Process in Breakout Groups

[Lisa Heft]

Great conversation, everybody ! (and I love all the hugging - those of
you who know me are probably not surprised about THAT)
 
So it seems to me there are several things we are talking about here.
 
One is if you are the facilitator - the person holding space for the
group to do its work.
The other is if you are a participant.
 
If you are the facilitator, trust the process; trust the people.  
It's not, in my experience, useful (or some might say respectful) to
recommend how folks might convene their groups, or what processes they
might use.  It's more appropriate to give the great juicy focusing
question, let people know the guidelines (the 4 principles and the 1
law) and then just step back.  To not recommend things in advance, to
not recommend or post a topic.  To indeed, *believe in* the ability of
each individual to take very good care of themselves - Open Space
facilitation is to me a practice of that belief (and the guidelines
remind one how to take care of ones self).
 
And a note - you are not allowing folks to do anything (allowing them to
use a process-within-a-process during the discussion sessions for
example) - you are getting out of their way to do whatever it is that
they identify and decide upon.  And that could indeed include someone
wanting to use a process for a conversation - as I did myself when I was
a participant at the international Open Space on Open Space in Halifax
this August - I convened a group to puzzle about something, and as the
convenor I told the group I'd like to explore the issue using the
Inquiry Circle process.  Simple as that.
 
But that's the *participant* talking / choosing / deciding - the
facilitator is not influencing this.
 
Tree, you had a comment about people doing speeches and making
presentations - what I had been talking to Jimmy about offline is his
preparation for a conference, and his wondering about combining any of
the traditional conference-y things (workshops, keynotes, panels) with
the OS.  And I'd recommended - if doing any non-OS things - to do them
on Day 1 (for example) and the OS on Day 2 (and yes, as Wendy and others
say, it usually results in conference participants reflecting in Closing
Circle that they'd wished the entire conference had been convened in
Open Space).  As for anything else participants want to do during an
Open Space, I say hurrah.  It's just when some presenter-types approach
the conference organizer with (or the organizer or co-hosts hear someone
is interested in doing) a didactic (expert-to-audience) presentation
(powerpoint, speech, whatever) that it's a great thing (when talking
with that person before the conference) to inform them that this is a
little different than another kind of conference - that people may be
coming in and out of their presentation as they sample the marketplace
of ideas, that you do (or do not) have technical capability or a room to
show their powerpoint, whatever.  To me, it's just a thoughtful part of
invitation - letting folks who need to know about what tools are
available and that it's all rather a flowy day of folks sampling
allsorts of juicy conversations and teaching and learning together in
this way throughout the day.
 
Trust the process trust the people, say I,
 
Lisa
 
___________________________
L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
+01 510 548-8449
 <mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net> lisaheft at openingspace.net
 <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net 
 

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