A case for training.

[Michelle Cooper]

Hello OS colleagues:

I want to share a story of my recent participation in a meeting that was billed as open space, but was DEFINITELY a model case of not being open space.  It is an example of a person who participated in an open space event, thought it was good, so picked and chose a couple of elements to use in a meeting and called it open space.

I think that both Birgitt and I have related stories of how hard it has been in this region to get people to use or consider open space for an event.  The few that have been tried have been disasters (with the exception of those conducted by Birgitt) , because the facilitators did not know how do hold space.  Unfortunately, these unsuccessful "UN-Open Space events" have been attended by influential people in the community, which damaged the reputation of open space.  Therefore, when I received an  invitation to attend a half-day planning meeting for the organization that I am associated with, I was delighted to see that it was to be held on open space.  I had some concerns arise with the invitation.  The theme was not clear and it was not like open space invitations I have seen.  I called the org. and asked who was facilitating.  When I heard who it was, I knew that she had not attended any training.  However, she is a bright individual and thought that maybe she had read the books.  I chalked up the uninspiring invitation to a rookie attempt.  I e-mailed her and congratulated her for taking a risk with using open space and informed her that I was a trained facilitator.

My concerns cranked up a few notches when I received the "Mandatory Pre-reading Package" and an agenda that looked very structured.  My heart began to sink, but I knew that I must attend now and see what exactly was about to transpire.  I am an eternal optimist and thought that perhaps, as is common in open space, things would take care of themselves.

Well, what can I say.  Any optimism that I had was dashed the moment that I walked into the room.  I opened the door to see......lots of ons posted.  As we were supposed to be gathering for discussion, someone suggested that maybe we could break the 2 hours into 2 one hour sessions so that there was opportunity to get to more groups.  The Facilitator talked about the law of two feet but that did not seem to make much sense to anyone.  Anyway people sat at tables wondering how to proceed and then little tent cards were put at the tables to indicate where the topics were to be discussed.  Many people who had posted topics had to leave before the discussions got started.

Anyway discussion happened but waned before the actual time was "up" many people left once their issue was discussed. There was little passion in the room.   We had less than 1/3 of the people at the close, which happened 1/2 hour before the schedule (when it is over, it is over, at least one concession).

Well now, what did I do through all of this.  Although my insides were screaming, the space was not open nor was it safe to stand up and say "this is not open space", and at the time felt inappropriate.  I felt that what I would accomplish was to totally embarrass and diminish the facilitator  in front of her bosses (whom she was definitely trying to impress).  I was so distracted about how I might handle this, I could not engage in process.  The best I could do at the early moment in my small group was to say that I was a trained facilitator and that this was not open space as I knew it.  I said that I was struggling to adapt my expectations to the new as I had expected something different....all in as diplomatic a way as possible.  I excused myself to the washroom when the marketplace was opened to regroup and consider my next steps.  I decided that  I should not approach the facilitator or anyone else at that time and that I should stay for the entire session.  When I re-entered the room, facilitator came up to me and said I had looked like I was in deep thought throughout the beginnings.  I took a deep breath and said....well, to be honest, I was having some difficulty ut.  A good conversation happened at that point but was not recorded.  I said, oh good, the dead moose is on the table. Nobody knew what I was talking about of course. 

Well some good discussion happened despite not having a theme, no open space, etc. Could there have been many more topics if the space had been really opened and safe? Definitely.  Would conversations have been richer.  Definitely.  Was this open space.  Not at all.  My key concern  is that those present and the bosses think that what happened that day was some form of open space.  The event was controlled beginning to end and every time spirit began to emerge, it was crushed.

The secretary who was at the meeting is someone that I know.  She called me as I was writing this and we had a long discussion.  She told me that they got the information about open space off of the web (not web sites that I recognized). The facilitator's training was attendance at one open space event. The secretary and administrative coordinator designed the invitation with no help from the facilitator, having read the information from the net.  When they were setting up the room, the secretary started to put the chairs in a circle according to what she read, but the other person said, "Oh no, X  won't like that".   Her observations as an uninformed observer that things did not go like she thought they would from her readings.  She thought that Sue controlled process, especially moving them around to where she wanted them (she said that without any prompt from me).

So hopefully, if the participants read their mandatory readings (stories about open space) they will see the dissonance between what was planned and what actually happened.  In this case the facilitator did not have a grasp of  the structure or essence of open space nor did she have any idea how to hold space.  She thought that by picking out some facilitation tricks , e.g. marketplace, she was doing open space.  Did this damage the reputation of Open Space further in our community?  Probably.  Several people, including bosses did not attend (I heard from the secretary) because of how the invitation framed the event.  For me, it is a case for promoting training.

Kind regards to all.
Michelle

Michelle Cooper
The Cooper Group Consultants
200 Crestview  Avenue
Ancaster, Ontario
Canada L9G1E2  
Telephone -     (905) 648- 4633
Fax -           (905) 648-1763
E-mail          coopgrp at interlynx.net

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