Advantage for the Solo Facilitator

[Harrison Owen]

A further thought on the advantage of being a solo facilitator. When you are
just one, and there is a large group, it become instantly obvious that you
can't do it all, obvious not only to you - but to all the participants,
especially the sponsor group. In such a situation, I just put them all to
work - making signs, doing post-its, setting up the computers, etc. I find
two real +'s in such an arrangement. First, if they are busy doing something
they will not try to busy themselves doing some things that don't need to be
done - like worrying about the process, lining up issue presenters, thinking
of other little things that could be done to "enrich" the gathering. If this
is a first open space, the anxiety level of the sponsors can get pretty high
- no matter how cool they may seem in your pre-meeting sessions. Having
something to do allays much of that anxiety - or at least it channels it in
productive ways. The second "plus" is that when the participants themselves
put everything together, they can see that OS is not mystical, magic, rocket
science - although mystery and magic often appear. OS is something that
anybody with a good head and a good heart can do. This awareness can get
them on their way towards opening their own space - which is always my
primary objective in any OS I am involved with. Pass it along, give it away,
get out of the way - send them on their own way. I make it very clear that I
am happy to open space once for an organization, pleased to coach/mentor for
a second. But after that, they are on their own. A little hard on my
pocketbook perhaps - but good for the soul -- mine and theirs.

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/>

Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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