Dear Jake and you others, (after finishing this piece I suggest you
first get yourself a cup of coffee or other beverage you cherish, find a
couch and take a little time to read this lengthy piece)
I as facilitator will increasingly get into the mode of "total presence
and absolute invisibility" by reflection. As I inch up, or millimeter
up, in this regard the easier does it get to hold "time and space".
Now, this is both more than rocket science as well as simple. However,
and this is the tough part, not easy.
After pushing myself in the early years of my practice I eventually
realized that "total presence and absolute invisibility" requires
life-long attention and learning. As does holding time and space. Both
are part of this. And if you start with OST late in life, as I did at
the age of 56 and three decades of OD and related stuff behind me, its
mainly a lot of un-learning.
Okay, here are some of the things I reflect on... best with others right
during an ost event (I actually plan timeslots for this in the agenda
the team has for itself):
--- Being unattached to outcome and not getting involved in content is a
prerequisite for having the high energy required for attaining the mode
of "present and invisible." (I think it was HO who tells the story of
being asked by someone during an OST event about apparently doing
nothing... and him responding with "Doing nothing is what I get paid for.").
--- One thing I can arrange for and reflect on before getting into a
facilitator situtation, is not to facilitate an ost event in a situation
that I have stakes in (like in my own organisation).
One practice tested way is to help oneself and other facilitators in
this regard is to arrange for a "rain check" system: I work as
facilitator without pay in your organisation and you in turn work as
facilitator without pay in mine. That allows us in each case to be fully
participant in a setting we have stakes in. And for lots of learning.
Which happens easily in sustainably reflecting my practice.
--- One more thing I can arrange for once it is clear that I am
facilitator in a specific event is to have an assistant who supports me
in doing nothing and reminds me to stay out of the way. (This reminds me
of a story about one of the Ceasars in Rome who hired someone to quietly
tell him that he is not God when everyone adored, admired, fell on his
knews before him.) The assistant, in turn, has a team to take care of
all the nitty-gritty stuff around setting up the event and caring for
the event without being space invadors.
--- What is central to my role as facilitator in regard to
"holding/expanding time and space for the unfolding of the force of
selforganisation"?
OST has this as its central characteristic. I know of no
approach/method/process/etc. that has "holding/expanding time and space
for the unfolding of the force of selforganisation" as its central
characteristic. It is unique to OST. This I think is also one of the
reasons why it always works, appears familiar to everyone once they get
into it, is effective in all cultures, etc.
As is often told, there is really only one effective way to reduce the
unhampered unfolding of the force of selforganisation: Control. Mind
you, the force of selforganisation does not appear completely (this, I
think would stop everything, the universe would disapper). It can get
very tiny, but its there... an organisation or a group or a neighborhood
would not be unless the force is still active. The way, it often shows
itself, is in the "informal" part of a system that is used by everyone
to make things work. It can also rest in the "informal" leaders in a
neighborhood that Saul Alinski, among other things, looked for in
working with communities.
--- So, all situations, tempting as they may be, in which I exert
control are counterproductive for the central characteristic of OST.
"Control" can be around little things that I intuitively do in
situations where I feel I need to step in: Walk up to the Bulletin Board
to pick up an issue-poster that got unstuck and put it back in it place.
A bit more control might be my suggestion that no issue needs to be put
up more than once. And even more control is active when I proclaim that
a certain issue has nothing to do with the overall Theme of the event.
--- Being fully present for me is also a prerequisite for dealing with
space invadors. There are no recipies for this. One thing that helps me
is to start counting before I address the space invasion. Most often a
fellow participant will speak to this before I reach 6. For me, this has
nothing to do with "trusting" the group. I prefer to say that I know
groups will handle stuff like this all by themselves. If they are let.
Sometimes in the early part of the ost event a participant will walk up
to me and request that I come to a break-out session that has problems
with the issue or the process. The first time I was approached, I
actually went with the participant. It was interesting to see that the
group had already found its way in the time that their scout went to
find me and bring me to his session.
Eventually I experienced that the folks at an ost event can and will not
only deal with every issue they have but also selforganise everything
they need. And, if pointed out to them that they selforganize structure,
leading, managing, etc. they find this not especially interesting. I get
this as a pointer that they are doing what is inherently natural to them.
And here is also a short take on what I have found very useful around
the transition from the divergent to the convergent phase of an os event.
First, I am pretty sure that we can skip convergence in the traditional
sense: Having some kind of tool (there are myriad) of weighing or voting
on issues that came up in the divergent phase.
Years ago, when I still used the 55 dot method I noticed that the items
that got the most dots rarely entered the project phase. It dawned on
me, that prioritization is a statistical method that probably does
result in finding out what might be most important to the group but not
what has, yes you already feel it, someone or several people with
passion and responsibility grabbing it.
So, me and others came up with what we already had and simply convened a
second os in the last half day after the Reading Gallery the evening
before. Now, this is usually called Action Space. In this space the
focus is not on issues but on projects. Folks are invited to post
projects and gather around projects to develope next steps for tackling
them. It looks and feels and is another os event with the participants
that already experienced os in the diverging phase and get into this
second one in 2 minutes flat already familiar with the process.
The amazing thing was, that aside from what one would expect to see as
projects, other projects were posted that had not been visible. I feel
this is the result of participants having reached a much wider picture
of the whole situation after being in the divergent phase and studying
all the report sheets including the augmentation of them and also being
in a better position on what ressources they now see in the group that
they have worked with in the first space.
Considering that basically OST is an action orienting approach and that
action only happens if there is passion joined by responsibility for
something that is to be done the Action Space is a good way to have that
happen for which the entire gathering was that up for: Dealing with a
wicked issue that nobody had an answer to at the beginning of the open
space.
It is also a simple way of doing it. I mention this because I still feel
that anyone with a clear head and a good heart can facilitated an ost
event, especially if it is a straigtforward approach.
Greetings from Berlin where I look forward to seeing you at the WOSonOS
this fall
https://wosonos2020.berlin/
mmp
Have a great day,
mmp
Am 08.02.2020 um 19:44 schrieb Jake Yeager via OSList:
Many questions these days. Thank you for entertaining them. :)
This past week, I facilitated an eight-hour Open Space split across two
half-days. The attendees were an Organizational Development team, of
which I am a member. My AVP sponsored the event, because we had recently
merged with another group, and there was lack of clarity. So, our theme
was: "Who are we, and how do we collaborate to drive success?" Also, my
AVP--who is a leader in Learning & Development--wanted to experience
Open Space in order to understand it better as it is new to my firm.
Since I am a fledgling facilitator, I chose not to participate in the
breakout sessions, even though I am part of the group. I wanted to make
sure that I provided the best experience for everyone, and participating
would have dampened my focus. I shared this with my manager, after she
inquired after the first day why I had not participated.
Long story short, after the event, my manager had major concerns how I
facilitated the event. I had gone for long walks while the group was
working, and she felt that was very risky. I told her that the
facilitator's role is to remain "invisible" to allow the group to build
its capacity for self-management. She said that our firm's culture is
very hierarchical and that "baby steps" are needed. She suggested even
intervening in a group if it gets "stuck." I believe I mentioned that
intervening is not part of Open Space facilitation.
So my question is: how do you "hold space?" I found Chris's description
on his website: "an Open Space Technology facilitator is neither seen
nor heard, but his or her presence is 'felt.'" I guess by going for long
walks and not being in the room, my presence was not "felt." One of my
colleagues provided feedback that by not being there, it didn't seem
like I cared. This is definitely not the case. I went on long walks as
an act of love, not negligence.
Anyway, would love your thoughts.
Thanks,
Jake
________________
When the mind is quiet, the sun of your heart will shine once again, and
you will be free of problems.
- Robert Adams <http://www.robert-adams.info/>
--
Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49 - 30-772 8000
mmpannw...@gmail.com
Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 490 resident Open
Space Workers in 76 countries working in a total of 142 countries worldwide
www.openspaceworldmap.org
At my publisher you find books and task cards on open space and other
treasures, most in German, some in English, some as ebooks, some
multilingual
https://www.westkreuz-verlag.de/de/Kommunikation
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