the thing i like about "inviting" is that it is something we can *do* and practice as a technical task, but also a way that we can aspire to *be* as people, leaders of meetings and participants in the open space of life. i don't know enough about other languages to know if this possibility of two meanings will exist if i say inviting in other languages.
-- Michael Herman Michael Herman Associates 312-280-7838 (mobile) http://MichaelHerman.com http://ManorNeighbors.com http://OpenSpaceWorld.org On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Artur Silva <arturfsi...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi, Agustin: > > I don't know if the word "contexting" exists in English, but I agree that > "creating the right context" is crucial. > > In what concerns formal education and training, the orthodoxy is still based > in the "impart of knowledge" and, in that model, the most important is to > create "contents" or, as they often say, "knowledge objects". On the > contrary, IMO what is important is to create the right contexts for learning > to emerge. (So we may talk about "designing” only in the sense of “designing > for emergence”). > > The same is true about facilitation. With the bulletin board, the market > place, the law of two feet, etc., what OST does is to create a rich > "context" that allows for multiple interpersonal contacts, cross pollination > and the emergence of the new. > > Facilitation methods where the facilitator designs and intervenes a lot and > controls everything (or so he believes) do the contrary of that. > > Ok, I agree that probably in 1% of the cases that can be useful, but not in > the majority of the cases I have seen. > > Artur > > PS: talking about languages, may I remind you all that in Portuguese my name > is written as above, and is not "Arthur". Indeed, if you want to know the > correct pronunciation it is more like (in English) "Urtoor"; very different > from "Arthur" ;-) > > ------------------- > > ________________________________ > From: agusj <agusjs2...@yahoo.com> > > To: World wide Open Space Technology email list > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> > Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 3:36 PM > > Subject: Re: [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them to Fish > / A Note to My Friends > > Hi Bernd, > > Maybe “contexting” could be an usefull word in your quest. What I mean for > "contexting" is to create the appropriate context that allows the > participants to make distinctions that develop capacity “to fish”. In other > words, a facilitator does not teach to fish, a facilitator creates > (facilitates, generates) the conditions that allows participants to make > sense of "fishing", to realize that they can “fish” and to find the best > way to "fish" for them. > > What do you think about "capacity developers"? > > Agustin > > ________________________________ > From: Bernhard Weber <web...@gmx.at> > To: World wide Open Space Technology email list > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> > Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 11:06 PM > Subject: Re: [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them to Fish > / A Note to My Friends > > Artur > > As I said, there is probably no super word fully integrating all aspects we > want and excluding what we do NOT want to say, > but yes, your three examples show that there might be useful words to be > used in this or that occasion. > > I try to get a feeling for the connotation-environment of each of these > three words (within the limits of a non-english-native speaker).... > > nurturing still having the connotation of giving (and the related asymmetry, > non-mutuality), > inviting also not having enough of the intended range of meanings for me > As a perma-culturist I immediately jumped on "cultivating". Especially since > I have not yet used it in this sense. But it also has its unwanted > connotations of course. e.g. "beeing non-cultivated" is a distinction that > may be used/perceived as pejorative/as a part of a power-game > > So thank you all, who contributed to this discussion until now: finding more > words that may be appropriate under specific conditions is what I could > realistically expect. And I got it > > Bernd > > > On Feb 26, 2012, at 7:26 PM, Artur Silva wrote: > > Nurturing (from Lisa)? > > Inviting (from Suzanne)? > > Cultivating (in a sense similar to "cultivating the land")? > > Artur > > ________________________________ > From: Bernhard Weber <web...@gmx.at> > To: OSLIST New Adress <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> > Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 6:53 AM > Subject: [OSList] A new term for 'facilitation'? was: Teach Them to Fish / A > Note to My Friends > > > Hi again > > The last years I was again and again discussing adequate wording of our > "interventions" as consultants, facilitators (in German: ModeratorInnen, > BegleiterInnen), trainers... > With myself and others. > > There was the classical "Change Management" (Consultancy) which we > substituted by Change Facilitators, mainly because it had become evident, > that you can not "manage" change (at least not in the classical sense of > management, which has (the possibility) of control at its core. > > Of course "facilitate" has a connotation of "making things easy" which is > not necessarily what I understand by facilitating. Let me go back to the > teacherlearner example: sometimes there was more learning happening when I > did not make things easier, sometimes I was building barriers for my > students. > > For me "facilitating" (in contrast to "helping") has a lot to do with > systemic perception/action: finding a good setting, trying to find ways of > improving the conditions of learning, indirect interventions but also > breaking down the walls between classical "training/learning" and "(group > work) facilitation" by contributing to learning whilst problem-solving or, > more positively, whilst "solution inquiring", with a longer term perspective > of "capacity building" (in its complex dynamics between > persons/groups/organizations/environment alias micro/makro). > > In that sense I could use the word "facilitation" to make clear that I was > not speaking of old approaches and that we should not go back from a > systematic systemic perspective. This also gave me a good feeling of beeing > "progressive", although or because it was clear that I had squeezed in a lot > into this 'innocent word' > And the term 'facilitation' made quite some carreer (especially outside of > the english-speaking world as a 'foreign word'. > > > But maybe it is time to look for a better word in the sense of the aspects > that are emerging during this "Fishing Discussion". > I can understand why you avoided the word 'to facilitate' but a wording like > 'helping to learn' does not seem to be a step forward, to the contrary. Both > wordings evidently need a lot of explanation about "in the sense of...." And > for me this is an indicator that we should perhaps look out for another > wording, .... > > That includes (or is able to include) what I have uttered in my previous > postings to that thread, and much of what others have contributed here, > especially that term should be able to include also "Learning the art of > silence seems to be much more rewarding for both for there's no Godot with > fish in hands." (Stanley Park) and also "hat the facilitator should not be > the 'catalyst' or 'interventionist' but more the 'nutritionist'" and "our > roles before the event, during and afterwards" and the role of "'conscious > non-interventionist'" (Lisa Heft), the > empowerment/dis-empowerment-contradiction and the 'sequence ... Fish > Distributors, Fishing Teachers, and then “Gone fish ‘in” – looking for other > fish to fry'(HO), not forgetting that we have to care that 'nobody pollutes > the environment in the meantime and that there is still fish to fish.... > (Joanne)... > > and - whilst again using such heavy loaded wording - never forgetting that > the base self-organization in its non-logic/Yin-Yang/dialectical movements, > the last term allowing us, to never reduce ourselves to the either/or > thinking (so, eg. depending on the context to also be catalyst, > interventionist and nutritionist and e.g. also understanding the sequence > Fish Distributor, Fishing Teachers, ... Fishing-Zen (Diane G.) > masters/students.... not necessarily as a step-after-step-sequence but > consisting of aspects to phase in, be 'dominant' phase out, the 'sequence' > beeing parallel and interdependent processes like as 'overlapping threads' > of changing intensity. > > Well, reading over my own text once again, I get the impression, that it is > not possible to find such a Superword, but playing around, looking out for a > new and better word might be fun. In fact that is, what we are implicitely > ALSO doing here all the time right now in this list. > > Hmm. maybe we have to change the context. > > I do not know. Any ideas? > > Bernd > > > P.S. regarding the "nutricionist" role: Two year ago I experimented with > that in a non-metaphorical sense: to contribute a discussion process of > adequate change facilitation approaches in our Change Facilitation s.r.o. > company I invited Rik Berbé (one of the other members of our company > management team) to come to my home in Vienna/Austria for a two day > workshop. Instead of preparing contents, methods, program etc. I prepared > food and drinks, plenty of choices, healthy, not too heavy, .... (well the > kind of snacks you would always like to have in a perfect OST event > environment) and during our 2-person workshop I concentrated on two roles > (participant and barman). We had a wonderful workshop and Rik who was at the > beginning very amazed about such an approach agreed, that caring for the > best possible environment in the sense of beeing a 'nutricionist' was a very > useful role aspect I had contributed. > Not only ;-) > > > On Feb 25, 2012, at 11:46 PM, Artur Silva wrote: > > Yes, Bernardo, you are right. Sometimes one must give the fish, teach to > fish and also help learning how to learn. > > You are also right that this "to help to learnr" is indeed "to facilitate". > I avoided the term because quite often - as HO mentioned - many people think > (and do) "facilitate too much", disempowering the other and making more > difficult for him to learn by himself. > > And your story in Mozambique (Beira) is marvelous. > > Abraço > > Artur > > ________________________________ > From: Bernhard Weber <web...@gmx.at> > To: Artur Silva <arturfsi...@yahoo.com>; World wide Open Space Technology > email list <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> > Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2012 4:43 AM > Subject: Re: [OSList] Teach Them to Fish / A Note to My Friends > > Yes Artur, > > based on my own life and working experience, meanwhile most of it in > Ex-colonized countries, our job is, to HELP (I would meanwhile formulate it > in a more systemic-adequate way: FACILITATE) to learn, to learn how to learn > (as a way of being) and - though inicially accepting the Teacher-Student > "Übertragung" (S. Freud, that means also: including the Gegen-Übertragung)- > learn how to disappear. > > Only one thing. Let us not be put into a perception and thinking limiting > TRANCE by strictly following logic thinking. That means there are times, > when the logical either/or is simply not the best solution or even not > human. So there may be cases where we give the fish AND teach to fish. Or > give the fish under conditions that fishing is learned. > > I still remember the blind beggars in Beira, who got only money from me if > they accepted to go to the training center for blind people and look if they > would not be interested to be trained for a job there. > > > Bernardo > > > On Feb 24, 2012, at 6:49 PM, Artur Silva wrote: > > Amen for almost everything! And thank you, Harrison, for reminding us of all > this. > > (...) > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org