Cross Cultural Facilitation

Sat Oct 1 07:57:27 PDT 2005

Hi Brendan,
I recommend that you pass this assignment on to someone else nearby who
the group would feel safer with. The issues raised are valid and you are
well intended and a gentle soul, but that doesn’t mean that
participation will be enabled to be at its fullest with your presence
there. I have a long history of working with traumatized people and a
one day OST is not going to be conducive to a white male coming in to
facilitate. I agree with Wendy that you will have fewer problems with
OST than another method but I wonder why the people involved should go
through this if there are other options. I don’t think though that
evaluating your cultural competence would be enough of a prep. There are
probably the filters (pre-judgments) that you approach this from, as do
we all as facilitators. And there are the filters (pre-judgments) that
the participants come from. I would feel more confident that the
learning that was needed by the group that you be seen as a person
instead of stereotyped would be able to take place if this was a
multi-day OST but all of this and what they need to work on seems a bit
much for one day. 

So often, with traumatized or other disadvantaged groups, on the second
day of an OST, participants come up and thank me for the chance to post
topics on day 2. They didn’t feel safe to do so on day 1.

Hope this helps as you are thinking this through.
Blessings to you,
Birgitt

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Wendy
Farmer-O'Neil
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 1:30 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Cross Cultural Facilitation

Hi Brendan,

I can’t comment specifically on the cross-cultural experience beyond my
anti-racism training but I have worked in the battered women’s movement
for ten years and the concerns are valid.  That said, I think that there
will be fewer problems with OST than there would be with other processes
as your goal is to be as invisible as possible anyway.  There is also
the potential benefit in the end of being a positive model that they
don’t get to see very often.  

I would suggest, for yourself, you may want to spend a little time
evaluating your cultural competence (I have a tool for this that you
could probably adapt if you want) and gender analysis so that you are
sure you are comfortable going in there—and fully aware of what you are
likely to face. Bottom line is that they have no reason to trust you and
many probably won’t.  If you do choose to go ahead, I think that you
need to be as authentic and upfront as possible when you open the
circle.  If you think about this from an appreciative angle, if you open
by addressing your power and privilege and by acknowledging that they
have no reason to trust you, you can then move right on to why that’s
okay—maybe even a good thing, because this isn’t about you anyway—it’s
about them.  This is their space, their time, their wisdom.  You’re just
there to hold the space so that they can get to work on what has heart
and meaning for them.  Look to your sponsor for guidance on language and
metaphor that will speak to the group.  Your honesty and vulnerability
could make the difference.

Just my two-cents worth…
Contact me off-list if you want the cultural competence tool or other
info on connecting with white privilege.
Cheers,
Wendy
wendy at xe.net
   _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Brendan McKeague
Sent: September 30, 2005 8:22 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Cross Cultural Facilitation

G'day folks in the OS global community
A new client has asked me about facilitating a one-day OS for a group of
stakeholders and others about the creation of a refuge/hostel for
indigenous women - she has only minor concerns about using Open Space
having recently experienced her first event with me - her major concern
is about using a non-Aboriginal white male as the facilitator - see
honest and forthright comments below - and this event would be in a
different part of the country from where I live and where I'm not known
locally in the indigenous community - any thoughts on this query? Any
stories of this sort of cross-cultural/gender scenario?
Cheers
Brendan 
We have an opportunity with the new site being built in ----- to devote
some of our resources to responding to the plight of indigenous
families.  Having a different focus away from the mainstream site gives
our service an opportunity to explore, with the assistance of indigenous
stakeholders, a different way of responding to women and children from
indigenous families escaping violence.  I don’t know what this will look
like and it will be difficult and we won’t always get it right.  It will
be a process of learning and experimenting with new ways of responding
to families. 

This is like a leap into the unknown for us because it will change our
service.  It has not been undertaken by any other service to my
knowledge, so there is no blue print to how we should proceed.  Having
said this, I do think it is possible and I believe it will have a
positive impact on our service as a whole. 
There would be about 35-40 people invited to this gathering which would
represent all of the key groups that would have an interest in a
mainstream organisation taking on and providing a service to Aboriginal
women and children. 
There has been a positive reaction so far to the proposal from
Aboriginal organisations but I am sure we will face some
resistance/perhaps hostility? (I will probably know this before we enter
an open space) – and in a sense that is one of the reasons why I think
an Open Space forum will be good so that we can hear and respond to
people’s concerns. 
One of my concerns Brendan is how they will receive you as a facilitator
of this process.  I am confident about you holding the space for us to
discuss these issues but I also don’t want to set you up in the process
either.  I am worried that there might be some hostility to a man
facilitating the process and not a woman (you may be the only man
there).  I would love your thoughts around this and whether you have
done anything similar before.  Part of me says be courageous and go with
what you think will work and another part of me is scared stiff!  
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