multiple facilitator roles

Tue May 10 05:00:35 PDT 2005

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

Definitely have to keep those Billable Hours up!

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
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 Gerard
Muller
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 7:50 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: multiple facilitator roles

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
> Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
> Visit:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>
>
>
> -----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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