A duty to take part?
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
Wed Nov 5 12:07:08 PST 2003
Recently I facilitate an OST meeting where the sponsor, a government
official, told me 15 minutes before hand that due to the fact that there
was no money or political will to support the results of the OST meeting
"this isn't a really good time to do this."
The sponsor had indicated to people in the invitation that results could
be supported. Fifteen minutes beforehand, he told me that this was no
longer the case. He assumed that the backroom machinations that
rendered this decision were not obvious to the participants (who were
from communities around the province of British Columbia), but I'm
always one to believe that secrets can never be kept.
So I told him he had to announce this at the beginning of the meeting
because it was patently unfair to the participants to string them along.
He did a bad job of it and revealed very little of what he knew, with
the result that when I got up to open space, people stopped me and
hinted that they knew more than was being said.
One woman in particular suggested we stop until everyone in the room had
the same information. She wanted the participants to form a caucus to
discuss the sponsor's inability to support their work.
As a facilitator, I felt strongly that they were right, and that a
morning spent in conversation amongst themselves was fine if they wanted
that. So I asked the group if that was what they wanted to do. There
was vigorous nodding. So I said that we would be outside if they
decided that they wanted us back and we would wait for them to work
through what they needed to discuss.
My partner and I and the sponsor left the room. Three hours later, we
ate lunch with the group and then opened space on the issue. There were
nine groups formed by the 60 participants, indicating the complete lack
of passion for working on an issue that they KNEW would go nowhere.
Actually when I think about it now, that's rather a lot of passion for
an issue that was going nowhere. Anyway...
The end result was some good conversation on some things that will be
useful if the sponsor ever gets their resources lined up properly to
support it. So basically we created a plan and froze it in time.
I was appalled with the sponsor, and later "fired my client" as a result
of the way they handled the situation. They later came in for some very
serious bashing from the participants who were at the meeting.
I felt at the time no remorse in letting the meeting go "sideways" and
evolve into a caucus with the facilitators and the sponsor outside the
room. In fact while we waited, we had three hours to discuss why this
situation was taking place. To his credit, the sponsor was
philosophical about the situation, and it was really his bosses who had
sabotaged to conditions for the meeting. Nevertheless, I have since
refused to work for that particular office, and I think probably the
feeling is mutual.
I believe strongly in the value of honesty in facilitation. Group work
can be very manipulative if there are not honest premises behind the
process. In this case, I knew more than I should have, and it was
critical information for the group to have as well. I gave the sponsor
a chance to divulge it, and when he didn't, I used my role of "holding
space" to allow the participants to take over the process and exchange
what they knew with each other. Not surprisingly, from a group of 60
community people, together they had pretty much the whole picture. When
we returned and the sponsor was confronted with the evidence, he had no
choice to ask for forgiveness. We were able to proceed, gingerly, but
at least the air was clear.
There are many ways we can do this Doug. It doesn't have to be really
explicit either. Maybe the best thing we can do is simply allow the
group to find out that it already has all the answers. With the
knowledge that they actually have the power and information, it's
unlikely that the sponsor will try and fool them again.
Chris
---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Douglas
> D. Germann, Sr.
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 9:50 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: A duty to take part?
>
> Hi--
>
> In _The Paulo Freire Reader_ is a challenging new insight for me into
what
> we are about:
>
> This is the new point for me, the facilitator must not withhold what
> knowledge he or she has: has in fact a duty to share, so that the
inquiry
> might be carried forward. The facilitator is learner, too. A
co-learner, a
> co-facilitator.
>
> Freire (p 221): "Educators cannot refrain from putting forward ideas,
nor
> can they refrain either from engaging in discussion with their
students on
> the ideas they have put forward. Basically, this has to do with the
near
> mystery of the praxis of educators who live out their democratic
insights:
> they must affirm themselves without thereby disaffirming their
students."
>
> Democratic in this excerpt has for me the same meaning as opening
space:
> Whoever comes, Whatever happens, and the unvoiced Whoever speaks has
an
> equal claim to being heard.
>
> So what does this say about our trying to stay neutral, to staying out
of
> the discussions, to how we understand what it means to "hold space?"
>
> It means I can take part, I might in fact have a duty to take part,
but I
> have to be careful that it does not result in people taking me to be
the
> authority. So my work needs to be questioning, questioning myself as
much
> as concepts, stating through my questioning that I do not have
answers,
> but
> am a seeker with them. There needs to be a way to proceed without
shutting
> down the procession! So go slow, interject only little.
>
> Ask questions, in an attitude of exploration. Do not direct, but do
say
> what I have seen of the terrain.
>
> What do you think?
>
> :-Doug. Germann
>
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