FOOD FOR THOUGHT AFTER COBRAS LAB (2) ON MAY 18TH

Monday May 18th, 2020 the Cobras held their second lab researching online constellations. The learnings where very varied and built upon those of LAB 1. Here is food for thought based on the learnings and questions being raised as a result of the session:

As a host:

  • Having two co-facilitators sharing responsibility and tasks (host, facilitate) works excellent. Having a host and a co-host makes the experience more energetic. As a host with a co-host present it is more easy to keep an eye on the whole and switching attention to the faces on all the video’s and development of the constellation.

  • As a host it is important to build and maintain the container for the online encounter. Calm breathing and keeping attention tot he body helps, especially when people experience technical difficulties or unexpected things happen. It also helps to deal with people feeling disengaged at certain moments during the constellation.

  • During the Lab it felt like all CoBrAS members created the holding space for the session together and the host and facilitator are leading the process. Creating that holding space together builds a very strong container for the question of the case giver. Actively involving all who are present in the meeting in that process could create an even stronger container.

As a participant:

  • Participants who are not engaged in the constellation as representatives sometimes find it hard to feel engaged. Asking them for their systemic input during the constellation proces helped creating feeling more active involved in the constellation process. Having the case interview done in the online session instead of before the online session might also help to foster participant engagement.

 As case giver:

  • For the case giver it is interesting to freeze moments in constellations by copying the slide and then move on. It helps to look back at the constellation after the process. Zoom also provides the possibility of recording the constellation for the case giver if all agree that is permitted. Of course as a case giver you can also ask someone to be present with you and take notes of the constellation..

 About online constellations:

  • People new to online constellations experienced a change in attitude: they have a positive attitude towards online constellations after this expericence.

  • People new to constellations are amazed about how constellations work. Working online is not a barrier.

  • True: Even a cat present in the room of one of the participants reacted strongly to the online constellation.

 About the tool:

  • If participants experience technical problems it stops the flow in the online gathering. It could help to get participants acquinted with online meetings and working with the Online Fields tool 15 minutes before the start of the meeting. 

  • Having flexible avatars which you can vary in size, colour and direction is wonderfull!

  • The question was raised if the experience would be stronger working in 3D instead of 2D, for instance using lego avatars?

  • Working with different methods of setting up the constellation is possible: the client can set up all the representatives in the beginning or the representatives can set up themselves. As constellator it is also possible to build up the constellation adding one represetative at a time.

Jeroen Hermkens