Day 2 Bounce

Christopher Kloth kloth at tmn.com
Mon Dec 14 15:46:26 PST 1998


My perspective is quite similar to Harrison's on this.  I have also seen this
in Future Search and Bohmian Dialogue groups.  Marv Weisbord & Sandra Janoff
refer to the overnight time as "soak time" and I have taken to wishing people
an active dream life whenever the work we are doing involves an overnight.

To revive an old conversation, it is this very expereience which leads me to
suggest that when we use the principles of Open Space in settings lasting less
than two days I am reluctant to call it Open Space, especially if it is with a
group that has had little or no prior expereince with Open Space or other forms
of deep dialogue.

As I have said before, I think there may be value in applying the principles of
Open Space in shorter forms, but the day 2 bounce is, for me, part of what
makes Open Space (and other forms of deep dialogue) so powerful.  Open
Space-ish is good-ish, but 2.5 days is the real deal!

Chris Kloth

owen wrote:

> >How common is a day two BOUNCE of surprisingly rapid productivity, in your
> >experiences?
> *******************************************************************
> I almost hate to say this -- but the Day-Two Bounce is normative behavior,
> which is why I find doing anything less than 2 or 2 1/2 day open spaces of
> markedly decreasing value. It is not that a 1 day OST is without worth, but
> compared to what can be accomplished in 2 days, the 1 dayer doesn't even
> make the rankings. I think the reasons for all this are probably pretty
> simple and straight forward. On Day 1 I find people operating in a rather
> tight manner...it just doesn't have the joy and lightness (even if it is a
> very serious matter) of the second day. It may be much better than they
> have done before, but it is nothing like what they are capable of. There is
> in fact a learning curve, and it takes a day to move on it. The central
> piece is the Law of Two Feet. Folks use it a lot more on Day 2. And when
> the Law of Two Feet is really working, everything seems to go into flow
> state. Talk about productivity.
>
> Another factor, I think is that on Day 1 folks tend to bitch a bit -- if
> that is what they need to do. And having bitched and seen that nobody got
> shot -- they are then free to really get to work. Which they do with a
> vengeance. This is a hard point to get over to sponsors, who for fairly
> obvious reason would like to have everything pretty. But if the atmosphere
> is bitchy, you got to get it out on the table before you move on. This is
> especially critical when people are dealing with something like strategic
> planning. The sponsor looks at what is going on and says -- hey they are
> just dealing with the present and the past -- no future. But the point is
> that the present and the past will be your future unless you deal directly
> and well with both.
>
> Anyhow, The Day2 Bounce (I love the phrase -- thank you) is pretty much SOP
> (standard operating procedure) Enjoy it. I always do. Harrison



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