what's in a word?
Jean-Pierre Beaulieu
jp_beaulieu at videotron.ca
Tue Dec 6 13:54:16 PST 2005
The question of wording related to OS is an interesting one.
As for facilitate or monitor, there is a word we use in French apart from
"faciliter" and that is "animer". And the one who "anime" is an "animateur"
which according to the dictionnary is someone who give life to a group or a
community through his ardor and his energy. So that is what I do when I
"faciltiate" an OS event or a Future Search, "j'anime"...
Regards from Montreal
Jean-Pierre Beaulieu
-----Message d'origine-----
De : OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]De la part de PeeJee
Bee
Envoye : 6 decembre 2005 11:32
A : OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Objet : Re: what's in a word?
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 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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