Facilitation disasters - your stories please

[Gail West]

A difficult situation for the facilitator of an open space event.  A 
good learning experience for thinking through the important steps in 
the preparation stage.

Anybody have any stories from Taiwan?

Gail


>On Friday I was facilitating a 2 hour workshop primarily using Open Space
>principles as requested, and as I would have suggested anyway given the task
>in hand. My own 2 feet did the walking less than halfway through when the
>'person in charge', who I'd not met before, interrupted the process,
>criticised me, and gave me directions (in public) and not for the first
>time. The agenda items were being announced, and her direction was that all
>the issues should be dealt as a whole group and indicated that I should
>facilitate that. I said no, thanked them for their time, wished them well
>for the rest of the session, and left.
>
>Given the short duration and the task at hand, this had been a long-winded
>arrangement which resulted in more questions than answers. Arranged by a
>delegated person without authority, I wasn't able to ascertain who was
>really 'in charge' (I was told that it was a group project, ie all team
>leaders) or get agreement for a meeting to clarify expectations. The day
>before the workshop I contacted the Director of the department, had a
>pleasing chat, and arranged to meet before the session. That session was
>cancelled later in the day, and a shorter session was re-convened for
>another time (when critical people could be available). Sure bells were
>ringing but I started to think that I was being overly consultative. I mean
>what could go wrong in 2 hrs? Right?
>
>On the way home I reflected on how it had unfolded and my part and felt that
>I'd done as well as I could do under the circumstances despite my
>inner-critic suggesting that walking out was pretty extreme and surely I
>could have done better. Needless to say I've learned lessons from this and
>have damage control ahead of me this week (sigh).
>
>So what would you do, or have you done, when your role is undermined?
>And how did you reach closure with the client/s?
>
>Best wishes, Robyn
>Fremantle Western Australia

Dear Robyn,
thanks for telling your story!
I also am interested in expanding options for situations like yours.
In a similar situation I once tried to just stand there (Marvin and 
Sandra describe it in their book "Dont't Just Do Something, Stand 
There!)...first part was actually just to stand there and do nothing 
knowing that the group will step in, which they did, resulting in a 
discussion which led to the continuation of the process...it wasn't a 
2 hour event, however!
In case just standing there does not result in the group stepping in 
the intervention is, and I tried this in one other situation, to ask 
the group if there is anyone else who feels similarly (this is the 
"differentiantion/integration" approach, described by Marv and 
Sandra). And there was one person (people with a broader range of 
experience than me tell me that there is always someone)....that 
takes the "intervenor" out of a possibly very isolated position, she 
is no longer "alone"...and  then also leads to a discussion in the 
group and in the case I remember resulted in a continuation of the 
process...with everybody on board again.
I think this belongs to the "not easy" part of the saying that OST is 
"simple but not easy" and is, as the man with the hat says, the 
occasion when you know why you are being paid for "being totally 
present and at the same time invisible".
In hindsight, and I think you already mentioned this: I never agree 
to an OST facilitation unless I see the person in charge (usually the 
person that pays my fee) and am very leary with all my light bulbs 
beginning to blink when talking to "delegated persons"...discovering 
in the talk with the person(s) in charge that often conditions (such 
as haveing only 2 hours when it might be clear that more time is 
needed)thought of as "givens" by the "delegated person" are not 
givens at all...
Good luck with your "damage control"...you might just hang around and 
wait what happens...
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
-- 
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE   gwestica

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist