My start was with Florian Fischer as my facilitator, helping me facilitate my first big OS. I did the work up front with the preparation group and got to ask him all my questions by email or phone, which was wonderful and very inspiring. He meant to help facilitate as it was a bilingual event, but had to withdraw two days prior to the event for health reasons. (I then found out that co-facilitation only works if you have known the other person well - otherwise, one facilitator and one translator is better.) We evenly split the money earned for the preparation of the event.
Next time, I had a coach alongside who was paid by the sponsor. After that, I saw my coach once to clarify my specific questions for the next OS event. In the meantime, I do well by myself, of course always with the help of a preparation group from the sponsor's organisation and with the help of you all if I have a question. This OSLIST is really a wonderful resource. I offer my clients that they can learn about the method in being an assistant and later on, me being their assistant. In Switzerland, I find occasions for OS every day, simply by reading the newspaper. Of course, then it takes phone calls and seeing clients about my ideas to find out whether OS is adequate to solve the problem. AND I am very aware not to create too much work for myself that way. Wherever I have an idealistic interest to offer an OS event, danger of burnout lurks. But somehow, when I tell about OS, people find it interesting and some do come back to me asking for a first discussion. I have also learned that a sponsor is essential. Offering an event by myself to the public can be expensive if it then doesn't happen because the need for it is not big enough. Offering OS events in leisure time institutions for free has been a good way to sum up more experience and to strengthen the communities involved, but so far, I haven't gotten a paid OS event out of these offerings. I keep on doing it anyway because I love that community. Sometimes, I participate in an OS co-created by other OS practitioners, to be a participant and learn about facilitating from that side. The last time was in November in Berlin where Harrison couldn't come. The learning was profound. Not only did I walk out with the sentence "I invite myself to live the life of my dreams now" (with which I keep wandering.), but also did I realize how unimportant the facilitator is once the groups are on their way. It's really THEIR thing, not the facilitator's. That has let me be much more relaxed as a facilitator, finally really taking a nap in the sun during breakout sessions. :-) With gratitude, C. Catherine Pfaehler Senn lic.oec.HSG Open Space Begleitung St. Alban-Vorstadt 15 CH - 4052 Basel +41-(0)76 - 488 15 46 c.pfaeh...@open-space-begleitung.ch www.open-space-begleitung.ch <http://www.open-space-begleitung.ch/> _____ Von: Lisa Heft [mailto:lisah...@openingspace.net] Gesendet: Dienstag, 5. Mai 2009 16:59 Betreff: Re: Begining in OS ...and that's how we are all delightfully different. Jack, I honor how you feel and see things. And yet I do see them differently. I see abundance instead of competition. I see inviting others to help me in events that I facilitate as an opportunity for wonderful help, greater service to the client and a colleague who is rich with observations and insights. Plus the extra added value of helping a colleague grow into the field and gain more experience. And I see it as my 'pay it forward' for having received such rich learning and opportunities from my diversely experienced colleagues. I see their putting these jobs on their resumes (for example, 'Newsroom Coordinator' as an essential role assisting an organization in utilizing their own documentation for their continued growth and learning) as a real job with real responsibility required, whether or not they were paid or pro bono consultants on that job. I ask all clients if I can bring someone along to assist and ask them if they have funding for this. Often they do. If not, I try to find funding from my own resources. If I do not have resources it is often seen as an unpaid collaboration for the benefit of learning. I find that offering learning opportunities for colleagues helps strengthen our work and our field. I invite some of you on this list to share with us your experiences of being invited to help on Open Space events as you were / have been emerging into this field and this practice. I invite others of you to share your experiences of bringing a newly emerging facilitator into a job of yours. Tell us the (mutual) benefits and the learning - even your stories of when it has not been a good idea for the client, participants, or for you. I think we have a learning opportunity here. Thanks to David and Jack for tickling these thoughts in my head and opening up the learning opportunity. I look forward to hearing others' thoughts on this. A warm hello from a gray Berkeley California morning, Lisa Lisa Heft Consultant, Facilitator, Educator Opening Space lisah...@openingspace.net www.openingspace.net Jack Martin Leith wrote: * What the client is really paying for is the consulting work and the design and organisation of the event. Facilitating the event is the easy bit that happens at the end. So to get maximum value from working with an experienced practitioner you'd really need to be involved in the entire project. * How do I explain your presence to the client? * What would your role be on the day, aside from helping get the space ready? Once the agenda is created and the sessions are up and running, there's very little for the facilitator to do. * I'll probably get shot down in flames for saying this, but what the hell: Here in the UK, OS consulting is a crowded marketplace. Do I really want to help make it even more crowded? I mentioned that last point because I suspect that the "training a new competitor" issue is often there, if unconscious, when an OS consultant is asked "Can I be an extra pair of hands?" and it's best that you're aware of it. Although the Open Space community is very supportive, and I do whatever I can to share knowledge and help others, the reality is that we're operating in a very competitive environment. I've competed with friends and collaborators for OS work on several occasions. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ----------------------------- To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
