Going underground as facilitator - Follow-up
Harrison Owen
hhowen at verizon.net
Tue Jul 15 13:05:07 PDT 2008
Marc Sounds wonderful! and pretty much what I would have expected with a
group like yours. When a group holds its own space, then you really have a
group and the likelihood is that things will just fly, groove, zoom
whatever, as apparently they did.
And your questions are good ones.
What means "holding space"? What is the function, if demonstrably one can
do without?
Or is it really that the group as a whole can hold space (which seemed to be
the case)?
Holding space for me means to create an environment of respect which
typically occurs initially when the facilitator treats the participants with
respect. They are not manipulated, managed, controlled, micro-processed,
analyzed, or judged. In short they are treated as intelligent human beings.
And people treated respectfully tend to treat their fellows with respect
which is the normal condition in virtually all Open Space gatherings I have
seen. With respect comes support but respectful support which is not heavy
handed or demeaning. Ultimately the group will do all of this for itself
(Hold its own space), but some groups will require a little role-modeling
to get started which is the function of the Facilitator. This is not
surprising as many groups seem to spend their life in what amounts to a
juvenile prison in which they can do nothing until specifically ordered to
do so down to and including when they can go to the bathroom, take a
break, start a new conversation, even have a different thought. For some
people, being treated as a Human Being can be rather shock, but they seem to
get over it and do very well.
Any group?
I have never met a group that could not do very well in Open Space,
including all those groups where everybody knew that it (OST) could never
work with this group. Of course there are all those other groups that
never had the chance, due to the fact that their CEO, Management,
Consultants were sure that the group couldnt measure up. Which is usually
another way of saying that the aforementioned deciders wanted to make sure
that they held on to CONTROL!
Why do we really need any facilitator throughout the event?
There are situations where the conflict level is so high, the level of trust
so low, and hostilities have existed for such a long time that having a
facilitator on duty for the duration can be helpful. As in all other
situations, he or she does little to nothing but having a continuing
presence can be very helpful at least that was my experience in The Middle
East. You might check out --
http://www.openspaceworld.com/opening_space_for_peace.htm
And consequently under which conditions can we dispense with it?
What is the risk? Can this go totally wrong?
Well I think you perfectly described the conditions in your Open Space.
And I would consider the risk to be minimal to non-existent. Having said
that, there is something rather nice, I think, in having a facilitator open
and close the gatheringand maybe it is also nice to have somebody with the
duty even if everything is doing quite nicely all by itself. I am reminded
of one of the early OSONOSs which I convened. The participants were all
OSers and many had done more Open Spaces that I had. So I figured that I
was just superfluous. With that thought in mind I simply welcomed the group,
pointed out the papers, magic markers, The Wall and said Go! I was greeted
with total silence and nobody moved. After a while somebody said, Harrison,
you cant get away with that. Get to work. I took their point recognizing
that there is something very powerful in the Opening of Space.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
189 Beaucaire Ave
Camden, ME 04843
207-763-3261 (Summer)
301-365-2093 (Winter)
Website www.openspaceworld.com
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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Marc
Steinlin (I-P-K)
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 2:13 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Going underground as facilitator - Follow-up
Dear all,
I had asked you for your feedback and input almost 2 months ago on "going
underground" as a facilitator and I have received much valuable input from
many among you.
In the meantime, the event took place and it was great. We were about 90
persons from the KM4Dev (Knowledge Management for Development) community
gathered for our annual meeting in Lisbon. After having experimented with OS
last year already, we this time decided to run the whole meeting over 2 days
entirely in OS. We had a lot of enthusiasm and committed people, interesting
discussions, countless sessions. Reporting was done online on a wiki
(http://www.km4dev.org/wiki/index.php/Open_Space_Discussion_Reports) - so we
didn't have to provide computers in the back of the room; most of the
participants had their notebooks with them and we just announced the wiki
URL - this worked excellent.
What also worked great was: having no facilitator to hold space. I opened
the OS but during the nomination of topics declared that I would now convert
into a normal participant; I quickly returned to the facilitator role for
just one sentence to open the market place and they we took off. Evening
news were done by other people - a group, one doing a closing circle, some
doing some announcements, and a professional theatre artist did some funny
performance games with the entire group.
I reopened the OS next morning to recollect some more topics, but from there
onwards, I again dived back into the crowd and entirely forgot about the
process. The second evening was pretty much "participatory managed" like the
first. It just worked great!
This leaves me with the questions:
What means "holding space"? What is the function, if demonstrably one can do
without?
Or is it really that the group as a whole can hold space (which seemed to be
the case)? Any group?
Why do we really need any facilitator throughout the event?
And consequently under which conditions can we dispense with it?
What is the risk? Can this go totally wrong?
Again many thanks to those who contributed to the previous discussion!
Best regards,
-marc
IngeniousPeoplesKnowledge
Marc Steinlin
marc.steinlin at i-p-k.ch
Skype: marcsteinlin
PO Box 27494
Rhine Road
Sea Point
8050 Cape Town
Republic of South Africa
Mobile: +27 (76) 222 81 12
Zweierstrasse 50
CH-8004 Zürich
Switzerland
Mobile: +41 (78) 850 42 32
http://www.i-p-k.ch
P Help save paper - do you really need to print this email ?
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
On 25 May 2008, at 14:46 , Marc Steinlin (I-P-K) wrote:
Dear all, many thanks for your feedback! I will take up your ideas and
inputs with my colleagues.
I can take some ideas with me: initially I was more thinking of having each
of us facilitating a part of the OS - "serial" facilitation. But on the
basis of your comments, I feel like maybe rather going for "parallel"
facilitation. I don't know exactly what that means, but have a feeling
emerging in my guts - I'm positive we will know how to do it.
Thanks for the words of caution, in particular to you Michael. I have made
similar experiences in other contexts with regard to confused roles,
projections and so on and if we are aware of this possibility, I'm sure we -
well, as you say maybe not avoid it, but will be able to deal with it when
it's there. But I'm not really afraid of this, I have a lot of confidence in
my friends' and my own experience.
What makes things easier is that nobody would consider me as their leader. I
will - together with others - facilitate the event, and for some it will be
their first full-fledged OS experience, but nobody would think I might be
something like their "leader" beyond facilitating this day. The nice thing
about this group of people is, that it is very open and open-minded
community - in fact I feel that the open space philosophy is very close to
the thinking of this group.
I also like very much the idea of adopting OS as a system of continuous
operation, which has come through some of your responses. I am currently
thinking about how to run my own little organisation in a micro-macro-OS
way: micro because at this stage we are just 3 of us, macro because I would
like to start somehow getting into the OS way and opening space, but not
really closing it anymore - eg. having a constantly evolving market place of
topics that we are conversing about, and to somehow apply the principles as
our normal mode of operation. Don't know whether this (will) make any
sense...
-marc
IngeniousPeoplesKnowledge
Marc Steinlin
marc.steinlin at i-p-k.ch
Skype: marcsteinlin
PO Box 27494
Rhine Road
Sea Point
8050 Cape Town
Republic of South Africa
Mobile: +27 (76) 222 81 12
Zweierstrasse 50
CH-8004 Zürich
Switzerland
Mobile: +41 (78) 850 42 32
http://www.i-p-k.ch
P Help save paper - do you really need to print this email ?
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
On 21 May 2008, at 17:31 , Ted Ernst wrote:
I echo the voices saying that this is not only possible, it can be a
good thing for the organization. I've tried this alone and also with
a partner. I felt much better with a partner. With four of you, I
would think you could all 4 be involved in breakouts without any
trouble losing the space-holding that you're all doing. Can't wait to
hear how it goes!
peace,
ted
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Michael Herman
<michael at michaelherman.com> wrote:
i'm encouraged by and encouraging of this, mark. thanks for sharing the
question.
this, to me, is the next step of the "facilitator" learning to disappear.
it seems to me that we'll ultimately have more and more open space
if/when/as people/leaders learn to do this from within, not abandoning their
position as leader, but refining a pulsation between directing or actively
guiding, on the one hand, and inviting and hosting on the other.
i think your sense of several being able to share the role, or support each
other in it, is helpful as well. but i would encourage a faster pulsation
than daily. consider a second law: the law of two roles. or maybe the law
of two minds. one mind inviting, hosting, holding and the other mind still
nominally in charge, at the top, as director. somatically, this can be
understood as pelvis (literally holding a space for everything stacked on
top) and brain (seeing, visioning, choosing and directing). the whole thing
mediated by heart in the middle. so you can find your way between the two
roles you've identified by following heart, same as navigating learning and
contributing as participant using law of two feet. so the practice is to
refine your pulsation between the two, until they look and feel like the
same "being".
two cautions, or mileposts really, on the way...
first, while you're pulsing back and forth, i find it's easy to get lost.
yes, sometimes that means getting caught up in conversation, letting
attention focus locally and forgetting about the larger space, maybe
forgetting to ring the bells for evening news, for instance. it's helpful
to have partners to remind you, or to ring them for you. in the same way,
it is also possible to accidentally not be fully present in a breakout
session, to be not fully local, and in that state, be offering views of the
world that nobody else sees or can understand, cuz they don't have this
larger view of space. the caution isn't about not sharing, but about
recognizing that it's possible to do, possible to try to be in a breakout
session but bringing experiences that are totally foreign to those who are
apparently your colleagues and partners in the group. this not an
unfamiliar situation for leaders who regularly have more information, a
wider view, that those in the "trenches" in an organizaiton.
the second caution or noting here is less obvious, or peculiar to straddling
the facilitation/participation divide in open space. i don't think fr.
brian will mind if i tell a story about osonos in oz to illustrate. he was
facilitator and host, but also a member of the community. he ran a great
event, facilitated the whole thing "by the book". there was somebody there,
however, who had not had firsthand experience with our approach. she also
knew that brian was a priest. when she had a difficult time with how things
were going in open space, and discomforts do naturally arise for
participants at various and random moments, her experience with "priest"
allowed her to dump responsibility for difficulties on "how the facilitator
is", what he's doing, how he's run things, etc. all of that story she was
making was nonesense and after a long talk, she understood that her
difficulty came from what he wasn't and didn't do. it was the openess of
the space, the press of responsibility and reality that was making her
squirm. so it was the combination of *her* newness in open space and her
(in this case rather thin) connection to brian that allowed her to make up a
story that was getting in her way. so if you have colleagues new to this
experience and you are still known as some sort of 'leader' or just some
sort of guy to these folks, they might be confused by what is open space,
what is you, what is you as leader and what you as facilitator, and so on.
in the end, this is just a noticing that such confusion is possible. there
is nothing to "do" about it, other than know it's there and possible. if
you notice it along the way in your meeting, and maybe it'll be there or
maybe it won't, then all the clarity you will bring to the process from the
very beginning, is all you will or can or should bring to that moment. just
be as clean in both roles as you can, and as clear about what is you and
what is reality of org/world, and it's all still open space, or not.
good luck! i hope you'll find this is a great and fun practice, and come
back and tell some of the internal story of how it goes for you...
m
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Jack Martin Leith
<jack at jackmartinleith.com> wrote:
Harrison, those are some of the wisest words I've ever read. Thank you!
Jack
2008/5/21 Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>:
Marc I have done what you are proposing (actively participate in a
gathering I facilitate) on multiple occasions and have never encountered any
problems, and I rather think you will have a similar experience. I would
never suggest that you try such a thing if it were your first experience
facilitating an Open Space, but that is obviously not the case.
The art of Holding Space is of course critical and because it is so
different from what most people have come to understand "facilitation" to
mean it is just too easy for the first time facilitator to get sucked into
the action and forget to mind the store. But with experience, at least in my
experience, you can keep that old intuitive sense alive and functioning even
when actively engaged in a conversation of passionate concern to you. As I
think about it, this is probably where we all hope to end up anyhow. At some
level every conversation is an Open Space, and the more open the space, the
better the conversation. And a really great conversation has a powerful
(passionate) focus while still being open to everything else that is going
on in the environment.
Approaching the same thoughts from a slightly different point of view, I
find that when a group really begins to groove/cook/work space holding is
a community activity. In fact, enabling a group to reach a point where it
will effectively "hold its own space," might well be the Holy Grail of OST.
So anyhow, I would think that rather than a problem, you have a real
opportunity to enhance your own capacity as facilitator by moving into that
marvelously "zeny" place where you are simultaneously attached and
non-attached passionately concerned about an issue and always free to move
beyond. And if you want to share this opportunity with your colleagues
(different people opening space every day) that would work for me, or at
least it always has.
Have fun!
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Marc
Steinlin (I-P-K)
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 1:18 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Going underground as facilitator
Dear OS list members,
I have been following this list for almost two years now and have enjoyed
many of your conversations, learnings, ideas and inspirational thoughts!
Many thanks for all that valuable insight and encouragement!
I myself over the last 2 years have organised/ facilitated approx. 20 OS
all over the world (from Switzerland to South Africa, from Indonesia to
Ethiopia), some as large as 70 participants (unfortunately I never had the
opportunity for a larger group - would love to try that!), some as small as
5 persons - and I (as well as the participants!) enjoy it greatly each time!
We, the KM4Dev (a global community of practice on Knowledge Management
for Development; http://www.km4dev.org) have decided to run this year's
annual meeting over 2.5 days entirely as an OS. We are about four persons
who have already facilitated OS and are preparing the facilitation of the
event.
However, all of the four of us are also greatly interested in the topics
which will be discussed, it's certain that we also want to propose topics
for groups to work on. Therefore my question:
Is it possible, that a facilitator opens the Open Space, but once the
market place starts, she/ he will transform into a regular participant and
mingle with the rest? I always attached great importance to "holding space"
- I have never been doing anything actively, I have done my best to get out
of the way, however I have been there, almost invisible, but still...
Do you have any experience or advice on whether the facilitator can give
up her/ his role and become a normal participant until to the closing
circle?
Alternatively, do you have any thoughts about rotating faciliators:
person A doing it on the first day, B on the second day, so that we all have
the opportunity to participate in the discussions with our own topics? I
guess none of us would want to limit her/ himself for the full duration to
just holding space...
Your experience is much appreciated!
-marc
IngeniousPeoplesKnowledge
Marc Steinlin
marc.steinlin at i-p-k.ch
Skype: marcsteinlin
PO Box 27494
Rhine Road
Sea Point
8050 Cape Town
Republic of South Africa
Mobile: +27 (76) 222 81 12
Zweierstrasse 50
CH-8004 Zürich
Switzerland
Mobile: +41 (78) 850 42 32
http://www.i-p-k.ch
P Help save paper - do you really need to print this email ?
'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.' Margaret Mead
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