[OSList] How do you "hold space?"

Michael M Pannwitz mmpannwitz at gmail.com
Sun Feb 9 15:39:49 PST 2020


Dear Jake and you others, (after finishing this piece I suggest you 
first get yourself a cup of coffee or other beverage you cherish, find a 
couch and take a little time to read this lengthy piece)

I as facilitator will increasingly get into the mode of "total presence 
and absolute invisibility" by reflection. As I inch up, or millimeter 
up, in this regard the easier does it get to hold "time and space".

Now, this is both more than rocket science as well as simple. However, 
and this is the tough part, not easy.
After pushing myself in the early years of my practice I eventually 
realized that "total presence and absolute invisibility" requires 
life-long attention and learning. As does holding time and space. Both 
are part of this. And if you start with OST late in life, as I did at 
the age of 56 and three decades of OD and related stuff behind me, its 
mainly a lot of un-learning.

Okay, here are some of the things I reflect on... best with others right 
during an ost event (I actually plan timeslots for this in the agenda 
the team has for itself):

--- Being unattached to outcome and not getting involved in content is a 
prerequisite for having the high energy required for attaining the mode 
of "present and invisible." (I think it was HO who tells the story of 
being asked by someone during an OST event about apparently doing 
nothing... and him responding with "Doing nothing is what I get paid for.").
--- One thing I can arrange for and reflect on before getting into a 
facilitator situtation, is not to facilitate an ost event in a situation 
that I have stakes in (like in my own organisation).
One practice tested way is to help oneself and other facilitators in 
this regard is to arrange for a "rain check" system: I work as 
facilitator without pay in your organisation and you in turn work as 
facilitator without pay in mine. That allows us in each case to be fully 
participant in a setting we have stakes in. And for lots of learning. 
Which happens easily in sustainably reflecting my practice.
--- One more thing I can arrange for once it is clear that I am 
facilitator in a specific event is to have an assistant who supports me 
in doing nothing and reminds me to stay out of the way. (This reminds me 
of a story about one of the Ceasars in Rome who hired someone to quietly 
tell him that he is not God when everyone adored, admired, fell on his 
knews before him.) The assistant, in turn, has a team to take care of 
all the nitty-gritty stuff around setting up the event and caring for 
the event without being space invadors.

--- What is central to my role as facilitator in regard to 
"holding/expanding time and space for the unfolding of the force of 
selforganisation"?
OST has this as its central characteristic. I know of no 
approach/method/process/etc. that has "holding/expanding time and space 
for the unfolding of the force of selforganisation" as its central 
characteristic. It is unique to OST. This I think is also one of the 
reasons why it always works, appears familiar to everyone once they get 
into it, is effective in all cultures, etc.
As is often told, there is really only one effective way to reduce the 
unhampered unfolding of the  force of selforganisation: Control.  Mind 
you, the force of selforganisation does not appear completely (this, I 
think would stop everything, the universe would disapper). It can get 
very tiny, but its there... an organisation or a group or a neighborhood 
would not be unless the force is still active. The way, it often shows 
itself, is in the "informal" part of a system that is used by everyone 
to make things work. It can also rest in the "informal" leaders in a 
neighborhood that Saul Alinski, among other things, looked for in 
working with communities.
--- So, all situations, tempting as they may be, in which I exert 
control are counterproductive for the central characteristic of OST. 
"Control" can be around little things that I intuitively do in 
situations where I feel I need to step in: Walk up to the Bulletin Board 
to pick up an issue-poster that got unstuck and put it back in it place. 
A bit more control might be my suggestion that no issue needs to be put 
up more than once. And even more control is active when I proclaim that 
a certain issue has nothing to do with the overall Theme of the event.
--- Being fully present for me is also a prerequisite for dealing with 
space invadors. There are no recipies for this. One thing that helps me 
is to start counting before I address the space invasion. Most often a 
fellow participant will speak to this before I reach 6. For me, this has 
nothing to do with "trusting" the group. I prefer to say that I know 
groups will handle stuff like this all by themselves. If they are let. 
Sometimes in the early part of the ost event a participant will walk up 
to me and request that I come to a break-out session that has problems 
with the issue or the process. The first time I was approached, I 
actually went with the participant. It was interesting to see that the 
group had already found its way in the time that their scout went to 
find me and bring me to his session.
Eventually I experienced that the folks at an ost event can and will not 
only deal with every issue they have but also selforganise everything 
they need. And, if pointed out to them that they selforganize structure, 
leading, managing, etc. they find this not especially interesting. I get 
this as a pointer that they are doing what is inherently natural to them.

And here is also a short take on what I have found very useful around 
the transition from the divergent to the convergent phase of an os event.
First, I am pretty sure that we can skip convergence in the traditional 
sense: Having some kind of tool (there are myriad) of weighing or voting 
on issues that came up in the divergent phase.
Years ago, when I still used the 55 dot method I noticed that the items 
that got the most dots rarely entered the project phase. It dawned on 
me, that prioritization is a statistical method that probably does 
result in finding out what might be most important to the group but not 
what has, yes you already feel it, someone or several people with 
passion and responsibility grabbing it.
So, me and others came up with what we already had and simply convened a 
second os in the last half day after the Reading Gallery the evening 
before. Now, this is usually called Action Space. In this space the 
focus is not on issues but on projects. Folks are invited to post 
projects and gather around projects to develope next steps for tackling 
them. It looks and feels and is another os event with the participants 
that already experienced os in the diverging phase and get into this 
second one in 2 minutes flat already familiar with the process.
The amazing thing was, that aside from what one would expect to see as 
projects, other projects were posted that had not been visible. I feel 
this is the result of participants having reached a much wider picture 
of the whole situation after being in the divergent phase and studying 
all the report sheets including the augmentation of them and also being 
in a better position on what ressources they now see in the group that 
they have worked with in the first space.

Considering that basically OST is an action orienting approach and that 
action only happens if there is passion joined by responsibility for 
something that is to be done the Action Space is a good way to have that 
happen for which the entire gathering was that up for: Dealing with a 
wicked issue that nobody had an answer to at the beginning of the open 
space.

It is also a simple way of doing it. I mention this because I still feel 
that anyone with a clear head and a good heart can facilitated an ost 
event, especially if it is a straigtforward approach.

Greetings from Berlin where I look forward to seeing you at the WOSonOS 
this fall
> https://wosonos2020.berlin/


mmp

Have a great day,
mmp



Am 08.02.2020 um 19:44 schrieb Jake Yeager via OSList:
> Many questions these days. Thank you for entertaining them. :)
> 
> This past week, I facilitated an eight-hour Open Space split across two 
> half-days. The attendees were an Organizational Development team, of 
> which I am a member. My AVP sponsored the event, because we had recently 
> merged with another group, and there was lack of clarity. So, our theme 
> was: "Who are we, and how do we collaborate to drive success?" Also, my 
> AVP--who is a leader in Learning & Development--wanted to experience 
> Open Space in order to understand it better as it is new to my firm.
> 
> Since I am a fledgling facilitator, I chose not to participate in the 
> breakout sessions, even though I am part of the group. I wanted to make 
> sure that I provided the best experience for everyone, and participating 
> would have dampened my focus. I shared this with my manager, after she 
> inquired after the first day why I had not participated.
> 
> Long story short, after the event, my manager had major concerns how I 
> facilitated the event. I had gone for long walks while the group was 
> working, and she felt that was very risky. I told her that the 
> facilitator's role is to remain "invisible" to allow the group to build 
> its capacity for self-management. She said that our firm's culture is 
> very hierarchical and that "baby steps" are needed. She suggested even 
> intervening in a group if it gets "stuck." I believe I mentioned that 
> intervening is not part of Open Space facilitation.
> 
> So my question is: how do you "hold space?" I found Chris's description 
> on his website: "an Open Space Technology facilitator is neither seen 
> nor heard, but his or her presence is 'felt.'" I guess by going for long 
> walks and not being in the room, my presence was not "felt." One of my 
> colleagues provided feedback that by not being there, it didn't seem 
> like I cared. This is definitely not the case. I went on long walks as 
> an act of love, not negligence.
> 
> Anyway, would love your thoughts.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jake
> ________________
> 
> When the mind is quiet, the sun of your heart will shine once again, and 
> you will be free of problems.
>   - Robert Adams <http://www.robert-adams.info/>
> 

-- 
Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49 - 30-772 8000
mmpannwitz at gmail.com


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