AW: a question for advice -- how it went

Mon Jan 26 07:43:59 PST 2004

Dear Doris

Thank you for your detailed story. Wonderful. I see much of myself in you.
Compliments on how you handled the silences... bearing the unbearable...
(and you were surprised, of course...)

With love - Catherine

Catherine Pfaehler
Kellersriedweg 8
CH - 2503 Biel
T/F/B ++41 - (0)32 - 365 68 41

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]Im Auftrag von Doris
Gottlieb
Gesendet: Sonntag, 25. Januar 2004 22:54
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: Re: a question for advice -- how it went

Last Friday and Saturday I facilitated the OST event that I spoke about when
asking advice about how to deal with being being a facilitator with a group
that I was also a member of.  It was a great experience and I'm exhausted
but I wanted to try to write down some of things that happened  and share it
with the list since I've been here in the shadows for so long and have
gotten so much valuable advice and inspiration.  I sometimes find it hard to
jump in with my story, but I'm going to try.

First of all the event last weekend is part of a number of OST's that I've
been doing this year as a way to see for myself if I like facilitating Open
Space events, if I can do it, and if I can find my way professionally to
integrate this practice in with my other professional passions.  So since
about April 2003 I just said to myself I would talk about Open Space
Technology meetings to everyone I could in a professional context and when I
felt it was appropriate suggest it to all prospective clients.  I also
decided not to worry if the situation would be 'ideal' but instead to just
feel in myself it Iit was ethically correct for me to try. This freed up a
lot of space for me personally to suggest Open Space as a method and since
then I've facilitated about 7 OST events and used them as a sort of "action
learning" experience for myself.

Given this it was funny that the event that I facilitated this weekend was
not suggested by me, but instead by a colleague.  I was part of a group of
ex-participants in a two year training program for trainers and
organizational consultants.  Together with the Director of the institute
several of us were looking for ways of making more contact with other
ex-participants and sharing ideas and exploring ways of networking together.
So there we were trying to think for the group:  "should we send a
questionnaire to ex-trainees asking them what they would want from a
meeting?" "How can we organize something to fit everyone's needs?" And very
important for the Director of the Institute "How can we make sure this isn't
going to just be a re-hash of the past or an exercise in re-living the
experience but instead lead to something new for people?" We had many
problems defining this and I was also completely involved. Another
ex-participant from the outside read a draft of the questionnaire we had
designed and said he wouldn't come to such and event...but what if we used
Open Space.  It was as if a lightbulb went on over my head...and it was a
chance for me and my colleague to talk about Open Space and see if indeed
the other members of the organizing committee wanted to "sponsor" an OST
event - which of course we did.

I was very honored that the group entrusted me to be the facilitator of this
event and excited about presenting this method in the context of the
training program.  OST was a new method for most of the members of the group
so it was an adventure to use it in this context.
The preparation took about 7 months, partly because we were located in two
different countries and didn't have time to meet together. Partly because it
took some time for the idea to "ripen" and partly because it was difficult
to find a good site for the event in our budget in the Netherlands...but we
did it and we got a very good response to our invitation to look forward and
backward and explore our community of Practice...

I learned a lot in these days...I don't know how to explain it all but let
me write a few things that happened and what I learned...
- As I said in my question for advice, I had wrestled a long time with
whether and how to participate in the event. In the end I decided to remain
wholely the facilitator and not take part in sub-sessions.  I learned that
this invisble role of "holding" the space is very important. That somehow by
being there to clean up the buffet table to have small talks with other
participants, to get the lights turned back on in the plenary room when they
went out by mistake at 6:00 was very important.  I also felt an inivisble
function I was fulfilling - holding the space in my mind and my body.
- Silence - I read with much interest about silence this weekend and silence
was one of my big learnings this weekend.  At IAS (the program) silence
played a big role, particularly because of the methods used in the program
people wait to look within themselves before they speak, and when people
speak it is with a great deal of awareness and thought about what they want
to say.  This meant that we had many silences (some of 5 minutes or more) in
the plenary sessions.  Although in my role as ex-trainee I know this from
the group and as a matter of fact those silent moments of inner
concentration were some of the best moments of the program for me, I
couldn't forecast the impact it had on me as a facilitator. My internal
dialogue at the first evening news went like this:..."no one is saying
anything...okay I'm calm....no I'm not...don't they like me? The method? Is
it working?....stop someone talk....intervention."  It was a great stuggle
within myself to keep faith in myself, the method the group.  I was luckily
able to speak about it with the organizing committee in the evening and the
next day I made the following decision: 1. We have 1 hour for the morning
news and I'm not stopping until the hour is over (at least) NO MATTER
WHAT...2. every time it gets unbearable I'm going to wait for 30 seconds
(ie: an eternity) and then wait another 15 seconds before I say anything."
every time this happened someone said something meaningful before I was
unable to bear it, our morning news and our closing plenary were very silent
but also a great deal was said that was meaningful for the group.
- The news wall.  Our main objective in this was to give people a chance to
meet individually and we had no intention of follow-up on any actions so I
didn't know whether or not to have a news wall.  I decided to have a news
wall and give the group the option  of posting reports and several did come
in.  Not too many people seemed to look at the reports though.  In our
closing plenary I asked the group how they had experienced the New wall and
was told that somehow even though people may not have looked at the news
they still found it important to have it there. It served as a sort of
marker of what was happening around them...it was a symbol of the
sub-sessions as well as a pragmatic indicator of what happened.
- Me and my anxiety.  I am in my heart an insecure and anxious person.
These are painful troublesome traits that can twist me up into knots and
take the joy out of my life, but also they are part of me that I have to
learn to manage. It's also funny because when I look at my work, I keep
gravitating to methods and philosophies that people find are anxiety
producing because you let go of control and go with what is happening vs.
your own plan.  So somehow this inner paradox is is there for me.  I
realized that for me working with Open Space means that I have to have help
managing these anxieties. Some of the ways I did this were:  being very
controlling about the physical space and how it looked and having someone
(in this case co-organizers) who know I need to talk with them and just spew
my fears at them...just so they can listen and I can then let go of
them...For me it would be reason in itself to have a second facilitator (in
an invisible role) at an event.  That way I can share my feelings with
someone and be freed up to let them go when with the group.

In the end it was a great 24 hours and we were surprised when people took
responsibility to further this initiative and we ended up with several
statements of intention for follow-up on the event.

I did also ask the other trainers as Kerry suggested, to comment on their
experience of the method.  Some of the answers I got were:
- People were very happy with the sense of freedom that they experienced in
the method it freed them up to be here in the present and explore new optons
together (not just reminisce about the past).
- There was a lot of interest in the method as a whole (I may have just
started my own competition :) )
- There was a comment that the method showed us about the culture of the
organization we were part of. People fought throughout with the difference
between this method and the way we worked in the training group both with
the differences and similarities. (one of the big differences being the way
we worked with time ).  It was for many people exciting to see these
differences and similarities arise so clearly during the days and to
experiment with them.

In all it was a very rich experience for me on my continuing journey to
integrate Open Space into my working life.

Doris Gottlieb

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]Namens kerry napuk
Verzonden: dinsdag 20 januari 2004 12:30
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: a question for advice

Dear Doris Gottlieb

An interesting question.

I agree you were right to establish clear ground rules about your
participation as the facilitator.

One suggestion might be to hold a de-briefing after the event for
experienced facilitators to discuss their experience and exchange
comments on approach and style.  In this way, you can formally learn
from each other and improve everyone's art of facilitation.

You also could extend the post event discussion to include sponsors
and their experience with the process, especially how they will take
the energy forward and implement outcomes!

Good luck on the event.  Let us know how it goes!

Kind regards

Kerry Napuk
Open Futures
Edinburgh
--

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