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

Tue Feb 28 06:19:49 PST 2012

a while back i spent several years churning on words.  invitation (as
a verb, as chris says) is where i landed, but here's the longer story,
or the halo, bernd.
http://www.michaelherman.com/cgi/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTechnology/InvitingOrganizationEmerges

meanwhile, just a few weeks ago i was watching a television show about
maya code, when they flashed an image of one of these stone carved
symbols... a hand holding a fish.  it was described as the symbol for
count or counting, in that case associated with some number.

but it's also the word for conjure, about being able to reach into
another world and bring back something... valuable, edible, countable.
 the etymology, the old shape of this word, is together+swear/vow.  i
recognized this 'word' immediately and have made it the symbol i'm now
using on my business cards.

so after several years of words and 20 years of practice, i found the
word for my work, and it was a simple line drawing i sketched over
this carved image.

m

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)

http://MichaelHerman.com
http://ManorNeighbors.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 4:46 AM, Bernhard Weber <weberb at gmx.at> wrote:
> 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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