Story of a small OS

[Herrmann, Thomas]

Thanks Chris, I'm opening space for a group about that size this coming
tuesday and feel even more comfortable now. The group consists of 10-15 of
my friends in the BNI (business network international) network which I am
part of. We meet once a week for a structured breakfast (not even close to
OS!) aiming at helping each other to business contacts. Since OS has to be
experienced to believe and understood I arrange this OS, if only for three
hours. If anyone is interested in BNI you may have a look at www.bni.com
Greetings Thomas
 > Hi friends:
>
> I ran a small one day OS today, and thought I would share the story here
> as there are occaisionally requests for how to run small ones.
>
> The group was a unit in a larger federal government office.  In their
> daily lives the unit members mostly interact with people from other
> units, and not with each other.  As a result, the unit has somethig of a
> "muskox" mentality -- a metaphor derived from an animal that forms a
> circle with others for protection by facing outwards.  In this case,
> facing outwards means that the unit members collaborate with others, but
> rarely within in their unit.
>
> The OS was around the question of how the unit could respond to some
> office wide policy initiatives, so it forced the group members to focus
> on the life of the unit rather than their individual projects.  This was
> the original reason I suggested OS to the Director.
>
> The plan for the day was three one hour dialogue sessions, followed by a
> lunch break and a visit from the office's CEO.  My plan was to have the
> reports completed over lunch and during the CEO meeting and ready for
> some convergence in the afternoon.
>
> We had nine people, about half of whom had done an OS.  The circle was
> too small to walk around so I sat in a chair with the rest of them, but
> I leaned in a little at the beginning to do my opening.  We had 12
> agenda items come forward.  When it was time to sign up, the group
> merged some items together and ended up with six, then they decided that
> they all wanted to go to all of them, so they stayed together as a group
> and worked over the next three hours on the issues.  Time definitely
> blurred, and as there were no competing sessions, the OS principles
> relating to starting and ending were in clear evidence.  They talked as
> long as they needed too, and covered all the issues, which eventually
> got merged into four reports.
>
> The space remained open during lunch and the arrival of the CEO, who
> joined the circle and picked up where the group had left off.  She spent
> two hours with the group in some pretty free flowing dialogue, while I
> prepared the rest of the room for convergence.
>
> When the CEO left, the group reconvened in the original circle (they
> moved between this circle and a table which they spent the morning
> meeting around -- not my choice, but what happened was...anyway it
> worked for them) and we did a full convergence of the four topic areas.
> When I asked for a volunteer to convene the convergence, the one true
> butterfly volunteered, gave the group a half an hour and was draconian
> in getting them focussed on the task at hand.  This was exactly what the
> group wanted, and it ensured that they got finished on time, without
> rehashing issues.
>
> Everything ran so smoothly that I was able to email the conference
> proceedings back to their office (four blocks away) before they had
> packed up and left.
>
> Comments in the closing included one I found interesting.  One woman,
> who was a little sceptical that the group should hold an OS (even though
> she was an advocate of the process) stated that she felt that the day
> was "light -- not in content, but in feeling."  I noticed this too, and
> put it down to the fact that the discussions were very collegial, truly
> dialogic in a Bohm-ian sense, and that the process worked.  I'm sure OS
> had a lot to do with this.
>
> Doing OS in a small group is definitely possible, but for the
> facilitator there are some special challenges.  I was very visible
> throughout the whole day as I tried to make myself disappear, but
> staying in the room made me stick out and in leaving I was conspicuous
> in my abscence.  A couple of people noticed this and felt uncomfortable
> with how much I was charging vs how little I appeared to be doing.  I
> just smiled.  They were truly a self-facilitating group, so there was
> little for me to do anyway, but I did feel uncomfortable.  I wonder how
> it would have been if there was a lot of conflict and they felt like
> they needed a facilitator.  I would have been between a rock and a hard
> place there. At any rate, it's not like a large conference, where you
> can just slip away.  Even picking up coffee cups was distracting to
> them.
>
> In truth, my work was really done when I did the opening because it got
> the items that needed to be talked about out in the open.  From there,
> it became a long conversation around those points.  I don't think they
> would have come up with an identical agenda if we had used another
> meeting process.  That was where I made my money, I think (not to be too
> crass about it!).
>
> Another lesson is that holding the space for nine people is as taxing as
> holding the space for 250.  I figured this would be the case, so I
> didn't skimp on my preparation, and I'm glad I didn't.  I needed all my
> wits and strength to be quiet in that room for 6.5 hours.
>
> One advantage of working in a small group is that you get a lot more
> flexibility with time, and it meant that we were able to do more
> convergence than I initially thought possible, and it meant that
> everyone could participate in that.
>
> So for those of you contemplating very small OS events, take heart, it
> can be done.  My one recommendation is to use a fairly large room with
> lots of space in it so you can fade away when you need to.  There's also
> something nice about a small group meeting in large space.  They tend to
> become hushed and considerate and respectful, like a small congregation
> in a cathedral.  They chunk down the space to suit their needs but
> remain aware of the large amount of space around them.  It's a little
> humbling, and makes for a useful environment to diffuse control issues.
>
> Hope this is useful.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> 108-1035 Pacific Street
> Vancouver BC
> V6E 4G7
>
> Phone: 604.683.3080
> Fax: 604.683.3036
>
> (GO LEAFS GO!)