[OSList] Fwd: A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them to Fish / A Note to My Friends

Thu Apr 19 01:56:29 PDT 2012

Yesterday I dropped on this interesting piece:
http://playingwell.org/2012/04/17/leader-as-gardener/
Could "gardener" be another term for facilitator?
As Deidre Combs remarks from the article...

   - “Gardeners, like entrepreneurs are obsessed with latent potential –
   and can be known to be pathologically optimistic.”
   - “In essence, the gardener’s work is a life of care.”
   - “Showing up in person, shovel – and humility in hand is essential.”
   - “The garden has taught me about patience and persistence and the
   ethical principles of generosity and reciprocity…For the gardener,
   composting is a transformative act – whereby last season’s clippings (or
   failures) can become next year’s source of vigor.”

Best wishes!
Eleder

2012/2/28 Frauke Godat <frauke.godat at gmail.com>

> For the case study, see the second document in this blog post<http://aohberlin2011.posterous.com/wie-organisieren-sich-netzwerke-fur-gesellsch>.
> Frauke
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Frauke Godat <frauke.godat at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 12:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them to
> Fish / A Note to My Friends
> To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
>
>
> Another step in the evolution: hosting and the Art of Hosting (where Open
> Space is one of the 4 core methods):  http://artofhosting.ning.com/ and
> http://www.artofhosting.org
>
> Also, attached an overview about the Art of Hosting as a case study that I
> have written.
>
> Best,
> Frauke
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Bernhard Weber <weberb at gmx.at> wrote:
>
>> Artur and all,
>>
>> "Designing/creating a context for emergence" and then follow the
>> principle of close observation, minimal intervention and non-control. This
>> reminds me again of the permaculture-approach in its factual and its
>> metaphorical sense. And I like it
>>
>> And not to forget the "1% of situations" side-principle
>> where strong interventions might be useful
>> is a kind of "minority protection" thinking,
>> good
>> for not becoming dogmatic and rigid,
>> but still staying clear of the interventionitis disease
>>
>> Bernd
>>
>> On Feb 27, 2012, at 9:45 PM, Artur Silva wrote:
>>
>> Hi, Agustin:****
>> ** **
>> I don't know if the word "contexting" exists in English, but I agree that
>> "creating the right context" is crucial.****
>> ** **
>> In what concerns formal education and training, the orthodoxy is still
>> based in the "impart of knowledge" and, in that model, the most important
>> is to create "contents" or, as they often say, "knowledge objects". On the
>> contrary, IMO what is important is to create the right contexts for
>> learning to emerge. (So we may talk about "designing” only in the sense of
>> “designing for emergence”). ****
>> ** **
>> The same is true about facilitation. With the bulletin board, the market
>> place, the law of two feet, etc., what OST does is to create a rich
>> "context" that allows for multiple interpersonal contacts, cross
>> pollination and the emergence of the new.****
>> ** **
>> Facilitation methods where the facilitator designs and intervenes a lot
>> and controls everything (or so he believes) do the contrary of that.****
>> ** **
>> Ok, I agree that probably in 1% of the cases that can be useful, but not
>> in the majority of the cases I have seen.   ****
>> ** **
>> Artur****
>> ** **
>> PS: talking about languages, may I remind you all that in Portuguese my
>> name is written as above, and *is not* "Arthur". Indeed, if you want to
>> know the correct pronunciation it is more like (in English) "Urtoor"; very
>> different from "Arthur" ;-)****
>>
>> -------------------
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>> *From:* agusj <agusjs2002 at yahoo.com>
>> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list <
>> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
>> *Sent:* Monday, February 27, 2012 3:36 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them
>> to Fish / A Note to My Friends
>>
>> Hi Bernd,
>>
>> Maybe “contexting” could be an usefull word in your quest. What I mean
>> for "contexting" is to create the appropriate context that allows the
>> participants to make distinctions that develop capacity “to fish”.  In
>> other words, a facilitator does not teach to fish, a facilitator creates
>> (facilitates, generates)  the conditions that allows participants to make
>> sense of "fishing",  to realize that they can “fish” and to find the best
>> way to "fish" for them.
>>
>> What do you think about "capacity developers"?
>>
>> Agustin
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>> *From:* Bernhard Weber <weberb at gmx.at>
>> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list <
>> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
>> *Sent:* Sunday, February 26, 2012 11:06 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them
>> to Fish / A Note to My Friends
>>
>> Artur
>>
>> As I said, there is probably no super word fully integrating all aspects
>> we want and excluding what we do NOT want to say,
>> but yes, your three examples show that there might be useful words to be
>> used  in this or that occasion.
>>
>> I  try to get a feeling for the connotation-environment of each of these
>> three words (within the limits of a non-english-native speaker)....
>>
>> nurturing still having the connotation of giving (and the related
>> asymmetry, non-mutuality),
>> inviting also not having enough of the intended range of meanings for me
>> As a perma-culturist I immediately jumped on "cultivating". Especially
>> since I have not yet used it in this sense. But it also has its unwanted
>> connotations of course. e.g. "beeing non-cultivated" is a distinction that
>> may be used/perceived as pejorative/as a part of a power-game
>>
>> So thank you all, who contributed to this discussion until now: finding
>> more words that may be appropriate under specific conditions is what I
>> could realistically expect. And I got it
>>
>> Bernd
>>
>>
>> On Feb 26, 2012, at 7:26 PM, Artur Silva wrote:
>>
>> Nurturing (from Lisa)?
>>
>> Inviting (from Suzanne)?
>>
>> Cultivating (in a sense similar to "cultivating the land")?
>>
>> Artur
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>> *From:* Bernhard Weber <weberb at gmx.at>
>> *To:* OSLIST New Adress <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
>> *Sent:* Sunday, February 26, 2012 6:53 AM
>> *Subject:* [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them to
>> Fish / A Note to My Friends
>>
>>
>> Hi again
>>
>> The last years I was again and again discussing adequate wording of our
>> "interventions" as consultants, facilitators (in German: ModeratorInnen,
>> BegleiterInnen), trainers...
>> With myself and others.
>>
>> There was the classical "Change Management" (Consultancy) which we
>> substituted by Change Facilitators, mainly because it had become evident,
>> that you can not "manage" change (at least not in the classical sense of
>> management, which has (the possibility) of control at its core.
>>
>> Of course "facilitate" has a connotation of "making things easy" which is
>> not necessarily what I understand by facilitating. Let me go back to the
>> teacherlearner example: sometimes there was more learning happening when I
>> did not make things easier, sometimes I was building barriers for my
>> students.
>>
>> For me "facilitating" (in contrast to "helping") has a lot to do with
>> systemic perception/action: finding a good setting, trying to find ways of
>> improving the conditions of learning, indirect interventions but also
>> breaking down the walls between classical "training/learning" and "(group
>> work) facilitation" by contributing to learning whilst problem-solving or,
>> more positively, whilst "solution inquiring", with a longer term
>> perspective of "capacity building" (in its complex dynamics between
>> persons/groups/organizations/environment alias micro/makro).
>>
>> In that sense I could use the word "facilitation" to make clear that I
>> was not speaking of old approaches and that we should not go back from a
>> systematic systemic perspective. This  also gave me a good feeling of
>> beeing "progressive", although or because it was clear that I had squeezed
>> in a lot into this 'innocent word'
>> And the term 'facilitation' made quite some carreer (especially outside
>> of the english-speaking world as a 'foreign word'.
>>
>>
>> But maybe  it is time to look for a better word in the sense of the
>> aspects that are emerging during  this "Fishing Discussion".
>> I can understand why you avoided the word 'to facilitate' but a wording
>> like 'helping to learn' does not seem to be a step forward, to the
>> contrary. Both wordings evidently need a lot of explanation about "in the
>> sense of...." And for me this is an indicator that we should perhaps look
>> out for another wording, ....
>>
>> That includes (or is able to include) what I have uttered in my previous
>> postings  to that thread, and much of what others have contributed here,
>> especially that term should be able to include also "Learning the art of
>> silence seems to be much more rewarding for both for there's no Godot with
>> fish in hands." (Stanley Park) and also "hat the facilitator should not be
>> the 'catalyst' or 'interventionist' but more the 'nutritionist'" and "our
>> roles before the event, during and afterwards" and the role of "'conscious
>> non-interventionist'" (Lisa Heft), the
>> empowerment/dis-empowerment-contradiction and the 'sequence ... Fish
>> Distributors, Fishing Teachers, and then “Gone fish ‘in” – looking for
>> other fish to fry'(HO), not forgetting that we have to care that 'nobody
>> pollutes the environment in the meantime and that there is still fish to
>> fish....  (Joanne)...
>>
>> and - whilst again using such heavy loaded wording - never forgetting
>> that the base self-organization in its non-logic/Yin-Yang/dialectical
>> movements, the last term allowing us, to never reduce ourselves to the
>> either/or thinking (so, eg. depending on the context to also be catalyst,
>> interventionist and nutritionist and e.g. also understanding the sequence
>> Fish Distributor, Fishing Teachers, ... Fishing-Zen (Diane G.)
>> masters/students.... not necessarily as a step-after-step-sequence but
>> consisting of aspects to phase in, be 'dominant' phase out, the 'sequence'
>> beeing parallel and interdependent processes like as 'overlapping threads'
>> of changing intensity.
>>
>> Well, reading over my own text once again, I get the impression, that it
>> is not possible to find such a Superword, but playing around, looking out
>> for a new and better word might be fun. In fact that is, what we are
>> implicitely ALSO doing here all the time right now in this list.
>>
>> Hmm. maybe we have to change the context.
>>
>> I do not know. Any ideas?
>>
>> Bernd
>>
>>
>> P.S. regarding the "nutricionist" role: Two year ago I experimented with
>> that in a non-metaphorical sense: to contribute a discussion process of
>> adequate change facilitation approaches  in our Change Facilitation s.r.o.
>> company I invited Rik Berbé (one of the other members of our company
>> management team) to come to my home in Vienna/Austria for a two day
>> workshop. Instead of preparing contents, methods, program etc. I prepared
>> food and drinks, plenty of choices, healthy, not too heavy, .... (well the
>> kind of snacks you would always like to have in a perfect OST event
>> environment) and during our 2-person workshop I concentrated on two roles
>> (participant and barman). We had a wonderful workshop and Rik who was at
>> the beginning very amazed about such an approach agreed, that caring for
>> the best possible environment in the sense of beeing a 'nutricionist' was a
>> very useful role aspect I had contributed.
>> Not only ;-)
>>
>>
>> On Feb 25, 2012, at 11:46 PM, Artur Silva wrote:
>>
>> Yes, Bernardo, you are right. Sometimes one must give the fish, teach to
>> fish and also help learning how to learn.
>>
>> You are also right that this "to help to learnr" is indeed "to
>> facilitate". I avoided the term because quite often - as HO mentioned -
>> many people think (and do) "facilitate too much", disempowering the
>> other and making more difficult for him to learn by himself.
>>
>> And your story in Mozambique (Beira) is marvelous.
>>
>> Abraço
>>
>> Artur
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>> *From:* Bernhard Weber <weberb at gmx.at>
>> *To:* Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com>; World wide Open Space
>> Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, February 25, 2012 4:43 AM
>> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Teach Them to Fish / A Note to My Friends
>>
>> Yes Artur,
>>
>> based on my own life and working experience, meanwhile most of it in
>> Ex-colonized countries, our job is, to HELP (I would meanwhile formulate it
>> in a more systemic-adequate way: FACILITATE) to learn, to learn how to
>> learn (as a way of being) and - though inicially accepting the
>> Teacher-Student "Übertragung" (S. Freud, that means also: including the
>> Gegen-Übertragung)- learn how to disappear.
>>
>> Only one thing. Let us not be put into a perception and thinking limiting
>> TRANCE by strictly following logic thinking. That means there are times,
>> when the logical either/or is simply not the best solution or even not
>> human. So there may be cases where we give the fish AND teach to fish. Or
>> give the fish under conditions that fishing is learned.
>>
>> I still remember the blind beggars in Beira, who got only money from me
>> if they accepted to go to the training center for blind people and look if
>> they would not be interested to be trained for a job there.
>>
>>
>> Bernardo
>>
>>
>> On Feb 24, 2012, at 6:49 PM, Artur Silva wrote:
>>
>> Amen for almost everything! And thank you, Harrison, for reminding us of
>> all this.
>>
>> (...)
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Frauke Godat
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Offener ZukunftsLernraum in Berlin ab 6. Februar 2012
> Einladung und Termine unter: http://tinyurl.com/7zazcb8
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> phone (mobile): +49 (0)176 50 47 88 06
> Twitter: @futureatschool @fraukeatschool
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> --
> Frauke Godat
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Offener ZukunftsLernraum in Berlin ab 6. Februar 2012
> Einladung und Termine unter: http://tinyurl.com/7zazcb8
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> phone (mobile): +49 (0)176 50 47 88 06
> Twitter: @futureatschool @fraukeatschool
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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