advanced butterfly

[Justin T. Sampson]

Harrison Owen wrote:

> I suppose where I may take some issue with both Reinhard and
> Josef concerns the need to provide additional services,
> methods, techniques (in the Open Space environment) in order to
> facilitate the emergence of whole people. Part of the
> difficulty is that when such "services" are provided the people
> (participants) tend to see their emergence as whole people as
> the product of that service -- and not be fully aware that in a
> very real sense they did it all by themselves, and further that
> they are ultimately responsible for their own emergence. I am
> sure that neither Reinhard nor Josef would fall into what I
> might call the "Do-Me syndrome" -- in which people come to some
> gathering or event and expect to be "done-to" by the "experts."
> But that happens, and I see no value added, only the
> continuation of a destructive dependency on "The Experts."

Similarly, Michael Herman wrote in another thread:

> i'm not interested in bringing others in to do things that we
> think participants can't do for themselves. i want to invite
> participants to do it *all* for themselves. that, to me, is
> what open space is for... discovering that we can do it for
> ourselves... that we have the bullet points, the artful sketch,
> the passion, the responsiblity, the vision and the action
> within each and all of us.

These comments are very interesting to me. As a new learner in the
group process arena, trying to feel out the root wisdom of the
various process gurus, I find myself drawn most strongly at once
both to Open Space Technology and to Dynamic Facilitation (a la
Jim Rough), which is very different in this sense. That is, DF
relies heavily on a facilitator actively drawing out and
reflecting each participant's feelings and ideas. Both approaches
start a meeting with no agenda, and both have some notion (maybe
not the same one?) of self-organization as a fundamental
principle, following the energy of the group as it moves and
evolves.

As a shy/quiet person myself, I really like the idea of having a
facilitator present to effectively hold the space open for me
right then and there when I have some thoughts to get out.
Otherwise the thoughts might just fester and keep me distracted
while I try in vain to find the right/safe time to jump in. On the
other hand, the times when I've felt this need most intensely have
been not in Open Space, but in work or personal settings in the
presence of some kind of dominance relationship (such as a
manager/boss).

Come to think of it, I also felt this need in the NCDD workshops
where there was a presenter with some structure for the workshop,
but not in the sessions of the brief Open Space. Do you all find
that to be the case, that the simple fact of convening
spontaneously in Open Space makes a more active facilitator less
necessary? Do you still see circumstances where you'd prefer or
recommend a small-group meeting with a more active facilitator
over a larger-group Open Space event?

As another angle, actually the most affecting and inspiring thing
for me at NCDD was the Playback Theatre showcase session. After a
day of intellectually interesting but otherwise somewhat stale and
disconnected sessions, Playback snapped me right back into
presence and connection both with the actors and the other
audience members in a very powerful way. Playback could be seen as
being another "active facilitator" process -- the actors stand
before the audience to draw out and reflect their feelings and
stories and ideas through improvisational acting. How do you all
see this relating to the issues above? In a perfect Open Space
event, how might a Playback Theatre session take place?

Cheers,
Justin

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