Hi Diane,
Very helpful suggestions - thankyou. All the reasons you propose make perfect
sense to me and I'll think about trying your approach for the next program and
see what happens.
The modelling aspect is important. And yet I wonder if that is part of the
ambiguity that the facilitator has to live within. i.e. we often take a more
active facilitation role with the sponsor in helping the sponsor to come up
with a clear question, and then have to change modality when we facilitate the
actual OST event. But I can also understand the potential confusion for the
group in a training context - and I think I've perhaps observed some of that
confusion but wasn't quite sure of it source until you outlined why you now do
it a different way - so many thanks for taking the time to outline this with
such clarity.
Cheers
Michael Wood
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 11:47:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Diane Gibeault <diane.gibea...@rogers.com>
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
<oslist@lists.openspacetech.org>
Subject: Re: [OSList] waveriding in Oz / OST training
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Hi Michael,
For two reasons, I modified day-1 training as you describe it. I now invite the
group (an already existing group) to propose?in advance topics for a?theme,
either at a meeting or by group emails. With the sponsor and a couple of
volunteers (as would an organizing committee) the preferred subject is
formulated in the form of a theme: short, broad in scope and inspiring. In the
debrief later during the training we look at the experience and tips for theme
formulation.?
The first most important reason the theme is formulated in advance is that it
allows participants to arrive on day-1, straight into a real Open Space. They
got a clear picture in their mind and their body memory was better at retaining
it for their own facilitation.?
I found throughout the years that starting in a training mode before
experiencing the OS confused people. Many afterwards thought that OS begins
with everyone introducing themselves or with a check-in with a circle. They
would report later on about their own experience of facilitating an OS: how
these kind of intros slowed down the opening - especially with groups over 20
people - lowered the energy in the room and for a number of participants,
increased the anxiety of this unknown OS thing to come.
The second reason for this approach is that it creates more time-space to
experience an OS, one that is not rushed thus allowing to "feel" the effect of
time with the magical law of two feet, butterflies and all. This avoids
replicating a fast pace OS which can then feel like many control types of
facilitation methods if not speed-dating.?
For public workshops where people are from various organizations, I reverted to
choosing a theme that is broad enough to capture the interest of the kind of
participants that are joining and of interest to other people in the community
who are invited to join for that one-day experience of OS. This diversity makes
the OS day feel even more real to participants.?
Problems I encountered starting the first day with brainstorming on a theme
with training participants of public workshops included:?
-The first contact participants have with the trainer begins with him or her
modelling traditional facilitation and consensus building methods instead of
modelling OS hands-off self-organization facilitation.
- arduous process?at times especially for groups of over 20 people,?
- often?consuming too much time thus frustrating people,?
- preferences were polarized at times, some did not accept the compromise
theme, felt rejected and ganged-up to not participate and even be obstructive
in the training days that followed. We had created a group-think situation.?
No mistake when starting the day with OS. Everyone is on an equal footing. We
are modelling what we are proposing. The following days people know what
they're talking about, their questions are more relevant than if we started
with describing the method - they don't have to take my word for it, they
experienced it.
Diane
Diane Gibeault
Co-author / Co-auteure :?Livre blanc?sur le Forum Ouvert?/?OPEN SPACE
OT training - Formation?Forum Ouvert?:?Montreal?8-10?avril?2014
www.dianegibeault.com? ? 2013 : Paris 19-21 nov.,?Marseille 3-5 dec.
Diane Gibeault & Associe.es-Associates?Tel 613-744-2638,
diane.gibea...@rogers.com
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