[OSList] OST Training Design

[Michael Wood]

Hi Diane,

Very helpful suggestions - thankyou. All the reasons you propose make perfect sense to me and I'll think about trying your approach for the next program and see what happens. 

The modelling aspect is important. And yet I wonder if that is part of the ambiguity that the facilitator has to live within. i.e. we often take a more active facilitation role with the sponsor in helping the sponsor to come up with a clear question, and then have to change modality when we facilitate the actual OST event. But I can also understand the potential confusion for the group in a training context - and I think I've perhaps observed some of that confusion but wasn't quite sure of it source until you outlined why you now do it a different way - so many thanks for taking the time to outline this with such clarity.

Cheers
Michael Wood

Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 11:47:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Diane Gibeault <diane.gibeault at rogers.com>
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
	<oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Subject: Re: [OSList] waveriding in Oz / OST training
Message-ID:
	<1385581675.19624.YahooMailNeo at web162705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Michael,

For two reasons, I modified day-1 training as you describe it. I now invite the group (an already existing group) to propose?in advance topics for a?theme, either at a meeting or by group emails. With the sponsor and a couple of volunteers (as would an organizing committee) the preferred subject is formulated in the form of a theme: short, broad in scope and inspiring. In the debrief later during the training we look at the experience and tips for theme formulation.?

The first most important reason the theme is formulated in advance is that it allows participants to arrive on day-1, straight into a real Open Space. They got a clear picture in their mind and their body memory was better at retaining it for their own facilitation.?

I found throughout the years that starting in a training mode before experiencing the OS confused people. Many afterwards thought that OS begins with everyone introducing themselves or with a check-in with a circle. They would report later on about their own experience of facilitating an OS: how these kind of intros slowed down the opening - especially with groups over 20 people - lowered the energy in the room and for a number of participants, increased the anxiety of this unknown OS thing to come.

The second reason for this approach is that it creates more time-space to experience an OS, one that is not rushed thus allowing to "feel" the effect of time with the magical law of two feet, butterflies and all. This avoids replicating a fast pace OS which can then feel like many control types of facilitation methods if not speed-dating.?


For public workshops where people are from various organizations, I reverted to choosing a theme that is broad enough to capture the interest of the kind of participants that are joining and of interest to other people in the community who are invited to join for that one-day experience of OS. This diversity makes the OS day feel even more real to participants.?

Problems I encountered starting the first day with brainstorming on a theme with training participants of public workshops included:?
-The first contact participants have with the trainer begins with him or her modelling traditional facilitation and consensus building methods instead of modelling OS hands-off self-organization facilitation.
- arduous process?at times especially for groups of over 20 people,?
- often?consuming too much time thus frustrating people,?
- preferences were polarized at times, some did not accept the compromise theme, felt rejected and ganged-up to not participate and even be obstructive in the training days that followed. We had created a group-think situation.?

No mistake when starting the day with OS. Everyone is on an equal footing. We are modelling what we are proposing. The following days people know what they're talking about, their questions are more relevant than if we started with describing the method - they don't have to take my word for it, they experienced it.

Diane

Diane Gibeault
Co-author / Co-auteure :?Livre blanc?sur le Forum Ouvert?/?OPEN SPACE
OT training - Formation?Forum Ouvert?:?Montreal?8-10?avril?2014
www.dianegibeault.com? ? 2013 : Paris 19-21 nov.,?Marseille 3-5 dec.
Diane Gibeault & Associe.es-Associates?Tel 613-744-2638, diane.gibeault at rogers.com