Great question Harold! I always wince when people say the space needs to be safe. If you make space so safe that it leaves the opportunity for messiness out, nothing happens. Sometimes I’ve said "safe enough”. Ultimately, as you said, a sense of safety comes from within.
Rather than safety, I have come to focus on welcoming space. (With a nod to Juanita Brown, who helped me to understand the value of welcoming.) A spirit of welcome creates conditions for who and what shows up. And if you start cultivating a culture of welcome, then there’s room for all voices — and those who come discover they belong. Peggy _________________________________ Peggy Holman Executive Director Journalism that Matters 15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 206-948-0432 www.journalismthatmatters.net www.peggyholman.com Twitter: @peggyholman JTM Twitter: @JTMStream Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity <http://www.engagingemergence.com/> > On Sep 21, 2016, at 11:16 AM, Harold Shinsato via OSList > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > > Dear People(s) of Open Space, > > What is the importance of safety? What, if any, work is needed in the > "pre-work" to help ensure safety? > > It seems that safety is doomed if the "givens" are that the people in the > organization must either be silent or agree with the "powers that be" on > everything. > > I'm seeing two aspects to this. At one level, systemic oppression (such as > explicitly killing, imprisoning, or otherwise effectively punishing dissent) > clearly would shut down any opening in an open space. > > And at another level, safety is something we can be responsible in ourselves. > With enough passion and courage, we can take responsibility for own safety. > And also, it can be easy just to stay silent, or not to look beyond the > smallness of our comfort zone because of the lenses we look through. And then > we won't even try something out of fear, when something powerful could have > been a result of us taking a small step (or a small series of steps to the > center of the circle). > > What do you all think about safety, and helping to encourage people to source > their own safety, as well as working with the "powers that be" to help ensure > some level of safety? > > Thanks! > Harold > > P.S. I did find one interesting post about this in the archives from the late > Father Brian Bainbridge. > http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org/msg01333.html > <http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org/msg01333.html> > > > -- > Harold Shinsato > har...@shinsato.com <mailto:har...@shinsato.com> > http://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 > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
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