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

Chris Corrigan chris.corrigan at gmail.com
Mon Feb 27 12:45:31 PST 2012


Bingo. The best open space meetings I have done have been culminations of weeks or months of very good and devoted invitation. The secret here is that when you treat invitation as a verb then you create the conditions for people to arrive prepared for what happens in and OS meeting. 

Chris

Sent from my iPhone

On 2012-02-27, at 9:08 AM, Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com> wrote:

> the thing i like about "inviting" is that it is something we can *do*
> and practice as a technical task, but also a way that we can aspire to
> *be* as people, leaders of meetings and participants in the open space
> of life.  i don't know enough about other languages to know if this
> possibility of two meanings will exist if i say inviting in other
> languages.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
> 
> http://MichaelHerman.com
> http://ManorNeighbors.com
> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com> 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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