Matt's Muzings
Organizing to Make Space for People
My wife is brilliant !
I know that sounds biased and I admit that I am. But there is reason beyond my love for her so let me explain.
This week she is organizing Thanksgiving dinner on the campus. It will be for over 600 people. This includes 70 turkeys done in underground ovens. No small feat. Yet she has done it in such a way so that at least 10 different school leaders have said they appreciated what she has done.
What has she done for this and so many other large events? In a one word description, she has created 'space' for people. We have talked at length about this as I have wrestled to understand her better.
As I analyze it and watch her, I define it this way. She looks at the gifting and desires of people and then finds a way to organize them so as to give as much space for their expressions as they want or need. She organizes to make space for people.
As I ponder this I realize that this is not typical. Most people, who are gifted organizers, tend to do it in such a way as to remove as much space as possible to keep things under control.
How does my wife do it? As I see it:
She understands the gift and abilities of people.
She calls them together and explains what she wants to do and then listens to them.
She doesn't have to be in control. It doesn't have to go exactly as she wants it to.
She wrestles with the practical details of food, tables, chairs and ties it into a beautiful package so that people feel valuable.
In a book called, "Shantung Compound, The story of Men and Women under pressure", the author writes about a group of prisoners in a World War II camp. He writes about space and says,
"The importance of space to the well-being, nay the existence, of a person came as a surprise to me. I am sure it was partly because I had never lacked space before. I used to think about this situation a lot, especially after seeing mature people battling to maintain their small plots, or even, as in the case of the women's dorm, sneaking precious inches from their neighbors at night. Somehow each self needs a 'place' in order to be a self, in order to feel on a deep level that it really exists. We are, apparently, rootless beings at bottom. Unless we can establish roots somewhere in a place where we are at home, which we possess to ourselves and where our things are, we feel that we float, that we are barely there at all. For to exist with no place is to fail to exist altogether."
Because my interest is in leadership and organizations, I want to know how does this apply? Here are my thoughts.
In the traditional command and control organization, office 'space' represented power. The more power you had the more 'space' you were given. In some of the new organizations, you are not assigned a cubicle, but it is open 'space', a large room with desks, the same 'space' for everyone, even those in power.
Have you ever been in a conversation with a leader who fills each moment with their words? You wait and wait for space to talk and they never give it to you. I have and I come away thinking I don't matter. There is no room for me. I understand Jesus better as there was no room for him in the Inn .
In conversation, people get nervous when there is empty space. I wonder why? They always try and fill it quickly rather than letting the space be there and be a part of the conversation.
In order for learning to take place in an organization or team there must be space given for dialogue. Without space, learning is diminished and relationships are hindered. Dialogue is vital to learning and dialogue requires space.
A lack of space in an organization is felt as oppressiveness.
What is required is that there be just enough structure that provides safe conditions in which people can change, but not so much that space, and therefore dialogue and learning, is shut down.
How can I organize around giving space rather than trying to take it away?
What about God creating space for us? A few examples come to mind:
He made a vast universe and put us on earth and told us it was our space and to use it wisely.
He gave us the Sabbath. A day of space or rest.
He gave Israel (a nation) a space called the promised land.
He established a year of jubilee, a year to restore space for the next generation.
He said the fields should not be planted on certain years - he even gave the earth space.
Remember:
If you don't have space you can't create.
If you don't have space you can't grow.
If you don't have space you can't even move.
Making room or space is like having room in your luggage when you travel. You have space to put treasures in when you go home.
It allows there to be room for the unexpected or interruptions.
Creating space is validating our capacity to choose. We have a choice when we have space.
You make space for whatever you value.
What about the Pharisees not having any space for Jesus?
Every law was so carefully defined that all space was removed from it. 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' Became in the Mishnah 24 chapters. How then did the scribes proceed? The commandment says that there must be no work on the Sabbath. The scribe immediately asks: 'What is work?' Work is then defined under thirty nine different heads which are called 'fathers of work'. One of the things which are forbidden is the carrying of a burden. Immediately the scribe asks: 'What is a burden?' So in the Mishnah there is definition after definition of what constitutes a burden - mild enough for a gulp, honey enough to put on a sore, oil enough to anoint the smallest member (which is further defined as the little toe of a child one day old) water enough to rub off an eye-plaster, leather enough to make an amulet, ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet, coarse sand enough to cover a plasterer's trowel, reed enough to make a pen, a pebble big enough to throw at a bird, anything which weighs as much as two dried figs. On ad on go the regulations. This removal of all space is why Jesus said to them, "I know that you are Abraham's offspring; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place (there is no space) in you."
A final thought, as we enter the celebration of Jesus birthday. Make space for him in your life and heart.