Comparing methodologies

[Lisa]

Rich discussion, this.

Joelle, your story reminds me of several times where I have listened to
and with participants who are upset about how the Open Space is going
(on the evening of Day 1) and on Day 2 they come out with their own
solution thinking.

On one occasion I chose to say something in the morning as I open the
Day 2 news.  Not to name the negative but to honor the passion.  On
another occasion I chose not to.  Both times (and indeed many times
where there is a 2-day situation) Day 2 they broke through to
solution/collaboration thinking.

Was it me?  Was it my doing something?  Was it my *not* doing something?
Is it just what happens normally in the great percolation of thoughts
before, during and after a good night's sleep?  (and why we as
facilitators often push to have an overnight in a
retreat/meeting/conferencing situation?)

I don't know. And that me-not-me-stuff doesn't bother me - it all turns
out great and I learn to do less all the time.

Another thing you said, Artur and Martin:

(Martin)
>One of the explicit principles of RTSC, "Reality is a key driver", is
>to redesign this sequence of events at any given moment if what is
>happening in the room suggests that such a redesign is called for.

(Artur)
>The design team is monitoring, controlling and directing the event,
isn't it? They act as if the participants were not competent and grown
ups...<

I have had several occasions where I felt things were happening during
the OS which I thought were of great impact and I didn't know whether or
not I should intervene (such as "Space Invader" situations - or are they
just good rich things that happen in an OS? - one in which a large
number of participants were upset and not in agreement before
convergence and another time when the top client got scared at all the
seeming chaos and wanted to shut the whole thing down immediately).
Each time I  r-e-a-l-l-y could not just breathe and say it would be okay
and practice conscious non-intervention - it was really worrying me (or
I wasn't breathing enough, or it was a tangible threat, or something,
because I felt as if the space and greater good of the participants was
'in danger').

On each occasion I sat down in the middle of the room during the
OS-in-progress with 'the planning team' and shared my concerns -
participants wandering by sat down too and it was all a transparent
moment of what should we do or should we do anything.  A planning team
of whomever wanted to be the planning team.

In the case of the upset participants we co-re-designed the next day,
including a co-designed consensus process to begin that day; in the case
of the upset client we just got more people holding space for the good
and somehow that good energy (or nothing we did at all maybe?) carried
it through and the client didn't stop the process.

So I guess what I'm saying is it all depends who is and how flexibly and
when you want to define what the 'design team' is...and that keeping a
healthy dose of concern plus flexibility and sharing-with-more-people
maybe is the thing that does it - whether you are in Open Space or any
other kind of facilitation...

My two (and rather rambling?) cents...

Lisa

________________________________

L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
+01 510 548-8449
lisaheft at pacbell.net

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