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<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Hi, Justin --</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>You wrote a few things about appreciating environments and processes
that support (or constrict) your sharing thoughts in a group, and you had some
questions about how Open Space (and facilitators in Open Space) work in
different situations. You mentioned that at the National Coalition for
Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) conference workshops you felt that
constriction -- though not in the Open Space part of the conference.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>So I observe that in the Open Space, the process itself plus Matthew Blom's
holding space helped give you a space to share and voice your thoughts. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>You wrote:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.25in'><i><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'>Do you all
find that to be the case, that the simple fact of convening spontaneously in
Open Space makes a more active facilitator less necessary? Do you still see
circumstances where you'd prefer or recommend a small-group meeting with a more
active facilitator over a larger-group Open Space event?</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>I venture to say that the Open Space facilitator is <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>very</span></i> active - just not in ways similar to
many other facilitation processes. The Open Space facilitator is totally
present and holding space. And when/if conflict arises, the OS facilitator is
sort of a 'conscious non-interventionist', giving breath and belief and trust
to the people and the process. Because when the participants host, invite
and convene their groups, they all become co-facilitators, as it were, of their
own and the group’s experience.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>You also wrote:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.25in'><i><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'>What
happens in the presence of dominance relationships, such as a boss in a work
setting? </span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><i><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'> </span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>You mentioned the CEO’s ‘design sessions’ where when
folks got engaged in real issues and opportunities for improving the work of
the company she got furious. You continued:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.25in'><i><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'>…What
I'm wondering is, if we were to hold an Open Space in such a</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.25in'><i><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'>situation,
would the facilitator perform any kind of intervention</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.25in'><i><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'>with such
a person?</span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Well, Open Space is a tool, and you want to use the right tool for the
right job. So we’d have to see what is the intention -- redesigning
what works for the company? Giving this CEO a place to share her ideas? We’d
have to analyze the need, first, then see if the time we have to spend on the
meeting, the hoped-for outcomes, and such could be delivered with Open Space as
the tool. Otherwise, we could select a different tool.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>So that’s about the task and the tool. And part of the
pre-work with clients (take, for example, this CEO) is frank talk about what
this tool can and cannot deliver, and about what can happen in Open Space. If
the client/host is not comfortable with what might happen, this may also be the
wrong tool for this particular situation. Just because OS is delicious
does not mean that it is right for all situations and all needs.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Now what about the power dynamics?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>You recalled a story I told (I held a session in Open Space at the NCDD
Conference entitled “Stories from Open Space” where a group of us
shared stories of OS. I was sharing a story of an OS I did – and in
the pre-work and planning stage I had had a frank talk with one of the clients
about what might happen if there would be conflict. I told these clients
(as I tell all clients) that if conflict happens, please do not intervene, but
come to me. And when you come to me, I may not intervene, either. Because
if we tell participants that they are responsible for their own experience,
that they can engage or walk away to take good care of themselves – and then
we pull that respect away by intervening (by being their ‘mom or dad’
and thinking we have to solve it for them’), we will not only lose their
respect but we may be removing the only opportunity they may have for
experiencing that conflict – without violence – indeed, passion -- can
happen…and they can make it through to the other side. To take this
away from them is disrespecting them and not trusting the people, or the
process.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>When a situation of conflict arose in that OS meeting this particular
client ran to me and said “Save Joe! Save Joe! They are all ganging up on
Joe!”. And I said, “You know, I would like to save Joe, too –
but Joe has the same guidelines as everyone else in this meeting – he knows
he can use the Law of Two Feet if he needs to – so there must be a reason
he is staying in that heated conversation. I just have to trust Joe.”
And she said (beat, beat, beat) – “OK!” And she ran out of
the room. Because she knew if she stayed there she would intervene. And
she really ‘got it’ that we had to give this trust and respect to
Joe. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>I was very proud of her. And Joe did just fine.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><i><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'>Are there circumstances where you
would refrain from facilitating an Open Space at all? would you have some one-on-one
sessions with the boss ahead of time to help her understand what's going to
happen? </span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><i><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-style:italic'> </span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>This is what we (the client and I) discuss in the pre-work and planning
stage. In very frank terms. And if I have any sense that the client
cannot be comfortable or might feel they might want to control the people, or
the outcome, I recommend that OS is NOT the method and we can use another
approach. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>And what about when you do all your pre-work, think you’ve gotten
an agreement and understanding with the client, chosen together the right tool
for the right job…and still someone with power comes in to try to control
things or shut them down?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Sometimes we see this as a ‘Space Invader’ – but sometimes
we see this as a gift to the group. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>As my own message here has grown quite lengthy, I invite you to poke
around on the OSLIST archives (call up key words such as “Space Invader”,
for example); and others may wish to share their stories of both when they have
intervened (very, very rarely, I suspect, especially if they experienced their
intervention making the whole OS go flat) and conversely, when they have trusted
the people and the process – even the person they felt initially was a ‘Space
Invader’…who may have been a gift in disguise…</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Thanks for all your good questions, Justin – keep ‘em
coming…</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Lisa</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>___________________________</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>L i s a H e f t</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Consultant, Facilitator, Educator</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=ES-MX
style='font-size:10.0pt'>O p e n i n g S p a c e</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=ES-MX
style='font-size:10.0pt'>lisaheft@openingspace.net</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=ES-MX
style='font-size:10.0pt'>www.openingspace.net </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=ES-MX
style='font-size:10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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