Story of a small OS

[sbrigham at kcg.com]

Chris,

I just wanted to thank you for how frequently you share with us your
activities and insights and how rich I find each of your postings. Please
continue to share. Speaking as someone who only rarely finds the
opportunity to do Open Space, I love to "sit in on" other people's stories.

Steve Brigham




Chris Corrigan <corcom at INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA> on 04/15/2000 03:46:18 AM

Please respond to OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>

To:   OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
cc:    (bcc: Steve Brigham/Kaludis Consulting Group)
Subject:  Story of a small OS




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!)