Client out of control! #1 and #2

[Michael Herman]

first, to chris,

i had a similar situation earlier this year. not an intact group, but
the annual meeting/conference of a state association of healthcare
execs. the program was 1 1/2 days.  the second half day was for
workshops.  the first full day was all open space...except for the
lunch.  absolutely could not get them to move the "business meeting'
which has traditionally taken place, complete with 'do i have a motion
for...' during the lunch time.  we opted to go for it.

the day got off to a somewhat slower start, os was very new to a
conservative crowd and this was a more public, less passionate group
than most intact orgs would be.  anyway, the lunch came and, of course
overran it's 1-hour boundary by more than half an hour.  rather than
tank the whole day, it seemed to make very clear to everyone the value
of open space.  the afternoon energy was noticeably higher.

i'd be more concerned with the questions larry raised about the leader's
openness.  i've described os as me bounding the inside of the circle and
the formal leadership bounding the outside.  they hold the space for the
cirlce to not be crushed by external forces, be they budget, structure,
politics, etc....the opener's job then is just to point to the space
that's been created and welcome people into it.


also, to jay...

don't know that this would work for you, but at this same association
event, there were about 30 vendors to be exhibiting in a separate hall,
open during lunch and breaks.  of course, open space torpedoed the
breaks and threatened to rile a lot of vendors who'd paid to exhibit.
we solved it by moving them into the main meeting room with the big
circle and marketplace wall.  we covered three walls with vendor booths
and one with the marketplace.  vendors met with butterflies all day
long...or convened groups in the neighborhood of their booth, so they
could easily bumblebee between their group and their booth. perhaps you
could give these software folks each a corner of the room where they'd
have some additional stature in the marketplace without disrupting the
flow of open space all around them.


good luck in both cases.  michael herman


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Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
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