Facilitation disasters - your stories please

Tonnie van der Zouwen info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl
Mon Nov 16 01:46:20 PST 2009


So pleased to see I am not the only one with events that turn out more or
less as disasters.  I am very pleased this topic showed up. For my PhD
project I read a lot of stories about OS and other large scale
interventions, but it seems as if in formal literature all projects are
successful. Maybe we don't like to talk about the less successful ones, so
thank you all for sharing. Then again, what is success and when is going to
show? I notice that especially in projects that  "fail" you see the working
principles very clearly.  

 

I want to share a story of an OS I facilitated a few years ago. It really
educated me J .  It is about an organization that consists of 55 schools on
70 locations in one city. The public schools in the city are dealing with a
negative image: many children from lower income families, too much
foreigners, lower quality of education. They face a serious decline in pupil
numbers. If the trend was not turned around some schools would have to close
and the image of the public schools would become even worse. We had two
meetings with a preparation team of seven people. We planned a one day OS as
start of a bigger project to make the schools more attractive. The OS is
planned on an already scheduled directors meeting. A  second conference is
planned a few month later. They didn't want to invite parents or teachers,
that had something to do with dirty laundry. What happened? 

 

The OS is in the communication museum in the city centre. The conference
room is long and narrow. Murphy's Law is working: The project leader is
unable to come. The sponsor, the general director, is delayed. After
reception with coffee, about 70 directors take a seat in a wide oval of
chairs. My colleague Ronald, who is specialised in school marketing,  starts
with a visualization of twenty minutes. He tells a story of what parents are
experiencing when they visit one of the schools. Then the sponsor explains
the goals for the day and for the larger change process, including personal
targets for acquisition. After one hour, I introduce Open Space. The theme
is: How do we make our schools more attractive? Energy levels are low.
Looking at a lot of skeptic faces, I feel my energy dropping too. For a few
minutes no one enters the circle to announce a topic. I just wait. Finally,
eleven groups are formed for the first round and seven for the second round.
The sponsor is enthusiastic about the process: they are really taking
responsibility for subgroups and some groups have lively discussions. He
sees the lack of taking own responsibility as one of the problems in his
organization. Each group produces a report in a news centre with ten
laptops. Reports are copied in a nearby copy centre. During lunch,
information about school marketing and support options is displayed.
Participants read the reports. After a plenary discussion, participants
place stickers on flip charts to select the most important items. A third
round for action planning is on the agenda, but energy is dropping fast. In
the corridors I hear some very negative voices.  At three o'clock p.m. the
sponsor decides to skip the third round and start with the conference
evaluation in the closing circle. Am I pleased with that decision? It was
enough for that day, but what about action planning? In the closing circle
some are positive about the exchange of experiences and the opportunity for
everyone to contribute who wanted to, some pass the microphone with a
sceptic face. Every participant receives a binder with the reports and
information about school marketing. The next week the planning group meets
for the third and last time. The evaluation is positive in general, but they
say the program could have been shorter and the beginning more energetic.
The twelve items with the most stickers are selected for follow up actions
in a project team. The second conference is called off. 

 

I evaluated this case after two years, for my PhD study, using an evaluation
instrument with success factors and effects I developed. The overall project
was a success. A negative trend of ten years is turned into a positive one.
The image of the schools is improving. The sponsor thinks the OS was worth
the effort, it raised awareness of the urgency and collective responsibility
for the issue. Among directors and consultants, perceptions of causes and
effects differ strongly. It worked, but couldn't it have been done much
better? There hasn't been another interactive project so far. Was this the
only thing that could have happened? School directors face a lot of
problems, maybe this was all the energy they could offer. But what if we had
insisted on inviting more diversity, other voices? Same people - same
interaction certainly showed here. What if we skipped the long introduction
and opened space as soon as possible? My presence was not good, I felt
intimidated. I think it could have been done much better, in any  case by
me. 

 

Hope to hear more of your learning experiences, 

Tonnie 

 

 

 

 

Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Namens Suzanne Daigle
Verzonden: maandag 16 november 2009 2:08
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: [SPAM]Re: [OSLIST] Facilitation disasters - your stories please

 

Such wise words on a topic that has generated so much insight.
I felt myself seeped in what has been described and discussed. This
community of learning and sharing is the best!
Suzanne heading back to Florida after 2.5 wonderful days of Wave Rider
surfing in Orillia, Canada!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

  _____  

From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> 

Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:53:12 -0500

To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Facilitation disasters - your stories please

 

Absolutely Annamarie! It is all about choosing. A friend told me - never
sell Open Space. It is like teaching a pig to sing. Sounds terrible, and
annoys the pig. I think so. 

 

ALSO - There really isn't any sale to be made or choice, for that matter.
The nasty truth is that the whole cosmos is self-organizing (Open Space) -
and so the fundamental choice was made just about 13.7 million years ago. We
do, however, have the choice about how well we "do" it. Or more extremely -
whether we want to maintain the delusion that we are actually in control,
and if not us, then surely somebody. Ah - the great aching simplicity of the
days when we actually knew what we were doing, and did what we knew.

 

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 

OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
Visit:  <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

 

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Annamarie
Pluhar
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2009 7:13 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Facilitation disasters - your stories please

 

Such an interesting conversation that you have started Robyn.  

 

My own experience was (gulp!) 15 years ago. My life has taken twists and
turns away from group facilitation - the fact that I'm on the list now has
everything to do with a current contract/assignment.  Before meeting the
client - knowing what they were looking for  "empowering the people" "new
ideas" "enthusiasm" and "excitement" I thought that sounds like OS.  Turns
out those are just words.. they only want want is safe and familiar and what
they did last year. 

 

15 years ago, I was facilitating a two-day annual retreat for a smallish
company.  Day two was to have been OS.  It was started OK, but the owner of
the company hijacked the process (I can't remember the exact words) - he
invited (he's the boss so invited...) everyone to go on a hike with him on a
trail. When I was invited to go, I said "no" on the grounds that I wasn't
sure everyone was there and some might be looking for the group. I was told
that they ended up having a very good conversation on top of the mountain. 

 

I think that the contracting process is the most important. what I'm holding
to is that the client has to choose OS rather than it being recommended... 

 

 

 

 

Annamarie Pluhar 

 

Pluhar Consulting

Results through effective group process

802.451.1941

802.579.5975 (cell)

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Nov 14, 2009, at 7:44 PM, 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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