Well done Raffi and thanks for the story - and thanks Michael and Joelle for articulating much of my thinking in response.
For me as facilitator, I am growing into a deepening recognition of the power of this process and my own powerful presence as facilitator - or as some of us at OSOZ discussed - the OS practitioner. As perused previously in this very List, learning to be comfortable with just 'being with' and resisting the temptation to 'do for' is a grand journey towards spiritual wisdom - albeit painful and discomforting at times for those of us steeped in education, schooling and training that conditions and rewards interventions, fixing, controlling outcomes etc. I'm glad you feel like a fraud - I did too and still do occasionally (especially whenever I'm fortunate enough to pocket a reasonable fee) - and then I repeat my precious mantra 'don't just do something, stand there' - easy enough for many of my fellow laid-back Irishmen, but not this one. As for providing others with pre-event skills in other areas of their personal and/or collective competencies - that's another story and may be important and necessary for the group to undertake for sure. This discernment and subsequent action is I believe another's role - more like a consultant to the organisation. Its great if the community itself recognises this need for skill-building in the Open Space - or in reflection after the event - and can then action the plans necessary to meet its own identified needs - and look for / hire a trainer/facilitator to design and provide a training package - that could be you or someone else. No matter - in my experience - as long as the two roles are separated somehow - and VERY CLEAR in my own mind - me as the practitioner of Open Space and me as the skills builder in other areas of personal/collective competency-building. Keep believing Raffi - the magic is indeed messy - that's what makes it magic! Brendan At 12:07 AM 15-04-2004 +0400, you wrote:
Dear friends and colleagues, I just finished doing another Open Space here in Moscow with a local NGO that works with teenagers with substance abuse issues as well as at-risk youth. This was a 1.5 day strategic planning session preceded by an evening of storytelling. It was the first time I'd ever gotten to conduct an evening of storytelling prior to the OS. It was great to see, feel the power of story prior to an OS. The OS itself left almost all participants rather sad and disillusioned and some I heard felt that this seemed a little strange that the facilitator walks in, opens space, hangs around, and then closes it. As if the facilitator does nothing. I had written before that I had struggled with this feeling that in conducting OS, I have the sense of the Emperor who wears no clothes, that I felt like a fraud. While I may never hope to really understand what OS is, I feel it more. And feel confident enough in what happened in the last OS to say that right now at least the unpleasant truths that came up in OS with the organization I worked with were what was necessary at that moment. That this will take them further. They came face to face like never before with the difficulties people have in taking responsibility. They began thinking more about what it would take to "grow up" as an organization, to set more rules, be a little tougher on each other. So, as I slowly make my way into consulting work, it's so good to know that this is something I get satisfaction from, something I believe in (and my doubt alongside the faith in OS is the force that gets me more excited about OS!). Enchantment, mesmorized. And as always questions: 1. Training of participants pre-OS in facilitation skills and other important skills. I wonder how much, if at all, do other OS facilitators train the client (or potential participants of an OS) in basic facilitation skills and other skills that might come handy in an OS (report writing, writing action plans, project development) prior to the OS as a means of helping the OS itself bear more fruit. I noticed that the groups did not really develop action plans at all. After convergence I explained that they were to work out action plans and answer the detailed questions in the report form (I did not read out the questions). Neither group did that, instead they further discussed the question, which probably is fine, too. Maybe that's what was needed at the moment. 2. How much time do you spend establishing what the client will do to ensure the participation of all the people they intend to invite? Do you encourage, work with the client to ensure that participants commit to the whole Open Space? We had participants come and go (one person was there for storytelling and then showed up at the closing circle...for example!), which of course is fine. But I wonder if I should've worked with the client to think through what exactly they could do to get as strong a commitment on participation from invitees as possible. I'm sure I'll have more questions, but that's all for now! Thanks, Raffi * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
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