Facilitation disasters - your stories please

Sun Nov 15 14:53:33 PST 2009

I think you did just perfect! As the facilitator you open the space and the
people have to decide if that is really what they want. If nobody wants to
stand up and claim the space then I take it that they just want to go back
and be as constrained (miserable, repressed, etc.) as they were before. I
can't imagine why anybody would want to do that, but it does happen. It is
their choice even though they think they are making no choice. Of course the
secret is - making no choice is to make a choice. And in any event people
have to live with the consequences of their choosing. I think we have the
responsibility to open the space so that the choice can be made - which you
did. And after that..

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com

Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Allison &
Jim Baensch
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:23 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Facilitation disasters - your stories please

Hi Robyn and all,

I had a situation with some similarities to and some differences from yours
a while ago, soon after I first moved into a small town.

A community group asked me to facilitate a meeting, and their 2 main
organisers met me a couple of times to make arrangements, at quite short
notice.

I was happy to be involved.

My only concern was the length of time for the meeting, which I couldn't
seem to establish, since the organisers would not say clearly.

They said something about 30 minutes, which I said was rather short, but
then they thought 60 to 90 minutes would be possible.

I said people could go when they needed to.

The organisers and I set up a pre-meeting with the leader of another local
group, which had similar interests and prospective members attending, but
she didn't come to our pre-meeting.

On the day of the event, lots of people gathered, the 2 organisers
summarised the situation to them, then I was introduced and got up to open
the space.

I briefly described the principles and law etc in 5 or so minutes, and a
woman I had not met stood up in the circle.

She turned out to be the leader of the other group.

She said the group needed to learn more about what had been happening about
the topic for the gathering, and she didn't think Open Space would be
appropriate.

Instead, the group needed someone to talk to them, she stated firmly.

I said I was willing to step aside, if that is what the group wanted, but
asked if everyone was in accord with the one who had stood up to speak.

No-one said otherwise, so I sat down and let the meeting find its own way.

After the meeting, one or two people said they would have liked to
experience Open Space.

The 'funny' thing was that the participants moved into their own informal
Open Space, once the speaker sat down.

One of the things the organisers had been told they needed, was confirmation
of what  local participants wanted.

The organisers wanted to take proceedings to the local council to back their
case for being allocated some public land and so on.

Because the Open Space part of the meeting was so informal, no proceedings
were written down.

But I imagine that whatever happened was the only thing  etc...

My main concern was that local folks might think less of Open Space and not
use it in the future for other events.

I wondered what signals I might have missed when setting up the event.

(I haven't run many events yet, and hoped I hadn't 'let the side down'.)

And I was annoyed that the woman who stood and took over the meeting had not
attended the earlier meeting that was set up specifically to inform her
about Open Space.

Without knowing of her existence and power, I am not sure which other way I
might have gone, under the circumstances.

Any thoughts?

Allison.

PS Good on you, Robyn, for stepping aside.

I admire your gumption.

Best wishes with the week ahead.

Thanks for that idea of just standing there, Michael.

I think it would be a good idea for me to read the book you mentioned:
Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!

On 15/11/2009, at 11:44 AM, Robyn Williams wrote:

Hi folks

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

PS WA colleagues - anyone available to debrief this with me?

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