A ROOKIE'S FIRST EXPERIENCE!

[Marks McAvity]

Greetings,

I look forward to sharing Open space experiences with you all.

In years past when working at a conference centre in the interior of British Columbia- Sorrento Centre- Open Space was used by programmes that were sponsored at our centre. I was not directly involved but was impressed with the results, the morale tone and the general method, as I observed it from something of a distance.

Earlier this year, the idea of using Open Space came up when I was invited to be a speaker/facilitator for a special 1 day youth conference on the subject of leadership in the century ahead. I had been asked, because I had been a speaker for a session in similar events in the past, but now I was to be given responsibility for a full day's event.

This was a school setting- an international school for 200 bright 16-18year olds called Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific one of 10 colleges ( really senior schools) scattered around the world- www.uwc.org  -and a school which has an extremely busy academic and extracurricular programme. However, it creatively gives full days for special topics and the style of day is up to the organizers- students &//or faculty. This particular day that I was responsible for was an annual day set aside by past faculty in honour of the founding director, as he had always been keen on innovative educational methods.

Often these days- somewhat "change of pace" days were set in the usual conference setting. And this year's was to be dedicated to the subject of leadership. Hence, my invitation to "speak"/"help"/"facilitate"!!??

Initially, a meeting was called for interested faculty and students about 6 weeks ahead of the given day. I happened to read Harrison Owen' book on Open Space Technology just before this planning meeting and although there were no examples in the book of Open Space being used in school settings, I felt like offering the possibility to the planning group. The reaction was interesting- a measure of skepticism but a bundle of enthusiasm. We decided on that day to use Open Space and that I would act as facilitator, and they as a working team at home base as I was away from the residential school most of the time. I had taught at this college years before, and knew some of the aspects of internal dynamics there, but I wanted some people closer to the pulse to help create the right atmosphere before the big day.

I decided too that I  needed a little personal help (training) to do this job well. As I result, I consulted with a previous colleague from Sorrento Centre days, who had both experienced and facilitated Open Space a number of times and someone who I have great admiration for in the general field of facilitation. I decided that I  would contract two one hour sessions with him by phone, one before the next planning meeting with the home based team (set for exactly 3 weeks before the event) and another just before the event itself. That proved most useful and I highly recommend that way of being introduced to the process. I shared every single document that I prepared for the day- all my "speeches"- Owen's recommended , suitably adapted for the setting, + a PR strategy to suitably excite and puzzle the student and faculty body before the event. I even prepared a special memo for the faculty to forewarn them of the "different" process for the day, and to both give them confidence that it would work and that it would not involve a lot of extra time for anyone outside of that day.


The special planning meeting involving 15 students and 2 faculty ( for a community event of 225) went really well. I set it up rather like an open space itself and introduced to the idea of the day that way- with posters on the wall and a complete blank notice board. We did it right up to the declaration of topics as we had given them some simple "homework" to imagine possible topics that might get raised. This enabled them to catch some early enthusiasm and hope, as well as provide an opportunity to discuss the timing of the day, a special drama introduction we were planning, the actual title of the day, the advance publicity strategy ( the Invitation) and the style of compilation that we use at the end of the day. They broke into two teams , one for PR and the other for FINAL DOCUMENT preparation.

The decisions we made were:

The topic was to expressed in the form of questions:

HOW DO WE WANT TO BE LED? HOW SHOULD WE LEAD?
(leadership in the years, decade and century ahead)

The PR group would put up some clipped sayings about leadership over the next weeks and tease them with this title, announcing the day. And they agreed that they would intersperse this with references to Open Space Technology, especially a wide cross section of interesting case studies from around the world. We talked of timing and location- just enough to tease busy youngsters but also enough to raise both curiosity and hope for the day. They were also working on a more traditional conference on 
VISIONS OF PEACE FOR THE 21st century

with many profound speakers and key workshops and with many outsiders. We wanted this day to be a contrast and yet to be real learning occasion.

The idea of starting the day with dramatic representations was fully confirmed. They were to be given a half hour to share some vignettes that would start the day well.

All this advance planning went well as did my second consultation. I then arrived 3 days before the event and met again with the "planning" group- for last minute details.

the main room that we had decided to use for the event was to be the dining room, the only flat space that could easily take us all. In many ways it is the campus centre- so we knew that we had to transform significantly to give "fresh air" for the Open Space. We originally though that we might do all the re-arranging in the morning but thank goodness the drama group wanted one last rehearsal before the morning and the planning group joined me in getting the room already the night before. we needed to use ladders to get the signs up high. We also covered all existing notice boards to shut out anything of the regular life. Even the meal routine was to be different all day. People would initially must in the same dining room with a mixture of muffins, sticky buns and "exotic" warm and cold drinks. they would see all the OS signs and slowly take their seats- incidentally we could only fit 95 chairs in the an oblong circle around the room but decided that everyone would sit around the chairs on the floors which worked excellently, except for a slight crunch around the most public entrance. The drama started impromtuously without warning and initially consisted of a few orders from a secret mike. The whole episode set the tone well, and finally I was introduced and got on with opening my first Space.

That went really well. There was excitement and enthusiasm and 53 workshops were created. I followed my friend's advice and make very sure that there were no lingering undeclared topics - that led to 7 more. There were two exceptions to the declared procedure. they did not announce their names when declaring their topics- they did all know each other and perhaps felt that unnecessary. I didn't push it. Opening the marketplace, went well except their energy had them fairly well involved in that process  before I had really opened the marketplace. when I feebly interrupted, one came to me and said cheekily "whenever it starts is the right time". Everything flowed into the full marketplace well in the end, though they decided not to sign for workshops- just to go. And that worked surprisingly well.

I should say one thing about the timing of the day- we had four break out times, including provision for lunch when and where they wanted. In other words we did not have a lunch break as guidance had suggested and I was nervous abut doing this but it worked excellently well. They ate here and there as they wished. And I think that took breaks scattered through the day. All the breakout sessions had only approximate starting times and were each 1 1/2 hour in allotted duration. Quality of discussion was excellent and introverts were elevated and extroverts toned down. And it must be said that in this community of 225 from 80 countries and every conceivable race there was no bias in race at all. That was exciting. Bumblebees and butterflies were evident and in some cases having a fun time of it- but no bother for sure.

Closure was special. I had introduce a modified wall hanging sized home made medicine wheel in the morning as an icon for the day, as it fit in with theme as well as process. At the closure I used a modified talking stick ceremony ( with some concern with 225 energetic people), a microphone with a cardboard sheath to decorate it as a talking stick. But the cautionary remarks about timing meant that we completed that in 25 wonderful and powerful moments. Onto the medicine wheel, now on the floor and following the "Owen" advice, slightly modified, that worked well- followed by thank yous to many, a turning about, some "liturgy" around going out into the other Open Spaces - of their campus and eventually their world. = A FOREWARNING OF A FEAST THAT EVENING BACK IN THAT TRANSFORMED SPACE-i.e.-back to normal.

Reporting back was excellent and in the end 15 typed pages of promised proceedings were personally delivered to their rooms that night, about 12 hours before expected.

Feedback on the day was excellent.

Since that day I have had two other opportunities to Open Space- one for a rural planning group of 15 who were starting a community Association- the other for a thinktank group of 10 planning a brand new certificate course in Inter-Religious Relations. I'd be happy to share details on those too. I don't want to dominate the discussions though there are some interesting dimensions to each. Quite the contrast to the large and youthful first go.

I'm enjoying reading the various contributions. I hope to get in closer touch with those in Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest- and the first nations folk. I helped sponsor a wonderful First Nations woman from Bella Bella who has now experienced her first Open Space and was excited with it. She would make a great facilitator.
   

Marks & Margaret McAvity
Site 50, Comp 16
Galiano Island,
BC, VON 1P0
CANADA
Tel 250-539-2881 (Gal)
Tel 604-827-0305 (Van)
Tel 250-539-0146 (mob)
mcavity at jetstream.net (us)
mcavity at netinfo.ubc.ca (Marg)
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