one less thing...

Michael Herman mherman at globalchicago.net
Wed Mar 3 11:04:57 PST 1999


hello everyone,

after harrison's recent reminder about less is more, i thought this
might be of interest...

a colleague at a suburban chicago hospital just finished his second or
third open space event, all one-day sessions, i think.  anyway, seems
the first one had so many people (200+) that they weren't going to be
able to fit the circle of chairs in the room they'd reserved.   so they
left the circle out!  they piled the chairs in the corner, rang the
bells, and invited people to gather in their own circle.  seems too,
that it's becoming their tradition.  his description of the latest event
is pasted in below, with his observation that it seems to reinforce
people's understanding of their right to choose, and also, i suspect,
the do-it-yourself nature of open space.  could it be that setting the
chairs in a circle ahead of time is doing too much???  what next?
potluck on markers, paper and tape?     <grin>

best, michael



Our O.S. went well.  77 attended on Saturday morning.  Several MD's.
Nurses, office personnel.

We had 15 discussion groups around the areas of patient satisfaction,
quality, financial performance and employee wellness.  We had these headings
posted on the Bulletin Board so people could place their topic under the heading
that was most applicable.  The meeting with the most participation was the one on

Employee Happiness.  The focus was on how to be proactive and stay in a
happy place versus a victim mode.  The smallest was a two person discussion on
more effective ways of treating the flu.   We began the day at 7:30 with a
continental breakfast and at 8:00 am we started the ceremonies.  By 9:00
people were in the first groups and meeting.

We abandoned the set up of chairs again and invited people at the
beginning to sit how they felt most comfortable (floor, chair, against the wall,
lying down) and they ended up defining their own circle.  My sense is that this
helps set the tone that this will be a day of choice.  We broke the speaking into
four parts.  Introduction (setting the context) by our Medical Director, I
did the Process, Kathy did the Creation of the Community Bulletin Board and the
Marketplace and Becky did the hotel arrangements and the closing
ceremony.  This works well and seems to flow naturally and the "work" is
shared.  For
the closing we sat at the lunch tables and went around the room for people
to say how the day was for them before we ate.  We had a strip of butcher block
paper taped to the wall for people to write comments on.  The heading on the
paper was "Today for me is...."   This did capture alot of the energy of the day.

The discussion was lively enthusiastic and our System Leadership (who
hadn't experienced O.S.) were really excited by the process.  The surprise for
many of us was how many people came with issues and were ready to convene
discussions with no hesitation and how rapidly everyone "self organized. "  We even
had one group in which the covener was 15 minutes late to their own discussion,
but the group organized themselves and started the discussion anyway.
__________________

Michael Herman
Manager, Mediator, Educator, Writer

Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice
312-280-7837 fax
mherman at globalchicago.net

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