An inquiry

Sat Apr 15 01:04:08 PDT 2000

Susan:

You're right about space needing to be opened up within the organization, that why
the sponsor is the one who "opens the space."  As a facilitator, I just do the
opening, but only the sponsor can open space.

Regarding the other case of opening space for collaboration, there are still
givens.  Someone is opening space for the collaboration to happen, and that someone
has givens.  Of course, the idea is to reduce them as much as possible, and in the
case of a OS like you're writing about, there is a lot of room for reducing givens.

As for the letter of invitation, below is part of a letter from a recent one day OS
I did which was sent to 300 organizations, and posted for community members.  We had
250 people at the event.  This letter was broadcast far and wide, and it's not the
first time it's travelled on the Internet.

The letter was signed by a federal Cabinet Minister and a local Chief.  It was
accompanied by a one page description of how OS works.  Can you see how this opens
space?  We really worked hard at reducing givens, and I think that shows too...

Here's the meat of the letter:

Making things better for Aboriginal People and their communities
in the Vancouver area

Let’s stop just talking about it

Let’s start doing it!

Invitation to Vancouver Urban Aboriginal Forum

This is a time of transition for urban Aboriginal people living in the Vancouver
area.  The Treaty process, the Aboriginal Peoples Council Round Tables, the
Vancouver Agreement and a myriad of services and programs
..all have an impact on
the lives of Aboriginal people and their communities in the Vancouver area.  And
yet, despite all the good intentions for beneficial results, urban Aboriginal people
are still at the bottom of a wide range of social indicators: from addictions to
health status, education to income, suicide rates to child apprehensions.  For too
many, conditions don’t seem to be improving.

We believe that it is time for change.  It is time for those of us who can make a
difference to step forward.

On January 21, 2000, a new era will begin.  An era of community action,
responsibility and commitment.  An era that we invite you to be a part of.

Join us at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre for a one-day forum to share
information and ideas, find others with commitment and passion and, most
importantly, create solutions for the future of urban Aboriginal people in the
Vancouver area.

This will not be another “consultation” meeting with a lot of talk and no follow
up.  We are committed to seeing this process through.  You will not see a collection
of “talking heads” telling you what you already know.  We will be meeting in Open
Space, using the circle, a technology that is as old as the First Nations
themselves.  We promise to provide you with the space and support that will allow
for the creation of solutions for the future.  Most important, we will provide an
opportunity for commitment for action.

This unique opportunity will bring people who are prepared to work together.  They
will come from the urban Aboriginal community, from First Nations, from government,
from Aboriginal and other service agencies, from the academic and business
communities and from organized labour.

We will be there for the whole day and we hope that you can join us at the Vancouver
Aboriginal Friendship Centre at 1650 East Hastings Street in Vancouver:

That committment from the sponsors that they would be there for the whole day sold a
lot of people on how serious a venture this was.  One of the most important givens
was that they wanted action, not talk...

Chris

Susan Lilley wrote:

> Hello all of you,
>
> I am reading every message posted to this list and learning so much from all of
> you. What a great resource for ongoing learning!
>
> One question from Birgitt to Chris recently caught my attention and an ah-hah!:
>
> > In the situation you describe, is there any open space that the sponsor has
> > opened in the organization for Open Space Technology to be used in?
>
> I understand Birgitt to be saying that an OS *event* needs to reflect an opening
> of decision-making space *within an organization*.
>
> In my practice, what is more likely to happen is that I am asked to facilitate
> an OS to bring people together from *different organizations* so that they can
> begin to work together (partnerships -  intersectoral collaboration and all
> that). In this case, there is no one board or CEO to open up decision-making -
> there is no hierarchy there at all. Am I right to think that in this case the
> decision-making space is already open and just needs to be acted on? Wouldn't
> there need to be space opened up  for collaboration in every one of the
> participating organizations? Does this need to be clear in a letter of
> invitation?
>
> Should I be thinking about these multi-organizational open space events as
> different in any way from those within one organization? What are the "givens"
> they must consider in action planning - no structure, no money, no support,
> you're on your own???
>
> I'm not sure I'm very coherent here but my sense is there is a difference. I
> hope those of you who have opened space in both types of situations will be able
> to shed some light on this.
>
> As a follow-up to my last posting - my first open space facilitation is now
> officially set for mid-May, with another tentatively scheduled for early fall.
> Both are multi-organizational.
>
> Thanks all for taking the time for sharing your experience and learning on the
> list.
> ----
> Susan Lilley
> Dartmouth NS B2Y 4J5

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036

(GO LEAFS GO!)

>From  Sat Apr 15 08:47:04 2000
Message-Id: <SAT.15.APR.2000.084704.0400.>
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 08:47:04 -0400
Reply-To: lpasoc at inforamp.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Larry Peterson <lpasoc at inforamp.net>
Subject: Re: An inquiry
In-Reply-To: <38F73E96.B3BD14E9 at ns.sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Even when it is a group of organizations coming together, and I have led a
number of such Open Space events, I have always had a "sponsor group" that
was sponsoring the event (calling the meeting, doing the logistics planning
and details) and hence they were opening the space for the gathering.  They
were the group looking for something to happen as a result of the Open Space
and also the group that would attend to what happened after, even if it was
only a reflection on what they had done.  My role has been to assit them in
creating the conditions for a powerful event, and in opening the space at
the event (and whatever convergence is appropriate).

Larry

>From  Sat Apr 15 08:47:06 2000
Message-Id: <SAT.15.APR.2000.084706.0400.>
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 08:47:06 -0400
Reply-To: lpasoc at inforamp.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Larry Peterson <lpasoc at inforamp.net>
Subject: Re: Story of a small OS
In-Reply-To: <38F81E4A.86FF36C6 at interchange.ubc.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Thanks Chris for the story of the small space with small numbers.  Your
story certainly fits my experience.  I do try to go on a walk to leave the
room for good portions of the time with a small group for the reasons you
mentioned.  I can hold the space when I'm not there.

Larry

Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
41 Appleton Ave., Toronto, ON,
Canada, M6E 3A4
Tel:/Fax: 416-653-4829

lpasoc at inforamp.net
http://www.inforamp.net/~lpasoc