Facilitator must be part of the conversations

[douglas germann]

Chris, Harrison, Gabriel, can, Brendan and all--

Chris, so it's kind of a Russian dolls theory of hosting, is it? <grin>
(I kind of like the metaphor.)

Brendan and Gabriel have pointed up a key question it seems to me:
trust, being clear when you are stepping from role to role, and risk.
These seem to me to be pointing to the same thing: Anyone might step
into the vacuum, someone might grab for the power. A few weeks ago a
client raised that same question to me when we were talking about
opening space: No, she said, I don't want people standing up in the
group and saying Rally 'round me, boys!

Is this an issue of control, as much as we dismiss that word around
here? Or is there something else afoot?

Who holds the space when you don't? Can we both participate and hold the
space? Is it one or the other? Or can we be a part of what we are
holding? Trying to put it into general words makes it sound more
ethereal than it is: Can we both care for the small group and ourselves
while we are caring for the whole group? Which of course opens up the
question (again!) What does it mean to hold space?

Even if no one is holding the space, is it possible that all are holding
it? After all, don't the small groups self organize well? I remember a
space I held a year ago to talk about immigration issues, when in walked
a member of the KKK (a segregationist organization known for violence
and demonstration). The small group he was in, and the fact that there
were more than one group, kept him from gaining a bully pulpit and
invading everyone's space. The point is that the group did it
themselves, and I as facilitator did not.

What have you seen was gained in spaces you were in, where the
facilitator participated?

I can think of one OS where Michael Herman raised a question about
combining a concept like Google and something else to create a whole new
kind of community space--it was cutting edge and without his session, no
one would have heard of it, the community would have been less seeded,
and he would not have had the honing that the group gave him.

can, you have given me much to mull: what do those evocative phrases
mean? What can they mean? "live the question instead of looking for a
real answer" "in dialogue only life moves"

One place where my being is doing and therefore not wanting to follow
you, can, is in your "just about being, not doing:" When I was reading
the description of Conversation Cafés the thing that jumped out at me
was that to do lists are definitely not wanted. And I thought, This is
not for me: I want people to get busy making the world better for all.
Then again, maybe you are talking just about the
facilitator-at-the-event, and not the purpose of the whole
proceeding....

Holding the space and participating.... (this time)

			:- Doug.

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