Don, Here are how my thoughts address the question of metaphor at the time of prioritization.
I attend a yoga class. After all the moving and stretching and such, and then getting myself untangled again (not gracefully I might add), we have the chance to lie and move into a deep meditation. I have experiences that are uniquely mine and enrich who I am and my own transformation and the way I can go forward into the world. The teacher brings us back to awareness of the present moment. And then she always does something that upsets me greatly. She uses and elaborates on a metaphor that she has predetermined as appropriate for us at that moment. I am aware that the metaphors that she uses meet her need of the moment, her journey. They have totally different meanings for me. And I don't like them being intruded on my learning and journey at that moment, which was much richer before she intruded with her stuff. I wish she would just keep it simple and stay with the minimum necessary to get the task done. I wondered how I would feel after being in an Open Space in which my whole self was present and in which I had powerful experiences that were uniquely mine, if a metaphor was presented by the facilitator to take me through to next steps. And I realized that I would not like it. I would want whatever happened to honour my right to my journey and my space. Anyhow, that is me. Metaphors are powerful, more powerful in deeply influencing another than we know. And each metaphor means something different to each of us. Even something as innocent as a house. This metaphor may be a good one for you. It may not be a good metaphor for someone who has serious negative issues about a house of just that shape. You just never know what memories the metaphor triggers and how much can be unleashed. I personally love metaphors and constantly think in metaphors. When I am a participant in Open Space, I use them in discussions and like others using them. This is a natural flow. Is it different when the holder of space uses them---I think yes. It is not part of the natural flow. Anyhow, thus was my thinking on this one. Birgitt -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of owen Sent: Thursday, January 21, 1999 9:20 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Process question >But has anyone ever used a metaphor as a pathway to prioritizing. What images >did you use besides a house or building of some kind? > >Thanks. > >Don Ferretti > >______________________________ Reply Separator What you are suggesting is interesting, but personally, I have never had any problem getting people to respond to a very simple question -- what are the most important issues for you? Most often I use a prioritization proceedure borrowed from Andre Delbec of Nominal Group Porcess fame. Each person is asked to identify the 10 most important issues for them, rank them, and assign a value of 10 to their most important (9,8,7,6,....) The ballots are collected, the scores are added, and you come out with a set of weighted scores that neatly separates out the hot from the not so hot. The same thing can be done with an electronic version of the ballot which is available from TASC (See my User's Guide Chapter 10 for details). Leaving the mechanics aside, my thought would always be to go for the simplest way of doing things that works. The use of metaphor is intriguing, but is it essential? Over the years I have always tried to think of one more thing NOT to do. If I don't do it, and everything works out just fine -- so much the better. At a slightly deeper level, I am firmly convinced that the reason Open Space works is that it is quite simply the process of self-organization in operation. Organizing a self-organizing process, no matter how minimal the intervention, turns out to un-necessary at the least, and usually counter-productive. Anyhow, I am not suggesting that your notion of metaphor is without utility -- I just wonder is this trip necessary. Harrison _________________________________