nametags?

[Julie Stuart]

Phil,

I'm curious as to how you persuade the people you're working with that name
tags aren't a good idea.  We try this every time we facilitate an event,
usually either open space or future search so people have plenty of
opportunity to get to know each other if they don't already.  We explain why
we don't think participants need badges with their name and job title and
organisation and possibly qualifications written in very small font so that
everyone spends most of the first day (or first session at least) staring at
each others' chests in an unnerving manner.  We emphasise that if they MUST
have name tags, they don't need all that detail and that it's the first name
that's important, and that it really should be readable from a short
distance away.  We refer back to our experience, to the principles of
participation, explaining all of our careful reasoning behind our request.
And they look back at us and agree, and yet, invariably the day arrives, and
some poor person in admin has spent lots of time making the badges and now
they're there it would be a shame not to use them - on some occasions they
just give them out behind our back.

I guess this might just be a matter of taking a combination of the
approaches that I use with my 2-year old son.  I started by being very
reasoned and explaining things (after all, he's an intelligent child and I
try to be as liberal as I can), but the only thing that stopped his
fascination with nettles was grabbing one and hurting his hand - now he
knows that they really are prickly.  Perhaps you have to put your foot down
very occasionally for the benefit of everyone - after all you know best(?!)
Or you can demonstrate the advantages of a particular way and let them learn
themselves that it's better without badges.  Or perhaps you have to just
accept that it's not life-threatening to the process and let them get on
with it.  After all, in my experiecne most name tags fall off and get lost
very early on in the process anyway.

As for recording names in groups, we've done open spaces with between 50 and
100 participants, and they never seem to have a problem getting their names
onto the recording sheet.  In fact there always seems to be someone in the
group who takes charge and asks who's there and makes sure that it's
recorded.  But then no matter what we do we assume that people will
self-manage in all of their group work, and they usually seem to be able to
rise to the challenge.  Once they get into the swing of things they'll
realise that it's up to them to get things (like attendance at groups)
recorded, and that if they think they've been left out they can shout out
again until it's all on the sheet.  Unless of course, they want to take
responsibility for sitting in a group but not for having anyone else know
they were there - in that case there's not much you can do about it anyway
as the facilitator.

Julie

>From: Phil Culhane <pculhane at magma.ca>
>Reply-To: pculhane at magma.ca
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: [OSLIST] nametags?
>Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 19:55:50 -0400
>
>Name tags? In Open Space?
>
>Sorry...I just took a close look at the photos, and I see name tags?
>
>In my work, I often have people from wildly differing places on the org
>chart sitting in the same circle...with no nametags, everyone is an equal -
>a carbon-based life form, sharing a common passion. I have never used
>nametags just to keep that equality. A data entry clerk has as much
>validity
>as an ADM (and I had the two sitting side by side recently), but knowing
>who's who could distract? Although the control freaks want to go around the
>circle with introductions at the beginning of day 1, I've found the
>anonymity freeing.
>
>Does everyone else use nametags? Is there a time when nametags are useful?
>Am I missing out on value by not using them?
>
>By the way, I've never done an OS with >50 people, but have come up with a
>cute possible idea for larger OS's, as I'm pondering a possible 200+ this
>fall. When people go to breakout groups, I like to have them sign up for
>the
>group, so that, in the report, there's a list of who was there (who shared
>the passion). I was wondering whether it might be a neat idea to give
>everyone a set of stickers with at least their names written on them, and
>when they went to each breakout group (of course, many extras for the
>butterflies), they could just stick their nametag onto an attendance list,
>simplifying those logistics.
>
>I know less is more, but was curious - what do you do at large OS
>gatherings
>where it matters to record who was at which sessions, and many of the
>participants don't know each other?
>
>Thanks for any insights you care to offer.
>
>Phil
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
>EVERETT813 at aol.com
>Sent: August 4, 2004 11:43 PM
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: Re: OS Facilitator's uniform?
>
>
>Well, now, if we are talking about hats, I happen to like Harrison's hat a
>lot.  It has great style and panache' (dash, verve).  However, the Pacific
>NW, where it rains a whole lot, (75 inches, 190 cm, per year, with most of
>that concentrated between mid-Sept and mid-May where I live), has it's own
>hat.  It is the Outdoor Research Seattle Sombrero, made of Gortex which
>does
>a great job of keeping the wet off of bald heads like mine.  You can see
>the
>black hat in the pictures on Pg. 1, P1050040 is best, the bearded coot
>sitting next to two lovely ladies, one my wife, Joelle; and on Pg. 2,
>P1060026
>where, if you look carefully, you'll see that the back extends well over
>the
>shoulder so the rain
>doesn't go down the back of my neck.  At least not very easily.  I am
>entranced by the computer
>screen, looking at the disaster of my portfolio, I think.  Oh, well.  btw,
>three years ago or so we had
>92 consecutive days of measureable rain and the rest of the time we had
>clouds.  Never saw the sun
>for three months.  So, the Seattle Sombrero is handy if you want to keep a
>dry head and still go for a walk (in Goretex pants and jacket, too, with
>Maine half boots for dry feet).
>
>http://tinyurl.com/4r4dx
>
>paul everett  * *
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