what's in a word?

Tue Dec 6 08:31:54 PST 2005

Hi OpenSpaceNics (acronym OSN's - is that how we addicts call ourselves?)

I'm new in this space - the OSLIST! I was initiated - as a regular
participant - to Open Space in Zambia in the mid 90's during a
'dare-to-share-fair' initiated by GTZ GmbH. A second time, I "sold" and
"facilitated" some Open Space during another 'dare-to-share-fair' at the
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, probably in the late 90's. Then in
2001 I actually organized and "facilitated" a plus/minus 60 participants
Open Space on creative ideas for gender mainstreaming in the water sector of
South Africa.

What's in a word? I would be curious to hear from other OSN's, also maybe
working in other than the English and German language, what they see
themselves do: facilitating, accompanying, moderating... ! I will be working
in French next weekend in Dakar!

I think the most valuable part of this discussions on semantics is the
explanation we do on what we understand by the term we use, wouldn't you say
so? I mean the issue even more complex, because as Harrison explained to us
2 weeks ago in Bologna, Open Spaces can be run in different ways and for
different purposes and over different time-spans. All these factors and the
contract with the client, I believe, influence the way we run an Open Space
as OSN.

So we could also use other terms, like I have done above: running an Open
Space ;-)

I havn't really made up my mind on what term I would prefer to use.
I tend to use 'facilitate', because I see myself as the one that makes it
possible to participate in an Open Space. In other words I make it facile
(French for easy).
To moderate an Open Space, would probably also be the word most used in the
Dutch language (so similar to  what is common in German speaking countries).
Begleiten: reminds me of accompanying a child or a lady. It has connotations
of helping a weaker person. So I'm not convinced about that term, because I
feel participants in an Open Space I facilitate are on par with me, not
'weaker' or 'less equiped'.

Look forward to active participation in the OSLIST.

Peter (based in Milano, working in various so called 'developing' countries,
mainly in the water sector)

  _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Erich
Kolenaty
Sent: 06 December 2005 11:23
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: OS newbie here

Hi friends in Open Space,

the truth is, that Michael himself deserves the honor for fighting for years
to make the difference between "begleiten" and "moderieren" common between
germanspeaking openspacenics.

And I really agree with him: "Begleiten" much more points out that the main
power at work is the selforganization and not the facilitators commands. And
this helps creating a more appropriate picture WHO is doing WHAT.

Warmly from rainy Vienna

Erich

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Michael M  <mailto:mmpanne at boscop.de> Pannwitz 
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 2:05 AM
Subject: Re: OS newbie here

I love this one, Tree.
Its been quite a struggle to find an alternative to "facilitate" in German.
People here are often infatuated with english/american words and just 
use such words as "facilitate" or "facilitation" which dont mean a thing 
to "regular" folks even though they might be pretty familiar with english.
In German the word for the activity people are involved in when they 
lead a structured exercise is "moderieren", you can recognize it by the 
heavy activity on part of the "moderator". When "facilitate" is used it 
is often with the intent to convey that it is not "moderieren" but gives 
more space to the group.
The word that is now widely used by os-workers here to describe holding 
time and space is "begleiten" which means as much as "accompanying" or 
"going along with you" or "walking with you on the same path". It is 
different enough from the commonly used "moderieren" to give a hint to 
the difference.
Another detail in this scheme is to me to point out that the "Begleiter" 
focuses one holding time and space (which I know when I see it but can 
describe it) while the sponsor opens the space.
There have been voices on this listserve about the terminology and what 
words are being used in different languages. I would love to hear more 
about this.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

Tree Fitzpatrick wrote:

> 
> Another thought:  I am not quite sure that holding space as an open
> space practitioner is  facilitation.  There is, at least I think there
> is, an important difference between holding space for strategic
> planning and facilitating a strategic planning process.

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