Open Space facilitators

[Scott Stillinger]

Joe and Ralph,

In a message dated 2/25/99 12:07:56 PM, ralphsc at earthlink.net writes:

Joe,

Nope, don't agree.

Being an OS facilitator is not analogous to being a therapist.

And no one said anything that sounded like a recommendation to engage in
"intuitive and idiosyncratic judgement on the spur of the moment."

Ralph

 >>

For me the different perspectives bring up some interesting stuff.

Mayby an OS on that aspect of OS or maybe it's been beaten to death, I'm new
to the group.

As an executive coach, certified last year through the Professional School of
Psychology in Sacramento, our group (coaches) and others nationally are trying
to come to terms with similar issues.

Many in our group had similar feeling to yours, Joe. My colleagues in training
over a 9 month period were about 50% current or ex-therapists, clinical
psychologists and organizational psychologists. And the other 50% were
internal and external O/D consultants. And me, I'm the lone exectuive search
consultant and coach.

Some very strong feelings about what coaches should or shouldn't do with their
colleagues (clients). Dual roles was a very hot issue, etc.

I don't know that much about OS yet, but it sounds very appreciative in
approach and perspective. One of the things about Reflective/Appreciative
Coaching is that it assumes the roles can be reversed between colleagues
(equals). No expert. No fix.

Harrison was saying:

"I am finding that less is definitely more, and thinking of one
more thing not to do, to be a very useful discipline. At a practical level, I
continue to find that there is nothing that I might do that the group cannot
do
as well or better for itself -- so long as I or somebody holds the space."

I agree with Ralph about it not being the same thing as a therapist.

In coaching we constantly talk about the 3 C's: Counseling, Consulting, and
Coaching. 3 circles that all overlap slightly and consequently have a central
convergence at some point. There are many similarities and many differences in
the practices of the three. It seems most often that the therapist model is a
medical model which is defecit based. There is something wrong, and I'll help
fix it. The expert model.

Consulting is most often also an expert model whether it's small boutiques or
Big 5 management consulting firms. They give expert advise.

What I'm hearing is that the beauty of OS is that we're appreciating the
ability of the system to self-organize. My equivalent in coaching (reflective
and appreciative) is the assumption that the inherent wisdom/resource/solution
of the individual and the organization is already present.

I've heard some people say yes and some people say no to the dual roles. Joe,
I'm just saying that I think I'm hearing that OS is about trusting the process
which constantly acknowledges the inherent wisdom of the group and the
individuals. And that's very different from the whole culture of therapists
and clinicians.

All the best,
Scott