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Finding opportunities for support and deepening at ES3

Submitted by Tom Atlee on April 10, 2006 - 05:16.

This space exists to bring to EvolutionaryNexus the currently active email discussion of ways we can help people find opportunities for support and deepening at ES3.

I don't have the time or energy right now to do a summary of what has been discussed so far, but there is ample opportunity here for anyone called to that to do so.  But I will set it up and get it started -- and those of us who have been involved in this discussion CAN continue it here...

Taking the opportunity

Submitted by Finn Voldtofte on April 11, 2006 - 15:43.
I have taken the inspiration from theese comments to get some thoughts on procesformats in service down, and have posted them here.

Open Space as a challenge

Submitted by Ria Baeck on April 10, 2006 - 15:45.

Although I'm not part of the Salon 3 planning team, I would like to give my appreciation for what Tree is saying here.

I was kind of wondered by this whole issue, as it seemed not 'compatible' with Open Space. What I do see is that people maybe need some more 'instructions' or examples of what it mean to 'take care for what they love'. I remember George was very surprised after the second salon that it would have been possible to have a group with indepth conversation going on for the three days; probably this 'little circles thing' is just one of the possibilities that people have to become aware of that they can do it...

And indeed: "the right answer is waiting ..." 

Thanks, Tom

Submitted by Tree Fitz on April 10, 2006 - 08:11.

I actually have a personal reaction similar to what you describe, Tom, to 'home-base' circles.  I live in open space and I won't spend anytime in any circle I don't want to be in. 

 I invited Michael, privately, to think about using the clans/tribes/nations or cells/molecules/organism to set the context at the May salon, which is not quite the same thing as home-based circle cells.  I was only inviting Michael to think. Then Michael passed my private invitation for HIM to think and now I am perceived as having endorsed the 'home-base' idea.  I was playing with ideas. 

I have a lot of resistance to the idea of homebases.  As much as anyone possibly could, I believe in the container of Open Space Technology.  I don't see how we can have an open space salon AND do this circle thing. 

I heard a lot of people in January voicing dissonance about what was going on at the salon, either in the large circles or in sessions.  Each person was fully free in each moment to ask for what they wanted.  If they wanted deeper dialogue, they could have asked for it.  If an introvert wanted something they weren't getting, they could have asked for it.  For me personally, assigning me to a group of people for four days  is not going to increase the likelihood that I will ask for what I want or that I will go deeper.

I don't know what the right thing to do might be.  I have heard and read feedback indicating some people would like a deeper experience, I have heard and read some people believe small circles might help create this depth. . . . and yet I know that in open space, everyone is free in each moment (as they are each moment in life) to go as deep as they wish in any moment they wish.

 My idea for using a smaller circle is probably very different than Michael's. 

 My real interest is about setting the context.  In Spirited Work gatherings, we tended to set the context each day (we had three day gatherings four times a year).  We would have a general theme for the weekend and then break down the theme from day to day.  The people leading the morning circle each day would spend just a few minutes reminding us of the theme for the day:  the theme might be as simple as 'be open, not attached'.  It takes about three minutes.  Since I do not have Michael's deep familiarity with the evolutionary 'story', I thought it might be helpful to find some key phrases to use to set the context each day.  So I invited him to think.  I thought there might be a kernel of an idea for setting the contexts by playing around with clan/tribe/nation or cell/molecule/organism.  Just a seed of thought.

I am reluctant to make any specific suggestions anymore.  Besides, I don't know the evolutionary 'story' well enough to choose such language. 

I can see how some of my statements in emailed conversations were inconsistent. . . but all I had been trying to do was stimulate thinking.  And I'd like to help Michael think through his 'replicable pattern' challenge.

Like Tom, I would like to help people find the kind of support and deepening they want. . . but I do not quite see, not yet, how we should do it. 

I believe that the solution will be found when we do, more or less, what we did during the evening debriefs at the Jan. salon.  Whoever is interested should share their thinking, which is a way of 'reading' the energy.  Then we should spend time in silence and listen to the middle.  Since we are not all in the same room, maybe we could share our thinking here and then spend time together in silence during a teleconference call and listen to the middle.

I know the right answer is waiting for us. 

Circles don't necessarily work for everyone

Submitted by Tom Atlee on April 10, 2006 - 05:46.

Should opportunities for support and deepening at ES3 be organized into the structure of the event?  In our discussion of this, I hear and feel some tension between "guidance" and "self-organization."  There is no question that guidance is needed.  Some relevant questions might be What kind of guidance? and Where/Who does it come from?  Some feel the purpose/theme of an open space and the inner calling of participants' passion is enough guidance.

I'd like to keep in mind that people's passion and willingness are a primary resource -- and are bottom-line factors if we want to serve self-organization.

I'm open to exploration about all this.  I am not attached to specific approaches -- and I have a lot of experience with circles.  I have been a passionate advocate of circles since the Peace March in 1986, and featured them in my book.  I have been part of hundreds of circles.  AND at the last NCDD conference (2004) we were organized into circles of 6-8 people we didn't know, to which we returned a couple of times each day for conversations about how it was going -- and I really didn't like it.  I felt forced to participate in something I had not agreed to do.  I was incredibly frustrated that my valuable networking time was being spent on something I didn't need or want.

Not everyone will respond the way I did, if we create such circles at ES3.  But I strongly suspect some of them will.  I'd like us to help people find the kind of support and deepening they need and want -- including home-base circle cells (as Tree and Michael suggest) and Bohm dialogue circles (as Sheri dreams of) -- and then figure out a way to make this diversity of people's natural needs and desires (and the diverse forms that serve them) fit into a coherent event.