"learning" OS and more; was use of OS in a training for trainers

[Raffi Aftandelian]

Hi Julie!
Thanks for your response! I didn't quite get what you meant here:

"what I really wanted to
say was that learning or remembering open space doesn't seem to me to be
directly related to what training a facilitator has or has not received, and
that focusing on the training aspect might not be the most helpful thing to
do.  I think that it is more closely linked to your experience and approach,
and to whether you as a facilitator can actually believe what you say to
participants - that they really can self manage and come up with something
great on their own."

There was an important thought or several thoughts in this paragraph; but I am not exactly sure what you meant. 

You say you went to a Quaker school, but you don't say you are a Quaker. I came to Quakerism in Russia, but for a variety of reasons do not practice it (in the sense of going to Meeting for Worship). One of the things I have wondered about is why Quakers (maybe the Quakers on this list will reply!) don't use OS regularly in the life of the Meeting, as another tool for conducting Meeting for Worship for Business. While I think discerning the spirit of the group and using consensus is very powerful, conscious use of OS is also about Spirit. I sometimes find meeting for worship for business, well, boring frankly. Maybe that's a reflection of much innerwork that I need to do, to truly understand how passion reflects itself in this type of meeting. 


Raffi Aftandelian


Date:    Mon, 5 Jul 2004 08:46:15 +0000
From:    Julie Stuart <juliesstuart at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: use of OS in a training for trainers

Raffi,

I think that it's wonderful that you felt able to conduct part of a training
session in open space despite some misgivings.  I just wanted to reply to
the last part of your mail, about "learning" to facilitate open space.

>From my experience in facilitating various types of off-the-shelf
participative processes (as well as hybrids that we develop to suit a
particular purpose), open space is not necessarily something that you need
to be formally trained to use.  I have several colleagues who have been to
learning workshops on open space, and yet of everyone in the organisation it
is me who invariably takes the baton and runs with it when an opportunity
arises to open space with a client.  I think that this is because open space
is something that resonates with me personally and I especially enjoy the
challenge to my normal ways of control that it offers me.  On the other
hand, my colleagues find it very difficult to let go and trust in the
process and the people to self-manage, and they know themselves that while
they get it in theory they just don't quite believe in it.  I have never had
any formal training in open space - I just go with what I've learnt from the
books, from OSonOs in Swenmark last year, and from the wisdom I've gathered
from lurking on this list for the past couple of years.  I have had lots of
training in general facilitation skills and in other processes so perhaps
this gave me the confidence to jump into open space more quickly than
otherwise.

So, in case I've missed my point and rambled off, what I really wanted to
say was that learning or remembering open space doesn't seem to me to be
directly related to what training a facilitator has or has not received, and
that focusing on the training aspect might not be the most helpful thing to
do.  I think that it is more closely linked to your experience and approach,
and to whether you as a facilitator can actually believe what you say to
participants - that they really can self manage and come up with something
great on their own.

I'd also like to thank you for the links to AVP information.  Although I
grew up and live in Northern Ireland and went to a Quaker school, I had
never heard of the project before.  Good luck with all your work,

Julie Stuart

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