Process question

[Birgitt Bolton]

Don,

Here are how my thoughts address the question of metaphor at the time of
prioritization.

I attend a yoga class. After all the moving and stretching and such, and
then getting myself untangled again (not gracefully I might add), we have
the chance to lie and move into a deep meditation. I have experiences that
are uniquely mine and enrich who I am and my own transformation and the way
I can go forward into the world. The teacher brings us back to awareness of
the present moment. And then she always does something that upsets me
greatly. She uses and elaborates on a metaphor that she has predetermined as
appropriate for us at that moment. I am aware that the metaphors that she
uses meet her need of the moment, her journey. They have totally different
meanings for me. And I don't like them being intruded on my learning and
journey at that moment, which was much richer before she intruded with her
stuff.

I wish she would just keep it simple and stay with the minimum necessary to
get the task done. I wondered how I would feel after being in an Open Space
in which my whole self was present and in which I had powerful experiences
that were uniquely mine, if a metaphor was presented by the facilitator to
take me through to next steps. And I realized that I would not like it. I
would want whatever happened to honour my right to my journey and my space.

Anyhow, that is me. Metaphors are powerful, more powerful in deeply
influencing another than we know. And each metaphor means something
different to each of us. Even something as innocent as a house. This
metaphor may be a good one for you. It may not be a good metaphor for
someone who has serious negative issues about a house of just that  shape.
You just never know what memories the metaphor triggers and how much can be
unleashed.

I personally love metaphors and constantly think in metaphors. When I am a
participant in Open Space, I use them in discussions and like others using
them. This is a natural flow. Is it different when the holder of space uses
them---I think yes. It is not part of the natural flow.

Anyhow, thus was my thinking on this one.

Birgitt

-----Original Message-----
From:   OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of owen
Sent:   Thursday, January 21, 1999 9:20 AM
To:     OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject:        Re: Process question

>But has anyone ever used a metaphor as a pathway to prioritizing. What
images
>did you use besides a house or building of some kind?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Don Ferretti
>
>______________________________ Reply Separator
What you are suggesting is interesting, but personally, I have never had
any problem getting people to respond to a very simple question -- what are
the most important issues for you?  Most often I use a prioritization
proceedure borrowed from Andre Delbec of Nominal Group Porcess fame. Each
person is asked to identify the 10 most important issues for them, rank
them, and assign a value of 10 to their most important (9,8,7,6,....) The
ballots are collected, the scores are added, and you come out with a set of
weighted scores that neatly separates out the hot from the not so hot. The
same thing can be done with an electronic version of the ballot which is
available from TASC (See my User's Guide Chapter 10 for details).

Leaving the mechanics aside, my thought would always be to go for the
simplest way of doing things that works. The use of metaphor is intriguing,
but is it essential? Over the years I have always tried to think of one
more thing NOT to do. If I don't do it, and everything works out just fine
-- so much the better.

At a slightly deeper level, I am firmly convinced that the reason Open
Space works is that it is quite simply the process of self-organization in
operation. Organizing  a self-organizing process, no matter how minimal the
intervention, turns out to un-necessary at the least, and usually
counter-productive. Anyhow, I am not suggesting that your notion of
metaphor is without utility -- I just wonder is this trip necessary.

Harrison

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