What a facilitator does when she holds space

[Doris Gottlieb]

Hi Raffi,
I guess my first thought regarding this is that for the word God is a very
loaded one indeed. In the way you mean it I can understand your picture, but
it is not the picture that comes to my mind when I begin to think of God -
my own experiences and feelings about this concept are not as positive or
value free as what you try to describe. But this has lead me to thinking
about what he "saw" you do as a facilitator that he couldn't understand.  I
wonder in this situation if it isn't an idea to ask the participant what he
thinks the facilitator does? What is he seeing/not seeing that raises this
question.

To me personally I think of the facilitator in Open Space as the last little
piece of the large container we are creating wherein the "system" can
organize. The way the room is set up, the way the chairs are set, the
physicality of the 'space' are then complimented by the facilitator whose
role is to be there and trust the system to find it's way.  Maybe like a
witness? I think that is more my vision of it.  A witness for me is a
powerful metaphor - not a witness in court but a witness as being someone
who watches attentively as something happens.  In authentic movement (a sort
of movement therapy) the movement always takes place in the presence of a
witness with whom the participant can speak afterwards, someone with whom
there is an understanding of what went on and who can empathize with the
experience.  I don't know if that is helpful to you.  For me a witness can
also watch grass grow and be attentive to it, without being God (a term
which in my mind brings up a lot of  -- perhaps unintentional and inaccurate
visions - of a controlling outcomes.

Hope this is helpful,

Doris

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]Namens Raffi Aftandelian
Verzonden: maandag 25 april 2005 22:20
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: What a facilitator does when she holds space

This weekend I was at a Moscow conference of trainers and consultants.

There was a "demonstration" OST in the middle of it, to show how OST
works. And curiously it worked pretty ok despite some of my concern that by
announcing the topic only at the opening of the event it might flop...

After the end of the mini-OST meeting, there was a debrief on OST. One
participant who does lots of martial arts, holotropic breathing, and
other assorted goodies/practices wondered what does the OST
facilitator "do"? THe OST facilitators present tried explaining to no
avail.

He simply couldn't understand. He explained that he needs a visual
model to "get it."

And later it dawned on me: I have for a while thought of OST being a
very fast means of humans consciously recreating all of nature's
processes in a bounded environment (think the biosphere experiment).
And this led me on to the aha...if the facilitator is opening a space
for nature to happen, then the facilitator is...God!

What does God do to make grass grow? Nothing.

I am curious what others think of this God model of facilitation. I
almost shared this "model" with this participant, but my instinct got
the better of me. That is not the thing you should EVER, probably,
tell someone interested in OST.

That realization is something people need to come to themselves. It's
just downright scary for one thing.

And this brings me to the how of holding space. Of course, for each
person God is/acts/is called something different, so the nature of
that held space will be different.

People's thoughts?

Raffi


                          mailto:raffi at bk.ru

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