what's in a word?

[Glory Ressler]

Hi all:
I am with Jean-Pierre and the word anime... with one tiny variation... Quand j'anime / when I animate, I feel that I 'make it easy' (facile) for the group's life energy to shine forth / for them to bring themselves to life.... 

The quality of my energy when holding space influences the group and field, generally, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that I 'give life'... Finally, my ardour is somehow involved too. I've often said that I must come to 'love' all the groups/orgs I work with....

I also agree that 'facilitating' open space significantly diverges from all the other sorts of facilitation I have done... 
Glory 
'If it isn't a happy ending, our story isn't over yet.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glory Ressler, B.A., Dip. GIT - Director
Avalon Consulting & Associates
Ontario, Canada
www.edgeofavalon.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jean-Pierre Beaulieu 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 4:54 PM
  Subject: Re: what's in a word?


  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 Montréal
  Jean-Pierre Beaulieu
    -----Message d'origine-----
    De : OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]De la part de PeeJee Bee
    Envoyé : 6 décembre 2005 11:32
    À : 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)



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    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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