Food for thought after COBRAS LAB (1) on May 11th
Monday May 11th, 2020 the Cobras held their first lab researching online constellations. The learnings where very varied. Here is food for thought based on the learnings and questions being raised as a result of the session:
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In online constellations it is very well possible for participants to sense a field and as a representative to sense what is going on in the system of the client, even if you are physically all at different location on the moment of the constellation.
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Virtual constellations certainly have their value and relevance, in contrast to what I initially thought. Interesting things are happening from a phenomenological order with much more depth than I would expect.
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Prioritise setting the scene: Holding space for all audience as well as case giver is critical. There is a necessary build up that must be created to keep all in tune.
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As a trained facilitator that what you know about constellating and systemic work is much bigger than what you don't know as online facilitator. Facilitating from this will context give you a strong position to operate from.
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Twenty attendees who can all participate in a Zoom room is a lot. It brings the dynamic at the warm up that the exercise sorted itself out. The group dynamic made it work, it required less attention than a smaller group. During the constellation itself having 20 attendees visible makes it a two sided sword, on one side you want to be in touch with all, but meanwhile it is a lot to deal with. Suggestions in the debrief were to only show the video of client, representatives and the facilitator or even only the client. This are good suggestions to test in future constellations.
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How does the technology possibilities impact the constellation possibilities? If you give by google drive full control to participants and reps, what does it means in terms of the constellation? Somebody always changes something in the slides (last Monday somebody changed peace for war, or duplicated two slides) Is that information, pre information or nothing to consider?
Who has control? Where is the holding space? What is the boundary in and out of the field?
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Time: what is a good time duration? It seems as if even 2 hours is too short. Who or where does the rush belong to?
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Each participant sees the screen different, since the setting is different (the setting of Zoom and the Google Doc), if we are not physically in the same space, and we are not seeing the same things , where is it that we are meeting that the constellation is anyway still possible?
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What do we need to develop and activate that we don´t use in in person constellations?
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The process of the online constellations must be very clear and very well guided, even more than face-to-face ones, because we have to deal with technical limitations that can be neutralised or at least limited by the rigor of how the constellation is lead.
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You can bring people from all over (the world) together without having to travel, and in a short time, ad hoc, whenever needed and required, you can start working. This advantage is enormous and is a solution for the complexity of finding and bringing together a group of representatives.
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Larger groups are better managed when host/co-host/co-pilot and facilitator functions are split between more persons
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Perception of the participants of the online constellation evolves gradually with number of sessions they attended. This shows with participants who are not used to online meetings at all. Their senses are busy with processing their own picture and that of others on the screen. It can drain energy their energy. Participants need to get use to it and learn how focus on own perception of the field.
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The online fields method offers the opportunity to “freeze” Steps in the constellation in order to look back afterwards or even move back to an earlier moment in the constellation and test an alternative intervention or option.
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