use of OS in a training for trainers

[Raffi Aftandelian]

Fellow OS'rs greetings!
Today I experimented with the use of OS at a training for trainers. I wanted to share about this experience and would be curious to hear from others, too.

As I have written before, I am a facilitator/trainer with Alternatives to Violence Project, a community volunteer conflict resolution training program started by US Quakers in the mid-70's. This program now exists in over 30 countries (it started in US prisons) and in several countries of the former Soviet Union. (www.avpusa.org). I give the URL, but I don't think any of the websites really convey the power of these workshops, unfortunately.

Today ended a 3 day training for trainers we conducted in Moscow. Primarily prison psychologists and community folks participated in the training. For the first time ever we used OS in a T4T format. It was included at the end of the training as a way of articulating the theoretical aspects of this work. 

Initially, the training design plan was to conduct a 4-hour OS on the topic of "I the AVP facilitator" and as expected outcomes to find answers to 8 questions having to do with the work of an AVP trainer. Questions such as: desired qualities of such a trainer, experiential learning, working in a team, and more. The idea was that instead of offering experiential exercises that would generate the theory aspects of these workshops (which would prepare participants to then run a piece of a workshop and receive feedback), to use OS. That OS would generate a lot more learning. 

The idea of using OS in a T4T came to me from learning about Jo Toepfer and Michael Pannewitz's OS facilitator training design. Jo and Michael used that approach when they trained members of the NGO trainer/consultant professional association Intertraining in Moscow a few years back. 

Fortunately, I consulted with Jo and Michael over the phone a few days before the training and they helped me see that putting an OS piece at the beginning of the training could disrupt the whole training. The divergence followed by a structured facilitator-dependent format would draw resistance from the group. They suggested either scrap the OS entirely or put it at the end. Also they pointed out, quite helpfully that setting answers to 8 questions as a desired outcome was not really in the spirit of OS; it closed the space. This conversation was really helpful; it really humbled me and helped me realize how much more I need to learn!

After consulting with my co-trainers, we decided to go ahead with keeping OS-- at the end. We figured, we intended on using OS, let's give it a whirl.

As a training design we had as a consequence:
1. Community building (participants getting to know eachother)
2. Team building (practice facilitatition teams getting to know each other)
3. Practicum- different teams conduct mini-workshops and receive group feedback
4. OS: My step towards becoming an AVP facilitator: qualities, skills, knowledge, and principles
5. closing session

I wanted to ensure that the training team (all 3 of us) could participate in Open Space, so we could all be resources for the group and offer what we felt was important in the way of theory. So, I coached someone who participated in an OS I led recently to lead it. This was an awkward choice-- to bring someone the group didn't know on the last day to lead an OS.

Nevertheless, IT WORKED! Participants dug the freedom, they got to touch upon a lot of interesting ideas. I got to share a number of different things. Some of the things we discussed were: facilitator styles (how to dress, how to talk, what kind of language to use), interactive learning, exercises processing, hidden agendas...

And after having open space, we had another break and had a non-OS closing session.

This training design assumed that all theory would be conveyed in OS. Not all theory was conveyed in OS and only some got the theory that was conveyed in OS-- Law of 2 feet after all.

This design was a radical move for me-- giving no theory and plunging the group straight into practice.

And yet I don't think this group walked away any less prepared than other groups. I don't chalk that up to the training design. Rather the intense learning happened in spite of; we just had a group of very sharp participants. 

My conclusion, however, after this experience is that if I were to repeat this experience, my thoughts at this point would be to do the following:

Keep the same design, but instead of OS-- conduct something OS-like (and not call it OS): have predefined topics (covering all the theoretical aspects of AVP facilitation) in concurrent sessions; 4 principles and Law would still apply. And include a required output--- a group presentation on these different topics (I'd have to think this thru).

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts in using OS for all or part of a T4T. Can you train a group in a skill using OS entirely? This was a question I put to Jo and Michael. Michael has his doubts about this, especially when it comes to something like learning to play an instrument (if I recall what you said, Michael, correctly).

I still wonder about conducting an OS facilitator training entirely in OS. Yes, the group goes where the passion is. But how do we know that someone has "learned" OS. Of course, that is a huge question, what does it mean to "learn" to conduct OS. And I recall Jo paraphrasing, I think, Harrison: "You can't teach OS, you can't learn OS, but you can remember it." Maybe someone can unpack that for me.

For me a big part of learning to facilitate an OS is about the pre-work with a sponsor; also defining the theme. It's about learning how to use it as an instrument. Again any training typically just gives you the minimum so that you can go out in the world and be able to do something. 

Really happy to share this,
Raffi

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