The role of the Group Animator

[Karen du Four des Champs]

This listserv is amazing!  From someone living and working in the Arctic, to
our friends "down under!"  Just awesome!  Thank you, Mike, for sending the
essay (even though I thought one couldn't send an attachment to a
listserv -- mine opened perfectly and I'm finding the content fascinating!)
And thank you Birgitt on writing/sharing on the connection to OS and
Reiki -- powerful lessons for doing OS AND self-care/healing.

Karen du Four des Champs
from a little island in the Pacific NW of North America....

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Bell <mikebell at INTERNORTH.COM>
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Date: Friday, March 03, 2000 7:44 AM
Subject: The role of the Group Animator


Friends:

I've been following the conversation about how we prepare for open space and
particularly noted Birgitt William's  response and its reference to Reiki.
This reminded me of an unpublished essay I wrote some months ago on the
Future Search methodology for their Newsletter, SearchNews. (It was too long
for publication--3300 words).  The essay also has a reference to Open Space.
( I think the two approaches have much in common). In my opinion, our
ability to understand Open Space and Future Search is based very much on how
we see organizations (and communities). The transition from seeing
organizations as machines to seeing them as life-forms has a whole lot of
implications, most of which we are barely beginning to understand. I think
it has significant implications for us as group animators and how we work
with organizations.  I think we have to begin rethinking our role--which is
the point of the essay.

Since I'm a newcomer and have never posted anything to this list before, I'm
not sure if it is appropriate for me to post something this lengthy .  (Nor
am I sure that it technically feasible)  So I'll try and post it as a file
which will make it easier to ZAP for those who don't want to wade through
it. To provide a bit of context to the essay, I live in the Arctic and for
the past 20 years have worked mostly with Inuit folks in the Eastern
Arctic--now called Nunavut--and with Dene (Indian) and Metis folks in the
Western Arctic--the Northwest Territories.

Mike