[OSList] energy field of the facilitator and its influence on OST outcomes

Esther Ewing ewingchange at gmail.com
Sat Aug 6 13:53:16 PDT 2011


Wow, Birgitt, you should have holidays more often. Speaking for myself,
although I'm sure your words are finding resonance with others on this list,
I am very much enjoying your contributions.

 

I would like to chime in on the notion of invisibility. As an experienced
coach, particularly if I were anticipating a difficult session with a
client, I would say the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi to myself to remind
myself that I was merely an instrument ("Make me an instrument of thy
peace...") 

 

I had a discussion with a very wise coach and facilitator, Grant Jahnke
about the nature of the coach and coaching and remarked that I tried to be
very aware that I was only the coach and that the session was to benefit the
client, not me. And he remarked back to me that I should remember that I was
a particular coach and that the client had chosen me not anyone else. So
while the client was the reason for the session, I wasn't a great model if I
was so self-effacing that I became invisible to the process. He suggested
that I needed to bring all of the best of what I had to offer. And in doing
so, I would be a great coach. An important reminder to me at the time.

 

I think this applies as well when we are facilitating either in open space
or in a different mode of action. We need to do no harm as the medical
community would say, but we also can't take over to the extent that the
client submerges their will and can't self-organize. It's a delicate balance
and sometimes I am in awe when I watch a colleague act with the elegance of
a tightrope walker in the Cirque du Soleil. 

 

Blessings to you all

Esther

 

From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Birgitt
Williams
Sent: August-06-11 12:24 PM
To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
Subject: Re: [OSList] energy field of the facilitator and its influence on
OST outcomes

 

Warm greetings to you all, whether you are invisible or not J,

Dearest Elisabeth.I wish to assure you that no matter what you do, you are
never invisible.your colors shine a very great distance, your energy field
is enormous, and your influence is powerful. Definitely not invisible. Yes,
you made the choice as an OST facilitator to do what my dear friend Barry
has thought about, and moved from 'performance oriented' facilitation to
'core wisdom' facilitation. I think another term for this way of being used
to be related to 'women's ways of knowing'. I am happy to acknowledge that
it is now, as we have evolved, human beings ways of knowing when accessing
their feminine wisdom.  I find all beings who are accessing their whole self
to be so beautiful.and they are indeed exceptional facilitators with deeply
influential energy fields when they choose to be so.

 

I suggest as part of our upgrade as OST facilitators that we get rid of this
notion of invisibility. It doesn't serve anyone. Indeed, as a natural born
empathy, I assure you that none of you are invisible, ever. Some of you
limit your beautiful energy fields for whatever reasons. It might have
something to do with what Marianne Williamson wrote about quoted by Nelson
Mandela when he talked about  us being afraid of our 'light'. I am sure you
all know that quote. When we are afraid of our light, we are afraid of our
true power. It is not a power of doing or performing. It is a power of our
great light, coming from our deep genuine contact with our wisdom core or
what some call the Divine light within. As humans, we have quite a history
of terrible things happening to people who dare to use this great light and
their great energy field. I think the history includes burning at the stake,
beheadings, crucifixion, and drowning. The end result is that we became very
timid and most people do a lot to keep their energy field small, never
invisible, but small. And so what happens when we claim the fullness of our
birthright, claim our full light and power, and then live our lives from our
whole self (holy self) and figure it out from there. We would do less,
engage in the moment more, and all going well, we would learn to use our
power wisely and well.

 

I am seeing more and more people making this choice and it is exciting
beyond words. I am seeing linkages between people at this level of energy
that is breathtakingly beautiful. For those of you who have seen the movie
Avatar, what I see is similar to that story. The extra-ordinary is possible.
Signs of us making the extraordinary into our ordinary are showing up in all
kinds of places. I'll name only a few. The newly emerged professional field
of positive psychology, the work of Appreciative Inquiry, of the Heart Math
Institute, Noetic Sciences, extraordinary work of Toni Petrinovich (she may
still be on this list) of us as Angelic Humans, the work of Dr. Angeles
Arrien with the Berkana Institute and more, the work of our beloved Peggy
Holman with engaging emergence, the breakthrough work of biologist Dr. Bruce
Lipton and the work of Dr. Richard Bartlett with the physics of miracles. I
could add so many more.. Isn't it exciting to be aware of how many great and
wonderful people and movements are on the planet at this time that are
willing to look at our great light as humans, our great power, and to figure
out how to lead from this great light, power and energy field in life
nurturing rather than life depleting ways. I have the beautiful privilege of
travelling a lot, meeting extraordinary people, and receiving so much
learning. One of my learnings that has given me great joy is that there are
cultures on this planet, indeed whole civilizations such as in India, where
knowledge of humans as spiritual beings was never divorced from our
knowledge as rational beings. In other words, even in business there is no
need for a Spirit in Business movement in some places, because it is
generally recognized that Spirit is always in all, including business. To
that point, I feel more at home in India where I spend significant time,
than I do in my birthplace of Germany, my growing up place of Canada, or my
current place of residence in the USA. Yes, some separation between the
whole being and the rational being is occurring in India and in some of the
African countries where I have observed a lot of 'whole person'
connection.the divorce seems to be a result of colonialism and its impact,
not necessarily towards that which nurtures life.

 

So, what does all of this have to do with my wondering about 'upgrading' our
operating platform as OST facilitators?  I suggest we leave the notion of
invisibility behind. I suggest embracing our fullest light, our fullest
power, and our conscious awareness that we can use this power wisely and
well by extending it in greatest possible service to a grouping of people.
Except to those who can see energy fields, and photos taken by kirlian
photography, you may appear to be doing nothing. And yet you are doing an
incredible service. You are upholding a frequency to which others can become
attracted and link with. First, the linkage can be with fellow facilitators
and the sponsoring team which has the effect of enlarging the field. Then of
course, more and more people join, at those levels beyond what the five
senses usually measure.  From my perspective, when this is all in place, the
opportunity for the people in the OST meeting to do extraordinary things
increases as does what is possible as outcomes from the meeting. We recently
had a leadership team, all of whom worked with this energy field with us
during several meetings, some Open Space Technology and some Whole Person
Process Facilitation, and then led their organization from consciously
working with their energy field every day. The competency that they
demonstrated, one which I think is one of the critical leadership
competencies of today, is to work with personal energy in a conscious way
that allowed them to do so wisely and well, and to work with each other in
partners as energy buddies to assist each other sustain their positive
energy, and then to work in this way collaboratively in co-leadership. The
results affected the well being of children and their mothers in a whole
nation in ways never before realized. 

 

I think that there is more to the upgrade still to be discovered and
wondered about, hopefully with a childlike curiosity. Speaking of
children.they get this. 

 

Blessings to all,

Birgitt 

 

 

From: Barry Owen [mailto:barryo at comcast.net] 
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 5:47 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] energy field of the facilitator and its influence on
OST outcomes

 

Upgrade?

 

You've got me engaged now because . . . 

 

Most of the technological upgrades I experience have purpose "to make things
more "user-friendly" and "efficient" and FASTER.

 

I do see that "upgrading the facilitator" may be in order, but what does
that look like?

 

In my view, an up-grade would be stepping another step each time from the
constraints of years of "control training" . . . the idea that if we don't
have CONTROL, it's BAD. 

 

I think in terms of the upgrade being "performance oriented" and the closer
the facilitator comes to "core Wisdom" in terms of holding the space, the
more powerful the energy of space that she holds and self-organization
flourishes in the vacuum

 

I think this comes from LOTS of practice and thus comes with less visible,
conscious effort (by the facilitator) with each iteration.

 

I might be saying (thinking this as I type) that "Practice makes perfect"
with the reiteration that I heard through the years simply to "Open more
space" and always to think in terms of "one less thing to do" each time.

 

So the intentional space holder does this naturally with practice?

 

And if so . . . Is this "upgrade" then not much more than intentionally
moving closer to what IS what always has been . . . Our upgrade is our
decluttering of the space . . . Unlearning our years of education that have
instilled in us this need for control and validation.

 

My most successful OST events seem to be the ones during which I feel have
been closer to "effortless" . . . yet at the end I have this feeling
"exhilarating exhaustion"

 

So . . . Can this be taught?

 

or is something (like Open Space) that is already there that we simply must
discover through practice of shedding our cultural layers of noise?

 

hmmm . . . 

 

b

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 4:54 PM, Birgitt Williams
<birgitt at dalarinternational.com> wrote:

Thank you friends,
There are so many stories of what OST is about, many assumptions, and from
that, many different choices of actions and non-actions. I think that it is
useful for OST facilitators to expand their consciousness. Heart Math is a
great path to the mind heart coherence. I believe that in OST: a user's
guide, there is mention of having a good head and a good heart.

What if, just what if, with all our stories and assumptions, it is time for
an upgrade of how we view the facilitator. I know that my computer does not
work with the same operating system that I might have used in 1995...if I
tried that, none of the great and upgraded software I want to use would be
able to function...or function well. I think it is worth looking at
ourselves as OST facilitators and exploring the operating system that we
operate from...including wondering about the need for an upgrade of the
'personal operating system of the OST facilitator'.

I think that twenty years ago, the operating system of the facilitator of
having a good head, a good heart, and a copy of OST: a user's guide, was
enough of an operating system for the facilitator. Today, to get the results
both during and after the meeting that OST has the potential for, I can
imagine needing an upgraded operating system for the facilitator. Would it
include ensuring that I have mind-heart coherence? Would it include that I
embrace expanding my consciousness? Would it include knowledge of how to
work with energy fields so that the participants could align to the energy
field of the facilitator, or better yet the facilitation team who knows how
to be in energy alignment with each other, or better yet the facilitation
team combined with the sponsor team who knows how to be in energy alignment
with each other? Can we move beyond the 'self organizing system' to
something more by our energy field as the facilitator and its influence on
OST?

I experience that humans have evolved a lot in their consciousness in the
last twenty years and that we continue to accelerate in our development. I
experience that young people are at a different level of consciousness at a
young age and that numbers of them know how to work with energy fields and
expanded consciousness. Do we need an upgrade...not in what we do with the
form of OST..but in ourselves as facilitators, our state of being, our work
with energy fields, and our consciousness?

Warmly,
Birgitt
Ps to Michael...possibly next year in Berlin en route to Tuscany


Birgitt Williams
President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy

Author, The Genuine Contact Way

919-522-7750


Co-Owner of the Genuine ContactT Program

 Genuine Contact Way blog
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-----Original Message-----
From: Michael M Pannwitz [mailto:mmpanne at boscop.org]
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 4:36 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] energy field of the facilitator and its influence on
OST outcomes

Dear Birgitt,
from where I stand, space always is. So no need to open it. Often,
however, the space is not very large and sometimes it is shrunk to a
mere dot in the universe.
And then there is the question, what on earth the space is for, no
matter how huge or how tiny. To me, in this context, it is the
playground for selforganisation to do its thing.
And then, selforganisation always is.
So, here I have space always and selforganisation always.
What then is the role/function of me and others involved in a situation
where an urgent issue needs to be dealt with?
Having worked as a facilitator with nothing much else than OST in the
last 15 years, I happily will offer it in situations where conditions
appear suitable first of all to the sponsor/client for expanding the
space for selforganisation to do its thing.
At the beginning of an OST event, the sponsor opens the event (opens the
space is also what I usually say, mostly to make clear that it is not me
doing that... it might be less sloppy and just simpler and more
congruent with my understanding of space always being open for me to say
"opens the event").
Then, I introduce OST with the idea to expand the space just a bit so
that selforganisation can do more of its thing. At that moment it seems
to me, everyone in the room is involved in contributing to expanding and
holding the space... and from here on in much more so than me and, it
seems, very little aware of it, apparently finding it the "normal" or
"natural" thing to do, no need to really talk about it. This puzzled me
early in my OST work, thinking the participants need to appreciate more
what they were achieving. All attempts (evaluation, medicine wheel,
etc.)did not seem to add anything to the event and I had the feeling we
were taking up the time of participants with something that mainly
interested me.

How does this relate to outcome?

In my practice, the Planning Group (usually 6 to 12 weeks before the
event) always produces a mind map visualizing what the world looks like
to them the day after the event, what has changed, what is different,
how they feel, which perspectives have been opened, what happens at
their place of work, in their community, etc., their aspirations, vision
of the future.
Looking at the mind map after the event and going through it together,
typically not only showed that just about everything happened the way
they had envisioned it AND a lot more (be prepared to be surprised).
This exercise also did not seem to catapult them into paradise... now I
suggest that they just post the mind map along other stuff from the
event itself in the Next Meetings where they continue to work on their
projects after the OST event.

So, my picture of everyone at the gathering is not a system that needs
resonant energy broadcasted to them from me or the facilitation team but
a gathering of people that are enjoying, living, working and doing other
fun and productive things in a space just a little bit more expanded
than usual in which selforganisation is at work just a little bit more
than usual.

What I can report in my deminishing work with OST is that the two
clients I have this year (NACOA Germany with its third strategic
conference early in 2012 and an it-outfit in a couple of months
rethinking some basic "givens" in their non-stop business) are
broadcasting wonderful energies in my direction... I wonder what will
happen without such stuff!

Wishing you more quiet time to connect...and if you are in Berlin, I
will convene a Stammtisch...
Hugs
mmp

PS: Rereading my comments I wonder what makes me work so hared, trying
to understand everything so hard... my suspicion is that my old friend
"control" is alive and kicking. And I also see that there are a whole
bunch of assumptions on stuff such as "space" and "selforganization" and
"expanding" and "selforganization doing its thing" and many more that
are probably very important: Are they really touched by our half-way
technology?



On 03.08.2011 02:40, Birgitt Williams wrote:
> Warm greetings!
>
> I have been absent from this list for some time and am delighted to be
> connected now, at least for a while, taking advantage of some quiet time
> over the summer to connect with people and ideas.
>
> A topic that I wish to address is about the outcomes of an OST meeting
> in relation to the energy field of the facilitator. From my perspective
> and experience, there is a direct relationship. I often ask OST
> facilitators what they mean when they say that they 'open space' and
> 'hold space'. My perspective on the facilitator 'opening space' is that
> this is just not so. The facilitator does not 'open the space'. The
> sponsor 'opens space' in his or her organization so that the facilitator
> can conduct the form of the Open Space Technology meeting. Viewed from
> that lens, I make choices when I prepare with the sponsor for the OST
> meeting, and what I ask of the sponsor and his/her participation during
> the meeting itself. For example, the sponsor teams I work with are
> coached about working with their personal energy to support the highly
> engaging participatory process. I ask them to sit equidistant from each
> other in the circle and 'hold the space' open for the best possible
> outcomes and the greatest participation. At the end of every day of the
> meeting, we meet simply to discuss what it felt like to them to have
> opened the space and held the space. The reflections are amazing.
>
> My role as the lead facilitator and the role of my co-facilitators is
> one of working with the space being held, of going through the form of
> OST, and more importantly to be in touch with ourselves as resonant
> energy field generators. Every one of us works at being in genuine
> contact with ourselves, with our personal energy field, and within that
> genuine contact experiences love and peace and joy. Our job as resonant
> energy field generators is to broadcast this frequency from ourselves to
> give the greatest opportunity for everyone within the gathering to reach
> their greatest potential in the moment of the meeting. 'Holding the
> space' from my perspective is this very connection and interpretation of
> self as generating a resonant energy field. Doing little, being much.
>
> When a meeting goes well, there are many factors, including how well we
> created an energy field as facilitators and how well we did this
> together with our sponsors. We recognize that in both our observer role
> and in our role as energy field generators, we influence the meeting and
> the outcomes of the meeting.
>
> Blessings to all,
>
> Birgitt
>
> Birgitt Williams
>
> President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy
> <http://www.dalarinternational.com>
> Author, The Genuine Contact Way <http://www.genuinecontactway.com>
>
> 919-522-7750
>
> The Look Lo Res.jpg
>
> AW104 GCP Logo Yellow w Blue Back.jpgCo-Owner of the Genuine ContactT
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++49-30-772 8000 <tel:%2B%2B49-30-772%208000> 
mmpanne at boscop.org
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