multiple facilitator roles

Gerard Muller gm at openspace.dk
Tue May 10 04:49:39 PDT 2005


Dear Harrison,

Of course there will be at least one to facilitate us !!
After all one has to be consistent in the method one uses.
Will be a real challenge to try to open some space there.

But I am noticing the large consultancy firms have not been doing all
that well
in recent years..............

Greetings Gerard




On May 10, 2005, at 1:26 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:

> Gerard Wrote: "I thought of the boundary issue when last week I was
> asked to
> help co-facilitate an event with the top 30 managers of a large
> multinational. Open Space does not feature on the program, and there
> will be
> a team of five facilitators..................."
>
> Gerard -- I just have to ask -- will there be a facilitator to
> facilitate
> the Facilitators? I guess you would probably need a small team, say
> 2-3.
> Then of course you will need a facilitator to facilitate the
> facilitated
> facilitators. . . . Sounds like Facilitators all the way down. And the
> client group is a bunch of Top Managers? Making God knows how much
> money?
> Who will be treated like children (kept under control) so that at the
> end of
> the meeting the lack of innovative, inspired, creative results can all
> be
> blamed on the army of Facilitators. Sounds wonderful!
>
> Harrison
>
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20845
> Phone 301-365-2093
>
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Gerard
> Muller
> Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 4:04 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: multiple facilitator roles
>
> Dear All,
>
> Thinking about our thread "multiple facilitator roles" I wondered if
> there could be a boundary issue here.
>
> No doubt - as Michael's post makes very clear - the amount of work to
> be done has some connection
> to the size of the group. In terms of
> hours-to-be-worked-on-plannable-things  if the group becomes a crowd
> rather than a group, it is mosty practical in nature
>
> When opening space I almost never have a co-facilitator - in terms of
> one or more persons being involved in opening and closing the space.
> When I do, it is typically an OSonOS with collegues, one of us taking
> the role for each day.
>
> However I have rarely felt I work alone - and the reason probably is
> that cooperation with the sponsor tends to be rather different from
> non-open space work.
>
> I thought of the boundary issue when last week I was asked to help
> co-facilitate an event with the top 30
> managers of a large multinational. Open Space does not feature on the
> program, and there will be a
> team of five facilitators................... Do these 30 quite
> experienced people need so much facilitation ?
> No doubt we will work very hard (too hard, as we are likely to do lots
> of things the group could well do
> without us), and learn a lot from eachother while doing so. Will there
> be the learning across the boundary
> (client group and facilitator team) which there could be ? And
> certainly it is unlikely that some percentage
> of them will decide they want to learn facilitation - while some ten
> Open Space sponsors I worked with have since taken a training in OST.
>
> In working with Open Space, the client does not need all that much
> help. Too much help may damage
> the selforganising process. And if I manage not to do all the things I
> might do (with the best of intentions)
> but are not essential they may actually create the team which invites,
> holds the space with me and feels responsaibility
>   for the follow-up, as Lisa states quite beautifully. To me this also
> means not taking any tasks they may do themselves.
>   So after the first couple of years when I had an assistant along who
> really knew how to make sure a copy of the report
> would be there for everybody in time, I now almost always brief someone
> who works for the client to do this.
> I do not bring a talking stick, but ask the sponsor to choose one. And
> so on.
>
> So I guess in my practice there is as a rule one facilitator - who
> never works alone.
>
> Greetings from Denmark,
>
>
>
>
> Gerard Muller
> Open Space Institute Denmark
> Phone: (+45) 21269621
> Mail: gm at openspace.dk
>
>
>
>
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