Thank you, Michael. Well put. Putting the church back in the middle of the village, as we say in French. :-)

Greetings from Brussels,

Ian

Sent from my iPhone

On 9 Dec 2024, at 14:42, Michael M Pannwitz via OSList <everyone@oslist.org> wrote:

 Come on, Thomas,

it needs issues, not topics, passions already included...

From my viewpoint we have an urgent issue in this string.
The issue "facilitation" is central to the core idea of an ost event.
The focus, as I see it, is the force of selforganisation.
This needs to be clear at the very beginning of the work as os facilitator.

After the sponsor has spoken at the beginning of the event
the facilitator (in German I use the word "Begleiter") is introduced by the sponsor
and begins his work.

Here is an example from my praxis:

--- I enter into the circle from my position outside the circle and say

"Welcome!"

--- I start to walk very slowly inside the circle, looking at everyone and say

"Take a look at who is here today: who sits next to you, to yout left and right, behind you, in front of you, across from you! Some of those sitting here you already know, others are still completely unknown to you. With some you just made friends at the buffet. With some you have already set up great projects, with others you may have had real
fights. That can also be very productive."

In our jargon we call it "focusing the group". It has nothing to do with focusing on the issues and opportunities huddled in the overarching issue (some call it the theme).
It is the very first and most important intervention for the participants on their journey
into selforganisation, its them, each other, they focus on.
With this start, they are at the beginning to be in a rarely experienced environment.

Here is the feedback from a participant in the closing circle of the event he just experienced

"2020 – Have you changed Germany? – I have!”
in November of 2009:

“I still don’t understand what you did to us. How did you get the fire going in our group? You only said something about the procedure at the beginning, very calmly and matter-of-factly. And I thought: Yes, now what? – We were all amazed at the more than 40 issues that we suddenly posted. What kind of magic was that?”

Here was my respons (usually I do not respond to stuff in a closing circle, I just could not resist, bad for facilitator):

“I'll tell you a little secret: the fire in your group was already burning. All it needed to blaze was a little space.”

And I can assure you that it is a simple thing to do but not easy at the very start of an open space ... and this intervention is rarely remembered. In fact, most of the amazing stuff
that is achieved, including the selfmanaged elements of leadership, community, management and vision, are not perceived as amazing stuff. Everyone plays a smaller or larger role regarding those central elements of any living system.
And nobody had an organigram.

Greetings from Berlin where the streets were full yesterday celebrating the developments
in Syria... there are 49.525 refugees in Berlin... in Germany there are about 1.3 Million refugees from Syria... we were invited to a party...

Greetings from Berlin
mmp

Am 09.12.2024 um 08:25 schrieb Thomas Herrmann via OSList:

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ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; }Sounds like a topic with passion, consider posting it for Thursday session in the Open Space Garden!

https://openspace.qiqochat.com/gardens

With appreciation for the wisdom shared in this thread.

One aspect I might add is that by my non-doing as facilitator it is clear who has the responsibility for “whatever” to happen, once I’m done with my opening.

With appreciation

Thomas

<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72" signature-switch-id="45480574-9a55-44f1-b1ab-6fb6982c2703">Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin
+49 30 7728000     <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mmpannwitz@posteo.de">mmpannwitz@posteo.de</a>

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