something is always losing
something else when we do.
*I'll do my best to explain...*
Instead of "creating space" I'd argue that instead we are "creating
space */for/*" because the space literally already exists. We are
creating opportunity for voices to be heard and for people to
participate. But in some indirect way a */space for X/* is at least
indirectly a /*space against Y*/. We are never actually creating new
space, instead we are creating "*/new space for/*" by marking that space
with an invitation/purpose, principles, and a law of two feet. The
space (the hotel conference room, the warehouse, etc) already exists.
I don't disagree, Harrison, that overall space/time might be infinite–I
don't know :) –but each of us is limited to being in one physical space
at a time, monitoring/interacting with a handful of physical spaces
virtually, and having 24 hours in a day. In that way we'd all agree
that space and time are nearly zero sum at a personal scale, so when we
open/create space for _________, and people accept the invitation, we
are decreasing energy and time spent some where else. There is a cost.
We don't talk about that, but I don't think we forget that either.
So, to take this argument full circle (pun intended), I'd say that
whenever we open space, we do it by force. Space doesn't open on its
own (or does it?!-- what if we aren't really /opening/ space and the
space is already open, that we're just the first to see it?). Well,
even if space opens on its own and then if we're the first ones to walk
into it and invite others, we are still inviting by force–this not a bad
force or a coercive force, but it's a force nonetheless. We know this,
because we know how it requires force to launch an invitation into the
world. (Or is this not always the case? Can someone invite by simply
being?)
Any invitation displaces people's time: to read it (maybe just 30
seconds) and then much more time is displaced for people choose to
attend (an hour, a day, etc). What I'm trying to say is that I'm
beginning to see opening space more and more as active, forceful (in a
good way), and intentional. When we open space that was previously
closed, we are using force, and that might mean that someone else is
experiencing something else closing (the old order of business in an
organization or fewer people attending another event or doing something
that they would have otherwise been doing if they weren't attending).
Bottom line: It's hard to argue with creating space because it looks
like a win-win, but somewhere someone or something is losing our time,
energy, and support in the short term. In the case of an organization
the person losing is the boss who wants to keep the old order of
things. When that situation isn't applicable, we're at least spending
time away from other things we could be doing such as tending to a
vegetable garden or taking Fido for a walk. *So it's always important to
keep in mind who/what is losing when we open space, and perhaps using
the phrase "creating space" is a good way to focus on the upside.*
Lucas Cioffi
Founder, QiqoChat.com <http://QiqoChat.com>
Charlottesville, VA
Mobile: 917-528-1831
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