Dear Birgitt,
thanks for your stories.
To me, I am reconfirming my hunch that the best stuff comes from
participants.
To me, I am reconfirming my hunch that facilitators really widen the
space for inputs from participants by simply waiting a bit.
And, to add to this, "simply" sounds as it were simple to stand back,
its not easy.
And as one of us persists saying, to do nothing is a simple intervention
but not easy and essentially thats what we get paid for, in our role as
facilitator.
To really make the point is to take a nap after participants have
started their breakout sessions.
Greetings from Berlin and lets have more stories, they enliven and
expand the spirit of our crowd
mmp
Am 18.08.2022 um 02:36 schrieb Birgitt Williams:
Hi Michael,
I am popping in to say that I had a very interesting lesson in using
the "talking stick", and after the lesson I refer to the "input
object" or "talking object" and I don't use a stick. Often, what I
pass around are my "bells" or an object chosen by the client. Now, on
to two stories.
The Canadian government had hired me to facilitate a large conference
of 300 people. Indigenous Peoples made up one-third of those gathered.
The event was three full days, with a weighty topic. After lunch on
the third day was scheduled for the closing circle. I placed my
talking stick in the center of the circle of chairs before the people
returned. As they were coming into the meeting room, all of the
Indigenous People stopped at the door and wouldn't come in. I assumed
the problem was that I was using a talking stick and they didn't want
a non-native to use it. however I was wrong. They were fine for me to
use the stick. The problem was that they assumed I was going to start
a talking stick ceremony and it could take days. Because they had
flights to catch, they didn't want to dishonor the talking stick by
entering and then leaving such a short time later as they respected
the time it would take to do a talking stick ceremony. Since that
time, I have not used a talking stick, substituting a different object.
Next story. A wonderful group of people in Nigeria who were learning
how to work with Open Space Technology. In the circle, I introduced
the "talking object". Silence descended and finally one person spoke
up. But Ma'am, the object doesn't talk. Someone else rescued the
moment, as I was unsure of what to say. The recommendation was that
from that moment on, the object be referred to as an "input object" ,
with the observation that the object was inviting the person who held
it to give input to the whole circle of people. I liked that a lot.
The group in Nigeria also taught me to say "You are welcome into the
circle" instead of my prior choice of "I welcome you into the circle".
in genuine contact,
Birgitt
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*Birgitt Williams*
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development, and the power of nourishing a culture of leadership.*
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On Wed, Aug 17, 2022 at 6:15 PM Michael M Pannwitz
<[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Thomas in Sweden,
alter Schwede (gosh), what is "inviting/using a talking object for
the speaker"(and inviting the others to be respectful listeners)?
Maybe its the 32 Celsius in this part of the world that disables
my mind/understanding.
I guess you are referring to passing a talking stick in the
closing circle of an ost event? If that is not the case, read on
anyway.
In that situation, if I recall correctly, I never asked folks to
be "respectful" listeners in a closing circle in my role as
facilitator.
Mind you, in other roles it could slip into my language...
Last time I sat in a closing circle in the role of facilitator was
2012. (It was also in Berlin and definitely not 32 Celsius, in
fact, this particular sponsor had his events always in January or
February, see here
https://openspaceworldscape.org/events?tag=&q=NACOA&commit=Search
<https://openspaceworldscape.org/events?tag=&q=NACOA&commit=Search>
I recall what I usually said before passing the talking stick (by
2012 and earlier I had stopped using the holy talking stick I was
given by Canadian colleagues at the WOSonOS in Toronto in 1997, a
small piece of charred wood that was part of a very old oak...
this oak originally was doomed to be cut down to make room for the
Scarborough Civic Center in Toronto but saved by very concerned
folks who convinced the architect, Raymond Moriyama, to build the
center around the oak... not long after that was completed the oak
was hit by lightening and caught fire... everyone who was part of
the initiative to save the oak received a small piece of it... it
was so powerful that everytime I used it I had to cry and others
in the circle apparently, too... I wrapped this powerful talking
stick in a cotton bag and its been sleeping there since then).
Oh no, I keep indulging in my passion to writespeak ad infinitum.
Sorry.
Ok, here is what I said in the os in 2012 with 200 participants at
the end of a three day event in my role as facilitator at the
closing circle ritual:
"This talking stick works like this: Coming your way you don't
think about anything beforehand. When it reaches you, hold it, and
hold it for a moment. Don't pass it on right away, just hold it
for a moment. And then if something surfaces, you say it. And the
others listen. And if nothing surfaces, we listen into the
silence. And if you say something from the heart, then we listen
with our hearts."
(I also remember now, that these words, spoken after the 200 had
entered a phase of silence, intensified the silence widening the
space for listening, speaking, reacting in non-verbal
interventions, singing a song, getting up and bowing into the
circle...)
Right, I introduced them into the ritual in a way one might speak
to an actor before the take.
It worked this last time in 2012 and had worked every time before
without me requesting respect or other such stuff.
Respectfully yours and hoping you are in a cool nook in Sweden
and all the best for your motorbike ride to the WOSonOS in Bilbao
at the end of September with Jo
see here
https://www.openspaceworldmap.org/worker/jo-topfer
and maybe some of the others I have seen coming to European OSonOS
(Learning Exchanges) such as the biker Andrea from Italy, riding
his bike all the way from Italy to Utrecht/Netherlands in 2013 see
here
https://www.openspaceworldmap.org/worker/andrea-moretti
Love and Peace
mmp
This email above is in response to what Thomas in
Kungsbacka/Sweden wrote to Michael in Boise/USA in the string
started by Christine Koehler in Paris/France:
5 days OST in 3 langages. Practical and general considerations
"Wow Michael, this makes so much sense and I experience it
stronger every time when inviting/using an talking object for the
speaker (and inviting the others to be respectful listeners) –
both in-person and online. Powerful, beautiful and healing for the
soul, I believe.
Thomas"
Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
+49 30 [email protected]
See the Open Space World Map with 511 Open Space Workers living in 77 countries
and active in 142 countries worldwide:www.openspaceworldmap.org
<http://www.openspaceworldmap.org>
And see books/ebooks and task cards on open space and other related
treasures, most in German, some in English, some multilingual:
https://www.westkreuz-verlag.de/de/Kommunikation
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