How much planning and preparation time do you find you need?

[Harrison Owen]

At 03:36 AM 2/16/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I am preparing a proposal -- and of course they are asking for a budget.
>Please help me estimate the before and after amounts of meeting time and
>activity...  This proposal involves a large and very complex system -- across
>a number of state agencies with multiple partners that must coordinate their
>responsibility for operating a program.  Presently they are experiencing
>inconsistent delivery of information, especially to line staff and thus to
>clients.  This OS would be convened to help them improve communication to
>more effectively achieve the program goals.  I am imagining about 7 to 9 days
>of my time --- I have no idea if this is at all realistic!  Also, would you
>find it necessary for me to add a partner = have two facilitators for such a
>large project (though this of course brings all the costs up)?  --I am hoping
>if this OS happens, they will find it so useful they will want to launch a
>whole series to involve more and more of their myriad stakeholders. Here is
>what I have sketched out:
**********************
One of the bad parts about Open Space is that it really cuts down on your
billable hours. (smile :-) -- or is it scowl... :-( .....

Anyhow I have worked with groups where theme and set up were accomplished in
about 10 min on the phone -- even with very complicated and conflicted groups.
As for facilitators, one will do -- but it is much better (I think) to have 2
of the opposite sex. Balances the energy so to speak.  But if you have two, I
would not try to do things together, as in a joint opening of space. That just
seems to confuse folks and takes longer. Real point is to get all the folks to
work as quickly and expeditiously as possible. Air time for facilitators is not
the issue.

Some clients will take longer to figure out what they really want to do -- or
even if they should do it at all. The longest I have ever spent is a full day,
and frankly that was a waste of time.  It was clear to me at the start that
they didn't know what they wanted, and whatever it was that they did want was
certainly not Open Space. With the wisdom of hindsight, I would have said all
that at the beginning and saved them and me a lot of time/money. But I didn't.

Setting up an Open Space is really very simple. If they have a good logistics
person, given that person the book (User's Guide) and they can read. What i
would spend time on, however, is what happens afterwards. Are they just going
to have a good meeting -- which they will. Or. Are they really going to move on
into some different ways of being in organization. That is the real question.
That, in my judgement, is where the time should be spent.

So -- half day up front -- full day at the end. You can spend more, but
typically this turns into a situation where you are trying to "explain" Open
Space. Don't go there. I just tell folks what Open Space will do, and even when
they say they want to go, I often say "think about it" -- and get back to me.
What I know is that  given the people and the space, Open Space may happen just
about instantaneously, and certainly with 24 hours.

Harrison




Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website
www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute websites
www.openspaceworld.org
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