The State of Openness

How can we cultivate a welcoming posture that allows everyone to contribute fully? Openness is not a method but an inner state that transforms our facilitation practices.

The facilitation posture: creating the space of possibilities

In any activity, and I will focus here on cultural mediation, when we occupy a facilitation position, our role consists of offering others a space where they can journey, contribute, enrich themselves and enrich the project, whether professional, artistic or personal.

To generate these benefits, the coordination position must, in my view, be considered in a state of openness. This is a form of trust towards others, an inner grounding sufficiently solid not to worry if participants take us towards horizons different from those we had imagined. If the group disrupts our initial framework and the organization of the shared moment unfolds differently than planned, it’s because there are good reasons, emerging in the moment, to which we have been able to give space. Our role then consists of maintaining a framework beneficial to the collective, allowing everyone to make their contribution. This is the whole principle of democracy, which requires much more work on oneself than autocracy (the belief that we are more right than others, and that we abuse power).

Openness as a democratic lever

This posture demands openness from us on all levels: the subjects addressed, the modes of organization, everything. Our capacity for openness directly determines the intensity of the democratic experience. A person who is not very open, rigid in their methods or in the subjects to be addressed, will limit through their facilitation the group’s contributions. Contributions will certainly emerge, but they will remain constrained by this lack of openness, thus creating a relatively weak degree of democracy. Conversely, the deeper the democratic experience, the more it transforms its context and moves the community towards new and more adapted directions, enriched by all the contributions made possible.

This is not just about words, but concrete attitudes: looks, ways of organizing space, ways of welcoming, a relaxed and open inner state, gestures that give everyone their place. These are the manifestations of an authentic state of openness.

Developing one’s capacity for openness

The question then becomes: how to develop this capacity for openness when occupying the role of facilitation, animation, as a mediator, as a boss, as a teacher or as an artist? Several paths are available to us. This is more of a capacity than a skill, because the same person can, depending on their state at the moment, manifest great openness one day and struggle to achieve it the next.

First path: Methodological preparation
The first point consists of calming our methodological concerns. We must have explored from all angles the planned course of the day or work session, have discussed it with other participants, have confronted it with others’ perspectives. For this, we must integrate into our work methods official, legitimate and paid preparation times for all stakeholders. Preparing in several stages constitutes the guarantee of a capacity for openness absolutely indispensable to the success of the shared moment.

To prepare is to plow the ground of our projections about the organization of the moment to come. It’s thinking, rethinking, modifying. Yes, it takes time, but this self-preparation aims less at producing the perfect document or schedule than at going through this journey several times to anchor ourselves, to create an intimacy with the situation we are going to facilitate. Thanks to this intimacy, fruit of repetitions that weave in us the necessary neural connections, we will be fully present to our proposal. We won’t even need to think about it consciously anymore: it will be integrated within us.

This intimacy gives us the capacity for openness and flexibility. Our meticulous and repeatedly revisited preparations paradoxically bring us the flexibility necessary for the lived moment. We know that we will be able to “land on our feet” even if things happen differently than planned, because we carry within us all the issues, objectives, purposes and expectations of this day, with the capacity to evolve them if necessary. This is again the essence of democracy: being able to evolve the system itself to always stay as close as possible to the objectives for the common good.

Second path: Physical preparation
This path may seem trivial, but it is essential. A few physical exercises, stretches, jumping in place, and other movements are enough to create a sensation of mobility in the body, regardless of our strength or flexibility. It’s simply about putting one’s body in motion, even for just two or three minutes. This physical mobility releases a capacity for mental movement that is quite beneficial.

This mobile energy, acquired through our prior physical preparation, naturally radiates into the group we are facilitating. It imprints a dynamic that participants gradually embrace, as if we were setting the tone through our mere physical and energetic presence set in motion.

Shared energy without imposing it

Often, in collective moments, we observe a certain inertia at the start. After about fifteen minutes, energy circulates better and people enter a more fluid state of cooperation. Prior physical preparation allows the group to dive more quickly into this collaborative state. We propose a level of “vibrational frequency,” and others can synchronize to this energy of movement, without needing to do these exercises themselves. They benefit from our physical preparation, which allows them to enter personal and collective energy more quickly.

Some collective intelligence approaches invite participants to move in space. While the intention is commendable, this approach presents risks: it can be perceived as infantilizing or put those who are less comfortable with their bodies in difficulty. Experienced as an obligation, it can produce the opposite effect: people move physically while resisting internally to protect their integrity.

On the other hand, when we ourselves embody this energy without imposing anything, we emanate a quality of presence to which everyone can freely synchronize, in their own way. We don’t impose a method; we propose an encounter based on our own state of openness, which is both mental and physical. We become an open door, inviting people to enter this universe while fully respecting their dignity and their own rhythm.