Process in Breakout Groups

[Tree Fitzpatrick]

Like you, Harrison, any time I find myself in a formal Dialogue
process, it seems, at least to me, like the dialogue gets hung up on
process and stultifies the conversation rather than enhancing it.

In OS, any participant is free to offer a specific process for their
topic/session:  there is just as much freedom to choose process as
there is to choose topic.  I am biased against designating a process .
. . . BUT, on the other hand, I have been approached by participants
in open space events that I have facilitated by topic/session
convenors who  told me they were frustrated because they weren't sure
if they had a 'right' to redirect the conversation if it drifted off,
especially way off, the original topic.   I am thinking of one
particular case where the convenor voicing this frustration felt that
people drifting in late in the session didn't really 'get' what the
conversation was supposed to be about, which was OK but, back to the
frustration:  could/should the convenor of the session have felt free
to say "that's not really what we are talking about"?  I know what I
think but I like to ask questions.

A couple years ago, I experienced my first Conversation Cafe.  Vicki
Robin, who co-created Conversation Cafes, was at my table.  On each
table for this cafe, there were little cards with a few minimal
guidelines about the Conversation Cafe format.  I don't know about the
other tables but everyone at my table was an experienced facilitator
in their own right.  We all 'got' the rules right away and were eager
to, well, have a conversation.  It seemed to me that every time
someone spoke, Vicki Robin spoke up to point out how what had just
been said did or did not conform to her minimal guidelines and then
she proceeded to make suggestions about how we might proceed.  Then
someone else would talk and then Vicki would wade in again with
feedback and direction.  It was, for me, very unsatisfying.  I was
yearning, yearning to chat but I got all jumbled up with rules and
regs and I didn't, after awhile, feel like talking at all.  I began to
wait as politely as I could for it to be over.

This experience really surprised me.  Conversation Cafes originated in
Seattle and I know lots and lots of folks who have participated in
them and many folks who know Vicki Robin well and hold her in the
highest regard.  I don't even know her and I hold her in high regard. 
And, even after my unsatisfying experience in one tiny cafe
conversation with Vicki, I still do.  But I fully expected the
originator of this lovely tradition to be really, really open and to
really, really trust her own process.

In the last round of chat during my first Conversation Cafe, Vicki,
who definitely saw herself as directing and facilitating our little
foursome, asked us for feedback about our experience.  I came right
out and said that I had felt over-processed, over-directed and
shutdown by her high direction.  She took it OK.  And I have not run
in to her since and if I do I sorta hope she won't remember me.

All roads lead to open space.  This is so obvious to me that I expect
just about everybody to trust the power of self-organization,
especially visionary leaders like Vicki Robin.

Guess I've gone way off topic from Jimmy's inquiry.  If a facilitator
reading this 'needs' to get me back on task, feel free to say so!



--
Warmly,
Tree Fitzpatrick

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