Michael has really said it all for me, but just to underline a point or two -- The job of the facilitator in Open Space is simple and quick: Enable the space to open and quickly retire in an unobtrusive fashion. As I said somewhere, Be totally present and absolutely invisible. This isn't about "face time" for the facilitator, nor is it about sharing the glories and burdens of facilitation. It is all about the participants, their passions and needs which require some real space/time. Facilitators taking up un-needed space/time defeats the purpose. I think.
Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org -----Original Message----- From: OSList [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Michael M Pannwitz via OSList Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:55 PM To: Harold Shinsato; World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: Re: [OSList] Delegating Open Space Facilitation Dear Harold, "One Less Thing" to do appears to me to be "more" of a "principle" than the 4 or 5 "principles" many of us invoke (I call them "Facts of Life"). When the isssue of "whatever" I want to NOT do any more, I ask myself: In which way does this support the force of selforganisation to unfold more freely. Asking that question myself, I might come to a conclusion that fits my perception of how effective not doing a particular "whatever" might be. Another facilitator (or participant or sponsor or....) might come to a totally different conclusion. Also valid, is my guess. My own experience in the role of "participant" has been that delegation or sharing of tasks or having more than one facilitator (regardless of it being a 4 hour os or a multiple day event) destracted me in that I found myself trying to figure out why this was done. It did not shorten the facilitation nor did it make the facilitators more "invisible", in other words "my" time to deal with my issues was decreased. I remember, however, that my own experience as a "participant/sponsor/facilitator" (especially at the Practice of Peace event in Berlin with Harrison) was very positive at the time with Harrison doing the facilitation on Day 1 in English, Anna Gochtchinskaia on Day 2 in Russian, and me on Day 3 without words and plenty of pantomine. In the many years of my facilitation life thereafter, I never engaged in replicating it, that is I did not add any of it. In another setting, where I was "sponsor/participant/facilitator" but being together with others in the same "role" and everyone with experience in the various roles, we practiced sitting in silence in the circle until someone got up and announced the first issue. It took about 5 to 7 minutes and we practiced this many times. The facilitation that impressed me most was that of Larry Peterson at the WOSonOS (at that time those events had the name "OSonOS") in Toronto in 1997... one year after I had run into Harrison and Romy and OST in the UK. At first I felt that his facilitation was without charisma, non-inspiring, non-impressive... later I felt it had been non-invasive, without control, with no frills, humble, unattached, attentive, disciplined... simply as close to invisible and still with utter presence... Greetings from Berlin... looking forward to the next WOSonOS this year in Krakow/Poland in September mmp On 22.01.2015 15:01, Harold Shinsato via OSList wrote: > I've been to several multi-day OST events where the facilitation was > delegated. Peggy Holman's Journalism That Matters in Detroit had > different facilitators that opened the space each morning. The Florida > WOSonOS had different facilitators each morning as well. The 2014 > Opening Space for Peace & High Performance had different facilitators, > and so did the one this year - including different people for the > evening news. > > I, as facilitator for the opening and closing, had delegated the > details of how you post sessions to a colleague for my Montana OST in > 2013. But this year, Thomas "Tom" Brown, who opened the second day of > the NYC Opening Space at International House 2015, delegated the five > principles to the circle. I'd not seen that happen before, and it > worked brilliantly. Beautifully. Some walked a circle in the middle, > like a traditional OST facilitator. Some said something from their > seats. Some spoke just a few seconds, some took a minute or two. But > it worked really well. Kudos to Tom Brown. > > Will folks share how we can do "one less thing", including the actual > facilitation, and how it has worked to let that go to other organizers > or to the actual circle itself? > > Thanks! > Harold -- Michael M Pannwitz Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany ++49 - 30-772 8000 Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 403 resident Open Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 143 countries worldwide: www.openspaceworldmap.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
