looking for OS practitioner in Philadelphia area

Tue May 5 09:51:45 PDT 2009

Hi everyone.

I want to thank you, lisa, for your gracious and thorough message.  
You're great! You said it so well.

I want to thank you Jeff, Jon and Pat for your messages as well.  
Thanks for expressing appreciation for mine, Jeff.

I want to apologize to everyone especially you, Nigel, for the  
edginess of my response to your curiosity.

I'm glad you expressed it instead of silencing it.

I need to sleep on my messages more often before sending them off.  
Live and learn.

Thanks again everyone,

John

On May 5, 2009, at 11:59 AM, Jon Harvey wrote:

> Good words Lisa – thanks.
>
> I once facilitated 4 women only OS events for the Metropolitan  
> Police called
> "Dancing on the Glass Ceiling" which involved about 700 police  
> officers and
> staff. The rest of the OS team were women, the clients were all  
> women too. I
> happened to be the one person in my old organisation who had both  
> police
> knowledge and experience of facilitating OS events. I said the intro  
> on each
> occasion and then hid in the walls for the rest of the time. It  
> seemed to
> work OK.
>
> But had the client said – we want a woman to do this – I would have  
> been
> happy to oblige and worked to enable my colleagues to front  
> everything up.
>
> In the end – as others have said – our role is to be where the  
> client is at
> - and not to impose our perspectives on them. I watched a great TV  
> play last
> night on British Television - called End Game
> (http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2009/03/19/endgame-a-film-on-apartheid-h
> olds-hope/) Towards the end of the film - one of the key people  
> representing
> one of the sides in the talks said to the facilitator "it takes a  
> big man to
> be invisible - thank you"
>
> I strive to be invisible in all the facilitation that I do.
>
> Jon
> ___________________________________________________
>
> Jon Harvey
> Director
>
> www.jonharveyassociates.co.uk
> +44 (0) 7771 537535
> +44 (0) 1280 822585
>
> jon at jonharveyassociates.co.uk
>
>
> Helping you connect the prose and the passion
> to deliver superlative results
>
> http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/  for ideas about how to  
> improve
> public services
> http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/ for articles, ideas &  
> ramblings
> linked to my consultancy
>
> Jon Harvey Associates Ltd
> Registered Office: Chandos House, School Lane, Buckingham, MK18 1HD
> Company Number 6661588. VAT Registration Number 936 2921 11
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of  
> Lisa Heft
> Sent: 05 May 2009 16:14
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] looking for OS practitioner in Philadelphia area
>
> John and others -
> Thank you so much for opening us to this important conversation.
>
> Something I think we all share - as facilitators experienced in  
> working with
> groups (comprised of individuals) - is that we cannot know what  
> another's
> personal life experience is.
>
> We can be well intentioned, and kind, and loving, and appreciative,  
> and
> welcoming.
> But we cannot know what someone's life experience has been with the  
> complex
> dynamics of race and power, class and access, 'isms' and '___phobias',
> survivorship and identity...
>
> Even if we are the same (seemingly) as another person (such as both  
> women,
> or both looking like the same color) we cannot know or assume that  
> other
> person's experience - we can only listen well, stay humble, and  
> learn from
> what we hear, see and bump into (when we make mistakes).
>
> And especially in terms of being able to know or expect or  
> assume ... when
> one is of a majority culture and that other person is not of majority
> culture.
>
> So many hidden complexities and histories that inform one's sense of
> inclusion or exclusion.
>
> To add to that, for anyone who feels they have been marginalized
> (dis-included in many ways over time) - it seems quite natural that  
> they
> would yearn for visible leadership from someone who looks and sounds  
> like
> them.
>
> The amazing thing about Open Space is that the facilitator soon  
> becomes
> invisible as the group jumps off into space.
> So if one cannot find a facilitator that looks like / is of the  
> culture of
> the group being facilitated, this is one of those tools for which the
> participants can claim their own space rather immediately after the  
> opening.
>
> However I think it behooves us to honor a group's interest and  
> request for
> someone of their culture as a facilitator, in any culture, if we can  
> find
> someone of that culture who is also capable and skilled.  I would  
> hate to
> put someone in the facilitator role who was not able to do the job, so
> sometimes this either means taking extra time and resources to train
> someone(s) or a candid discussion with the client about this process  
> and how
> it upends the usual power dynamics as the participants self-organize.
>
> My two any-color cents, dear colleagues,
>
> Lisa
>
> Lisa Heft
> Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
> Opening Space
> lisaheft at openingspace.net
> www.openingspace.net
>
>
>
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