Thank You Eleder! Always great to have another brother/sister in the band. On the subject of doing nothing, hard job indeed. You said, "I read "OST user's guide" to try to visualise my behaviour after opening space and holding space during the meetings. But still I felt sometimes uncomfortable not knowing how to behave. Trying to do nothing, not thinking, just being at hand,... Would it be OK, for example, me just listening to a any group's conversation?"
"Being present and totally invisible" is really impossible == but I find that trying to achieve that adds to the experience, yours and the group's. The point is to make it very clear that the group is on its own in terms of how it organizes, what it does, and when. This is not, as some might suspect, a matter of doctrine, dogma, or creed - it is simply that the experience over the years has been that everything works better than way. A fully functional self organized group will beat the pants off of any other sort in terms of productivity, innovation, and just plain fun every time, and all the time. The problem is that for most people, the experience and expectation is that "somebody" (facilitator, manager, leader, etc) is going to do the oxymoronic == organize as self organizing group. It is assumed that this is what they are supposed to do - and so even if you as facilitator are resolved to keep your hands off, it is very easy to get trapped by peoples' expectations. However, if you physically remove yourself the temptation will not arise - on your part to assume the old role, or on the peoples' part to expect it. I think this is particularly true for a "first time." We have all been trained to intervene and take charge. Supposedly that is our job! So this is a sometimes painful bit of retraining. :-) I think you will find, once you get the hang of it, that if you will actually leave the group (take a walk or a nap) for the first hour or so, you can then come back and be a participant. By that time everybody should be so involved in what they have a passion for that your presence is basically inconsequential - at least in the old role of major domo. One of my favorite moments on a multi-day Open Space is when somebody comes up to me on the 2nd day, looks me in the eye (sometimes with suspicion) and says - Who are you? When that happens I know I have really done my job. Harrison Harrison Owen 189 Beaucaire Ave Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 (Summer) 301-365-2093 (Winter) Website www.openspaceworld.com Personal Website www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of ELEDER AURTENETXE PILDAIN Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 3:21 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: REFLECTIONS ON MY FIRST OPEN SPACE <http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist> Hello, bright summer morning here in Bilbao. How are you? I'm writing some lines now to report on my first OS experience (Monday, 2009/6/29). Thanks for your attention, beforehand. Overall, the event ran ok, and first time is usually harder, isn't it? I've realised some things to improve, though, and some doubts have also aroused. First I'll say that my first OS was, maybe, a bit artificial (nine people interested in creativity and not knowing each other before - 3 exceptions - were invited to build some knowledge about it, with these questions: "CREATIVITY (ability to create). It is useful in education, anyone's life, the arts, enterprises,... * is there a way to improve it? * are techniques really useful. Which ones and in which ways? " I'll search the OST files about them, but here some of my thoughts: 1. Not too hot topic. No real deadline. RESULT: Tension was lacking.... but it worked as a tool. People got involved in real conversations and written reports were distributed in the afternoon. The day after we commented on the experience itself, and people found it useful... but next times I'll only use it in more real issues and more suitable conditions. 2. The law of two feet wasn't almost really used (although it was extensively explained at the beginnig). Afterwards I was explained that they wouldn't feel comfortable doing so because of habits, believes,... It helped me understand this behaviour and realising that, next times, it'll have to be more stressed in the opening. But, besides it, should the facilitator remind it to people DURING the OS is running? 3. LUNCH TIME: We had lunch together (unless one fellow that got home and back with us after lunch). How should the facilitator behave meanwhile? Conversations were the typical of a learning group, not directly regarding the issues spoken in the OS. I suppose it is quite normal. Should/Could the facilitator, maybe, be apart at lunch time? 4. I read "OST user's guide" to try to visualise my behaviour after opening space and holding space during the meetings. But still I felt sometimes uncomfortable not knowing how to behave. Trying to do nothing, not thinking, just being at hand,... Would it be OK, for example, me just listening to a any group's conversation? I was appart all the time but quite near, I sometimes felt they could be thinking I was some kind of spy :-),... I went off... came back afterwards, I avoided to get in contact with the stuff people for other subjects I had to deal with, I would then start thinking they were all thinking "what a witty guy, he just put the people working, now he's just wandering and will be charging us for it!" :-)... 5. Would it be ok if I disappeared for a time to do something of my business? (I guess not because this would involve being absent for a while)... I'll reread the user's guide and the ost-list for this issue, no doubt,... 6. After proposing a discussion subject and having a group formed, being part of the agenda, the one who had called for it said she wouldn't write the report (she wasn't good at it). I suggested she could have someone else of the group write it. At last the group discussed about the specific subject ("creativity and physical movement") but no report was raised. I let it be and pointed that due to it the people that weren't engaged in this discussion would not know much about it (the real aim of writing reports). Next meetings finished with their reports written. Any other ideas about how I could have behaved? 7. Another question (the answer of which I can guess :-): would it be ok if I had a small Mind-Map with the main points I wouldn't anyway want to forget to explain in the opening? I found myself realising having forgot to say something and saying it afterwards,... although there was no big trouble about it. 8. An organisation issue. As the place would be open just one hour before beginning the OS, I made the preparation in the hotel the day before, and was a bit uneasy this morning. I suppose it would have been better leaving the main things prepared on Friday evening (the OS started on Monday morning and I wasn't let enter the place during the weekend). Kind regards, Eleder Aurtenetxe Pildain BILBAO BM31 www.burumapak.blogspot.com * * ========================================================== 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
