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

Stanley Park spark.osk at gmail.com
Thu Apr 19 02:25:19 PDT 2012


Silent (or Invisible) Liberator from our context... maybe?

spark :-)
2012. 2. 28. 오후 7:46에 "Bernhard Weber" <weberb at gmx.at>님이 작성:

> Hi Augustin
>
>
> thank you. As you will see your idea of contexting triggered a lot in my
> head and I will now just follow this stream of images:
>
> Artur already mentioned it. Does a word like "contexting" exists in
> English?
> Maybe "contextualizing" which might have a meaning that is again slightly
> different, not only the sound. Or does this also not exist. In German
> language we use this word very much
> (Kontextualisieren/De-Kontextualisieren/Re-Kontextualisieren, still not
> exactly an everyday word)
>
> Yes, it certainly is useful in "my quest".
>
> This my quest changed meanwhile: I do not want to find "the superword"
> that integrates everything we need and excludes everything we do not, but
> what I like to continue is the (re-)exploring of meanings of the words that
> should be in the "halo" of this not-existing word. Getting a collection of
> (half-)synonyms. It is clear that this might not be of much relevance for
> the practical aspects of OST but it certainly helps to sharpen my
> understanding.
>
> "Capacity developer". Funny: there is this big "capacity development" word
> which became bigger and bigger, if you apply it to a complex social context
> of networks, multiple stakeholders etc. (and it is used as a fundamental
> approach meanwhile by highly professional organizations in international
> development contexts, like the german GIZ (Ex-GTZ) and others, and of
> course also in OD, Change Facilitation etc. in the corporate world. It
> became so big meanwhile, that I usually ask the people, why we do not
> simply use the good old word "development" instead, because first
> developping capacities and then applying them to develop a system is in
> fact the old paradigm of separated step-by-step approaches and "How to
> develop practical capacities without practicing them by applying them right
> away.....
>
> But "developer" is very much on the fish giving side, isn't it? So I would
> rather call, what you probably mean a "capacity development facilitator"
>
> And right, again and again during this discussion, I noticed, that
> "facilitating" is still a great word, ok, it might be a bit on the side of
> "helping" if you apply it to people, but if you facilitate change of a
> system, it may also include "supporting this process" by not always "making
> it easier for the people" (by fish-giving) but  even by building up some
> hurdles/obstacles or moving some of the existing hurdles or show
> that/discuss if... approaching these existing hurdles from another angle or
> at another speed might be useful,
> (oh there are images from horse jumping coming in.)
>
>
> And if we accept, that we can not really find a word that gives us a
> definition, but can be happy to stay at a metaphoric level then Kerry Napuk
> in his yestdays posting in one of the parallel threads in this group
> contributed a strong image "SWIM WITH THE FISH". I like it especially
> because recently I was together with my wife Patrizia amongst spinning
> dolphins. Wow! What a dance, what a choreography, what complex beautiful
> patterns, .... without a word, very much using the ocean as their open
> space for creating something extraordinary by SWIMMING/BEEING/DANCING at
> the boundary/interface between water and air (in lots of break-out groups
> ;-)
>
> Swimming with the fish in the sense of swimming with the others in a
> change process/development process is very much "beeing a temporary
> companion" and allows everything between beeing a leader and beeing led by
> others/the process, between acting and beeing and this is what the German
> "Begleiter im Wandel" (= change facilitator) might also mean in its full
> range.
>
> And very recently, Feb.20, we had the Hindu-festival Maha Siva-Rathri here
> in Sri Lanka: The long night of Shiva, who dances his cosmic dance of
> creation and destruction.
>
> So this is, where I have been carried by the meta-logue of this group.
> "Change Dancer"
> And we could even apply this as a metaphor for BEing Open Space
> Facilitators if we accept what the Veda scriptures teach, that is, that
> each of us is this dancing Siva.
>
> Bernd
>
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 27, 2012, at 9:06 PM, agusj wrote:
>
> 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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