Multiple Facilitator Roles in Open Space

[Harrison Owen]

Actually with larger (500+) and longer Open Spaces (2+ days), I like to work
with a partner, preferably a woman (me being a man). This balances the
energies, shares the "holding of space," and gives me somebody to talk to
when I am busy doing nothing. However, I think it is very important to keep
in mind that the focus is on the participants and not on the facilitators -
which means that "face time" cannot be an issue. Whether you have one
facilitator or two, the job is the same - open the space so the people can
go to work and get out of the way. At a practical level, I find that more
than one person doing the opening can be confusing - differences in tone,
style, language patterns can slow things down un-necessarily and move the
attention to the facilitators. However, when multiple languages are involved
- two people and two languages in the opening can work. Michael Pannwitz and
I did this in Wuerzburg with our infamous 2008 participants. But it was not
a case of Michael "translating" for me. I made it very clear at the start
that Michael was going to do his thing, I would do mine, and hopefully we
would arrive at the same place. It seems that we did.

 

It remains true, however, that in terms of actual need - one facilitator
will do, and there are situations where none is just fine.

 

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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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Andrew
Rixon
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 2:57 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Multiple Facilitator Roles in Open Space

 

Dear All,

 

In traditional forms of group processes there is 'room' for co-facilitation,
ie, where more than one facilitator can work together with the group.

 

It appears (based on my limited learnings in Open space) that there is
'room' for only ONE Open Space facilitator within a group?

 

I would be interested to hear your views regarding this.

 

Kind regards,

Andrew

 

 

--

Andrew Rixon B.Sc(hons) PhD

Urban Water Infrastructure

CSIRO- Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology

http://www.cmit.csiro.au

P.O Box 56 (Graham Road), Highett, 3190, Victoria, Australia

Tel: +61 3 9252 6363

Fax:+ 61 3 9252 6249

Mobile: 0400 352 809

Email: Andrew.Rixon at csiro.au

 

 

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