AW: Begining in OS

Wed May 6 13:46:26 PDT 2009

My start was with Florian Fischer as my facilitator, helping me facilitate
my first big OS. I did the work up front with the preparation group and got
to ask him all my questions by email or phone, which was wonderful and very
inspiring. He meant to help facilitate as it was a bilingual event, but had
to withdraw two days prior to the event for health reasons. (I then found
out that co-facilitation only works if you have known the other person well
- otherwise, one facilitator and one translator is better.) We evenly split
the money earned for the preparation of the event.

Next time, I had a coach alongside who was paid by the sponsor. After that,
I saw my coach once to clarify my specific questions for the next OS event.
In the meantime, I do well by myself, of course always with the help of a
preparation group from the sponsor's organisation and with the help of you
all if I have a question. This OSLIST is really a wonderful resource.

I offer my clients that they can learn about the method in being an
assistant and later on, me being their assistant. In Switzerland, I find
occasions for OS every day, simply by reading the newspaper. Of course, then
it takes phone calls and seeing clients about my ideas to find out whether
OS is adequate to solve the problem. AND I am very aware not to create too
much work for myself that way. Wherever I have an idealistic interest to
offer an OS event, danger of burnout lurks. But somehow, when I tell about
OS, people find it interesting and some do come back to me asking for a
first discussion. 

I have also learned that a sponsor is essential. Offering an event by myself
to the public can be expensive if it then doesn't happen because the need
for it is not big enough.

Offering OS events in leisure time institutions for free has been a good way
to sum up more experience and to strengthen the communities involved, but so
far, I haven't gotten a paid OS event out of these offerings. I keep on
doing it anyway because I love that community.

Sometimes, I participate in an OS co-created by other OS practitioners, to
be a participant and learn about facilitating from that side. The last time
was in November in Berlin where Harrison couldn't come. The learning was
profound. Not only did I walk out with the sentence "I invite myself to live
the life of my dreams now" (with which I keep wandering.), but also did I
realize how unimportant the facilitator is once the groups are on their way.
It's really THEIR thing, not the facilitator's. That has let me be much more
relaxed as a facilitator, finally really taking a nap in the sun during
breakout sessions. :-)

With gratitude, C.

Catherine Pfaehler Senn

lic.oec.HSG

Open Space Begleitung

St. Alban-Vorstadt 15

CH - 4052 Basel

+41-(0)76 - 488 15 46

c.pfaehler at open-space-begleitung.ch

www.open-space-begleitung.ch <http://www.open-space-begleitung.ch/> 

  _____  

Von: Lisa Heft [mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net] 
Gesendet: Dienstag, 5. Mai 2009 16:59
Betreff: Re: Begining in OS

...and that's how we are all delightfully different.

Jack, I honor how you feel and see things.

And yet I do see them differently.

I see abundance instead of competition. 

I see inviting others to help me in events that I facilitate as an
opportunity for wonderful help, greater service to the client and a
colleague who is rich with observations and insights.
Plus the extra added value of helping a colleague grow into the field and
gain more experience.  And I see it as my 'pay it forward' for having
received such rich learning and opportunities from my diversely experienced
colleagues.

I see their putting these jobs on their resumes (for example, 'Newsroom
Coordinator' as an essential role assisting an organization in utilizing
their own documentation for their continued growth and learning) as a real
job with real responsibility required, whether or not they were paid or pro
bono consultants on that job.

I ask all clients if I can bring someone along to assist and ask them if
they have funding for this. Often they do. If not, I try to find funding
from my own resources. If I do not have resources it is often seen as an
unpaid collaboration for the benefit of learning.

I find that offering learning opportunities for colleagues helps strengthen
our work and our field.

I invite some of you on this list to share with us your experiences of being
invited to help on Open Space events as you were / have been emerging into
this field and this practice.

I invite others of you to share your experiences of bringing a newly
emerging facilitator into a job of yours.

Tell us the (mutual) benefits and the learning - even your stories of when
it has not been a good idea for the client, participants, or for you.

I think we have a learning opportunity here. 

Thanks to David and Jack for tickling these thoughts in my head and opening
up the learning opportunity.

I look forward to hearing others' thoughts on this.

A warm hello from a gray Berkeley California morning,

Lisa

Lisa Heft

Consultant, Facilitator, Educator

Opening Space

lisaheft at openingspace.net

www.openingspace.net

 Jack Martin Leith wrote:

*	What the client is really paying for is the consulting work and the
design and organisation of the event. Facilitating the event is the easy bit
that happens at the end. So to get maximum value from working with an
experienced practitioner you'd really need to be involved in the entire
project.

*	How do I explain your presence to the client?

*	What would your role be on the day, aside from helping get the space
ready? Once the agenda is created and the sessions are up and running,
there's very little for the facilitator to do.

*	I'll probably get shot down in flames for saying this, but what the
hell: Here in the UK, OS consulting is a crowded marketplace. Do I really
want to help make it even more crowded?

I mentioned that last point because I suspect that the "training a new
competitor" issue is often there, if unconscious, when an OS consultant is
asked "Can I be an extra pair of hands?" and it's best that you're aware of
it. Although the Open Space community is very supportive, and I do whatever
I can to share knowledge and help others, the reality is that we're
operating in a very competitive environment. I've competed with friends and
collaborators for OS work on several occasions.

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