Opening space in the big end of town

Birgitt Williams birgitt at mindspring.com
Mon Dec 4 18:40:20 PST 2000


Alan,
thank you for this contribution.

I wonder if you could please elaborate a little on the difference between
how you perceive conversational processes in relation to what is known as
"Dialogue" Process. I know from our conversations how strong an impact the
world cafe has made on you and would very much like you to elaborate on the
difference of what happens in the world cafe to what happens in an OST
meeting. I think you have done an analysis of all of this and it would be
helpful to me to hear it.

One of my current explorations follows from the premise that it is the
Sponsor who opens the space and the facilitator who then can proceed with
facilitating the Open Space Technology meeting. I am convinced of the
importance that the Sponsor should have the opportunity prior to the Open
Space Technology meeting to make "informed consent" about saying "yes" to
having an Open Space Technology meeting in the organization. I work with a
planning group for the event that preferably includes the CEO and managers.
If the CEO is not part of the group, I make arrangements to see him/her
separately. In the meetings, I do my best to create enough information for
"informed consent" by discussing both the form and the essence of OST. This
has gone well over the years, and this practice has often resulted in a
change of theme, clarification of the givens, change of amount of time for
the Open Space Technology meeting, or cancellation of the contract when it
is clear that the Sponsor is not wanting the outcomes from OST. My current
explorations concern my interest in  looking at "informed consent" from the
Sponsor if we think of the Sponsor as the whole organization rather than
just the CEO or department head. This would require some type of
conversation about the OST meeting prior to the OST meeting through which
the participants have enough information to give informed consent to
participating in the OST meeting (different than just showing up in response
to an invitation). I am looking for best current ways to do this and am
interested in the world cafe, or Dialogue, or Appreciative Inquiry.

I am well aware that an OST meeting can be successful without all of this
preparatory work if we measure success by the activity in the OST meeting
and by the comments in the closing circle. My personal passion for years has
been with the ongoing organization and the success of the OST meeting months
or longer after the meeting (and of course extending to the interesting
dynamics of many OST meetings in the same organization and the Open Space
Organization). This interest in "what happens Monday morning?" in the
aftermath of the OST meeting takes me to my current exploration.

Thank you so much,
Birgitt
  -----Original Message-----


  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Alan
Stewart
  Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 12:29 AM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: Re: Opening space in the big end of town


  Hi there

  Here is an item about taking Open Space/Cafe conversational processes into
the boardroom of an international company in the context of a KM (Knowledge
Management - a lovely oxymoron?) Leaders Forum.

  See http://www.bl.com.au/km/kmlf.htm

  (There is an exquisite freudian typo in the notice - which may have been
corrected by the time you see this. If you _can_ see the fun of it, well and
good. If you can not, no worries! Whatever happens .... contributes to the
story line).

  You may find this item of interest from diverse perspectives. Among these
are that:

  . Here is an opportunity to take OST/Cafe conversational processes into a
domain that has probably not had much exposure to them, yet.

  . A boardroom of a major consultancy company is to be transformed for a
few hours into a cafe. When I requested a Cafe layout for the event the
convenor
  noted 'You do appreciate that small tables are difficult to find in a
corporate setting.'  I responded 'Maybe this is part of the problem!'

  . I find a Cafe (Open Space a la carte) format appropriate in some
circumstances. For sitting at small tables - maximum of 6 people, eyeball to
eyeball - and with attractive decor to contribute to the ambience quickly
leads to an intimacy and an inclusiveness among total strangers. And having
paper table cloths on which to record gives people plenty of scope to be
creative.

  One person (a senior manager) recently spent almost the whole of a 3 hour
Passion Cafe drawing; she did not seem able to stop! Birgitt has recently
contributed wonderfully imaginative ideas for setting up the conditions for
this kind of recording to happen and to capture the outcomes with digitat
camera.
  A feature of Cafe processes is that they are designed specifically to
address, and stay with, _questions_.(www.theworldcafe.com). Seemingly
physical arrangement, such as small tables, as well as OST principles and
L2F, can contribute to the deep structure underpinning such a gathering.

  I will add that, when facilitating a Cafe in a venue in which it is
logistically feasible, we start in a circle. I _always_ invite people to put
the tables aside and come into a closing circle.

  Good to converse, warmly

  Alan









-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20001204/bdaa5c0a/attachment-0016.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list