[OSList] technology mix no-no?

[Lisa Heft]

Hi, wonderful Magdalena -

I'll ask two questions and let my colleagues who have been exploring existing and emerging technology to use with Open Space answer about technology.

1) You say one participant is personally uncomfortable with the facilitator, and that the facilitator is a former member.
Is selecting that person as a facilitator something that serves the group and its diverse membership? Nobody is really 'neutral' but as you know, facilitators are often chosen *not* from the community / organization, its history, or as a person with an opinion / point of view relating to the work at hand - specifically so that diverse members will not feel uncomfortable, make assumptions... will feel free to bring their fullest selves to the work. Is it the most productive / most well-timed to have this engagement with that facilitator?

2) 'The two strongest proponents" will not be able to come. I don't know what you mean by what they are proponents of but... does this indicate another time is better for this retreat? For this task?

I would not 'give up on' using OST - I would ensure all other things are in place (objectives, desired outcomes, right date(s), right people, etc.) and then match process, design or method. 

You may answer 'yes and we have considered x and y and everybody is feeling good even the person who is not comfortable with the facilitator.'
I'm just wondering not about the process part or the technology part but about the human part...

Good to hear your voice on the list,

Lisa


On Sep 11, 2013, at 9:51 AM, Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz wrote:

> For the past year, I've been chairing a group of 13 people all living far from each other (Missouri, California, Toronto, East Coast, Hawaii etc) who have been meeting nearly weekly over the past 4 years over the phone and with the intermittent help of private online chats and video calling when these resources were available.  One of our tasks is to mobilize a community of interest--about 1200 people scattered all over the world--to engage in various cooperative actions. Now it's time for the annual working retreat (last weekend in Sept) which the group has expanded from 2 into 2-1/2 days (3 nights) so we can have more working time together.  It's normal for our working retreats that people who can't attend in person call in and we work to make sure "calling in" is an unavoidable option. 
> 
> The group has voted to use OST. A couple of years ago a member of the group introduced OST and later left, and I became empathetic to the point of taking a training, joining this listserve, and trying out one of the Blackboard Collaborate gatherings (clunky but interesting)  etc.  Two of our members are very eager to use OST for this retreat, and the rest are very interested, with one abstention. I recused myself from the vote but after the group voted yes, I contacted the former member and she is willing to facilitate.
> 
> We figured out we could use a projector and Google Docs to post the OST agenda wall, and we are also using Google Docs for the breakout session reports. We plan to have the callers use Skype for the main sessions as well as the breakout sessions so that we all have visual contact with each other. 
> 
> We had a majority coming in person, but the two strongest proponents have said they won't be able to come, one participant is personally uncomfortable with the facilitator, etc, and now we are down to 6 people in the room and 5 sure callers. 
> 
> We're a pretty determined bunch of people--not energetic necessarily--and OST is best done in person, so should we just give up on using OST now or is there still hope to be had? 
> 
> -- 
>  
> Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz

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