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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Ah,
Harrison. How much you put my internal struggle in words! I do
believe that directed facilitation can be disempowering. I also
believe there are times when it enables a next step. To me, the
art is knowing when to be willing to offer some directive
support.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>When is a helping hand
truly helpful and when is it actually just fulfilling my need as the
helper to feel useful and is a disservice to the recipient?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Years ago, when I worked in information
technologies, there was a woman who really wanted a new report
and came to me multiple times to talk around her request. I
consistently said to her that I'd be happy to sit down with her at any time and
help her design this report. I even offered to do
it right in the moment but she always said
no. About a year later, I discovered that a co-worker had created the
report for her. She was delighted! She had her report and was
getting on with the wonderful uses she'd envisioned for it. So which was
the greater service? Mine, which asked that she take responsibility for
her wish and work with me or my colleague who provided her with what she
wanted just because she asked. To this day, I don't know.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As I write, I'm reminded of the 4 children
described at Passover. The wise child, the wicked child, the simple child,
and the one who doesn't even know enough to ask. Each requires a
different strategy for learning the story of Passover.. The
wise child comes to you and asks to hear the story. At the other end of
the spectrum, the strategy with the one who doesn't even know to ask is
to go to the child and tell the story.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Harrison, because you expect full independence, you
attract people who are independent. The rest, like the
woman in my story about the report, find someone else who is willing
to do it for them. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are times where I make the choice
to step in, to provide some directed facilitation and then work
myself out of the picture. You do point to the risk in this -- they think
I am the source of success or failure rather than themselves. </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>If I think someone just wants me there to do the work for
them, I'm gone. Where I see the request for support as a step
towards independence, like the temporary scaffolding on a building that
explicitly comes down before I leave, I may say yes to the
work.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I do my best to be clean about my motives. Am
I willing to be facilitative so that I can feel like the hero (or
villian)? Am I doing it as a service towards independence?
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Is such a service real or am I kidding
myself? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>When I put together The Change Handbook, I did a
lot of soul searching around this question. There are several
methodologies in the book that personally make me crazy, they feel so
controlling. Was I doing a service by making more people aware of
approaches that in my judgment enabled people to continue to be comfortable in a
variation of the status quo (e.g., they can survive being in hierarchy because
it seems more benevolent, less autocratic)? What I noticed was that
organizations who used such approaches over time became more likely to step
further into the dance of chaos and order. So for right or wrong, while it
may not be my work, the people offering these more directed approaches were
creating conditions that make it more likely for people to move further from the
illusion of control with time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think we each make a choice about what form
service takes for us and operate from there.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Guess that's it for now.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Peggy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=owenhh@mindspring.com href="mailto:owenhh@mindspring.com">Harrison
Owen</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, April 27, 2001 6:06
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: OS and AI</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>At 04:08 PM 4/24/01 -0700, Peg
Holman Wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite type="cite">To me that means that given enough
time in healthy conditions (and OS<BR>creates healthy conditions), people
begin to focus on life giving forces.<BR>They do this without all the
OD-like complications of AI's 4-D cycle.<BR><BR>Having said that, I LOVE the
transformative effect I've observed AI can have<BR>when people experience an
AI interview. So when the time is short or a<BR>client isn't ready to
start with OS, I introduce AI.<BR><BR>I sit very much with the question
about AI that Harrison applied when<BR>experimenting with OS: what is one
less thing to do and have the experience<BR>be whole? For me, the 4-D
methodology puts the facilitator too much in<BR>charge. I want to see
the philosophy and practice of AI flourish but<BR>without all the
fuss. When the appropriate situation arises, I would like<BR>to try
doing an appreciative interview and then move directly into opening
space.<BR><BR>Peggy</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Peg raises an interesting and delicate
point -- the relationship between OS and AI (to which I would add the whole
spectrum of interventions out there ie Dialogue, Cafe, Community Building
etc). I will be the first to say that I have learned much from each of these,
and respect their authors/creators profoundly. I also have to say that in my
experience groups operating in Open Space naturally manifest precisely
the same behaviors as these approaches seek to achieve -- all without apparent
intention or direct intervention from a facilitator. So I am left with the
question, why do formally what seems to appear naturally, especially when the
formal intervention requires a lot more work? <BR><BR>And there is a deeper
concern. When a group experiences Dialogue, appreciation of each other,
community... in the context of a facilitated session, there is a natural
tendency to assume that the "facilitator did it" -- and further -- a repeat of
those experiences will require the services of a trained facilitator expert in
those particular approaches. <I>In a word the group is, at some significant
level, dis-empowered.</I> They are likely to think that what is a natural
phenomenon can only occur as a result of direct intervention from an outside
source. Such thoughts/feelings may make the facilitators feel better, as also
the client/sponsor who may think that such powerful experiences should only be
encouraged under strict guidance. After all it could get out of control. But I
think all of that is to deprive a group of its natural heritage. Good for the
facilitator, good for the client/sponsor -- bad for the group.<BR><BR>I also
take Peg's point about the group/sponsor being "ready" for Open Space. Some
are, and some apparently aren't. But is this really true? Phrasing the issue
in this way makes it seem that when we "do" an Open Space, we actually bring
something to a group that it did not have before. I find myself looking at
things rather differently. From where I sit, all groups exist in open space
whether they like it or not. So it is not about bringing something new -- but
recognizing what is. Put rather more directly, I think what happens in Open
Space is that we just recognize the open space of our lives. Nothing new, just
a blinding flash of the obvious. So somehow, talking about being "ready"
misses the point -- we are all ready (already) there.<BR><BR>At this point, I
think we may be getting close to what I take to be the heart of the matter.
All of us at some point have spoken fondly, and sometimes longingly of that
wonderful thing -- <I>The Open Space Organization</I>, as if it were something
that we might achieve or create. Indeed, some of us (myself included) have
spent a lot of time and energy thinking about how we might do just that. But
what is the Open Space Organization?<BR><BR>Doubtless we could produce a long
list of qualities and characteristics -- which might then lead to a
disciplined and "effort-full" process to install such a thing. But in doing
all that, I think we miss the central and critical point. We already are Open
Space Organizations. It remains only to do intentionally what we are already
doing. To be intentionally what we already are. <BR><BR>And what is "it" that
we already are? My answer is -- we are Complex Adaptive Systems! Or in other
words self-organizing systems. That is all there is. Now to be sure there are
more than a few folks who actually think they did the organizing, and then at
great effort are responsible to keep things organized...<BR><BR>Anyhow, I find
it useful to just keep opening space, and the rest will pretty much take care
of itself. Lazy, narrow minded... perhaps. But it seems to
work.<BR><BR>Harrison <BR><BR> <BR><BR><X-SIGSEP>
<P></X-SIGSEP>
<DIV align=center>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Drive<BR>Potomac, MD 20854
USA<BR>phone 301-469-9269<BR>fax 301-983-9314<BR>Open Space Training <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/"
eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</A> <BR>Open Space Institute <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/"
eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</A><BR>Personal website <A
href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh"
eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</A><BR><BR><FONT
color=#0000ff><U>OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<BR></U></FONT>To subscribe,
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href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html"
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