[OSList] facilitator neutrality

[Carmela Ariza]

Dear Kerry, Chris, Michael, Doug, Kari

Thanks for all your wonderful insights. 

I just quickly viewed the Tao book and will read that one of these days.
I already watched the musical on OST which was lovely. Would be great to have the text also so we could understand all the lines sung spontaneously...

If anyone has more thoughts on these I am still interested to hear what other have to say.

Here is a more specific situation, that you may want to reflect with me on:

If an OST facilitator directs how the seating arrangement of the participants in one of the OS sessions so that everyone sits in the circle (and no one is outside the circle) in somewhat a commanding voice - does this constitute violating open space principles? In this instance, when the facilitator did this in a strong  voice, one participant commented "I thought this is Open Space?"

Or in another situation, in a very direct manner, the facilitator tells the group to give a chance for some people to share their thoughts and encouraged the more dominant players to be to listen to the less dominant participants, is this also an indicator of lack of neutrality in facilitation?

Of course, the purpose of directing how people are to arrange the chairs, how they should be seated, who should listen to whom and when - was to ensure that the less dominant players are heard. As we all know it is possible that one group from a culture that is more forward, assertive, more frank - could easily dominate the discussion. While those coming from cultures that are more meek, submissive, less assertive, etc. would not have so much voice in a very important gathering that has an impact on the lives of the less dominant participants.

Is the OST facilitator in these instances mentioned above, becoming less neutral with respect to participants, and does this constitute a departure (to some extent) from the very essence of OST? 

Would love to hear your thoughts....

Carms






 
If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having. -- Henry Miller


________________________________
 From: Kerry Napuk <knapuk at gmail.com>
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org 
Sent: Saturday, 27 April 2013, 7:17
Subject: [OSList] facilitator neutrality
 


Hi Listers

Neutrality of the facilitator is tied to "holding the space."  You cannot hold space if you participate in the event.  Simple as that.

If you want to participate, become a participant.  The facilitators holds the space, IMHO, by sublimating his or her ego to the group's integrity.

Here is one example:  I did an event with an organiser who was so adept at PR that he got four newspapers and a TV station to over the event which was in a rural setting.  The TV crew wanted to come into the hall and film part of the process.  

As the theme involved suicide and self harm, I asked the group what they wanted to do with the TV crew's request.  The did not want it and so, probably for the first time in their life, they were banned from shooting live footage. The organiser had to simulate a breakout group with his staff in a side room.

Cheers

Kerry
Edinburgh

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