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

[Arno Baltin]

Dear Artur!

Carl Rogers used a agricultural metaphor when speaking about development of
a personality and how people can be helped (counseling) (by creating a
supportive environment). His biography includes raising in a family farm.

Be well,

*      A*r*n*o



Narva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn
           Eesti Vabariik



2012/4/19 Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com>

> Eledr
>
> Interestingly, this also resonates with another line of research I am
> pursuing.****
>
>
> ****
> Traditionally management (as well as meetings) was seen using a
> mechanistic paradigm - plan, design, implement and control.****
>
>
> ****
> But when we analyze what really happens, especially in long living
> companies, it is much more organic, self-organizing and emergent. Arie de
> Geus that studied that in "The Living Company" also uses de gardening
> metaphor. And, if one is interested in long-living companies and
> communities, a major concern is to live in a world that can sustain life
> for a long period.****
>
>
> ****
> So, in what concerns meetings, organizations and the world at large, we
> need different metaphors. I am working now in a possibility of replacing
> the mechanistic world view by one that is inspired in traditional
> agriculture.****
>
> The leader, not only as gardener, but as an "organic farmer". ****
>
>
> ****
> There is still design, but not to implement and control; on the contrary,
> it is to design (architect) for the emergence of life and self-organization.
> ****
>
>
> ****
> Maybe this link can interest you:
> http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20111101/frontiers-of-design-science****
>
>
> ****
> Regards ****
>
>
> ****
> Artur****
>
>
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Eleder_BuM <eleder.aurtenetxe at gmail.com>
> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 19, 2012 9:56 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Fwd: A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach
> Them to Fish / A Note to My Friends
>
> 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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