evening opening

[Birgitt Bolton]

Hi Michael,
an evening opening works just fine. I've done this several times.  I am
doing one this Friday evening (what a way to spend a Fri eve :-)) that is
going to be just as you describe. The opening and one session. With the
chance to post more in the morning news. In this case, I did this by design
and not by default. I wanted Sun morning for the converging of action steps
and I felt the group would go deeper into their work if they had a chance to
"sleep on" their topics. They couldn't give two full days to the discussion
groups so an evening and a day works just fine.

Warmest regards,
Birgitt

Birgitt Bolton of Dalar Associates
www.openspacetechnology.com
55 Ravina Cres., Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
 L9G 2E8
phone: 905-648-5775  fax: 905-648-2262

>From  Wed Apr  7 19:03:52 1999
Message-Id: <WED.7.APR.1999.190352.0400.>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 19:03:52 -0400
Reply-To: dgp at cyberus.ca
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Parkinson & Gibeault <dgp at cyberus.ca>
Subject: EVENING OPENING
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To Micheal Herman,

It works very well in my experience. Especially when the group only has
one full day I actually encourage them to start the night before and
have one round of discussions. It takes away the anxiety, they get into
the action, the laughter is easy late at night and the buy in is great.
The evening talks over a beer or whatever that follows and overnight
incubation all contribute to a crowd that is ready to move on the next
day. Studies have apparently demonstrated that getting people on the
task the night before, whatever the facilitation approach is, brings
more productivity the next day. I've  seen the difference lately with a
group of 120 who had speeches the first night and slept on their anxiety
about OS. Participants themselves recommanded we start the night before
the next time.

That's my story.

Diane Gibeault
191 Juliette Ave.
Ottawa Ontario
Canada K1K 2T5

613-7442638
Fax 613-744-3347