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

Wed Feb 16 19:21:05 PST 2000

I think the time needed for preparation and follow up of an Open Space
Technology meeting varies. If it is for a conference, one time community
building event to get the community building started and to have an
experience of community the learning of which is transferable into daily
community life, or a multi-national geographically distant organization
coming together for their annual get together, etc. I prefer a 4-6 hour
meeting ahead of the event and a full day meeting after the event. Ahead of
the event, I will have sent resource materials such as a description of Open
Space Technology, some articles, the article "Choosing Open Space
Technology", a two page blurb on basics for organizing an Open Space
Technology event and I refer them to www.openspacetechnology.com which in
turn has links to the other Open Space Technology websites, and I might have
leant them a video to see ahead of their time with me. If the Open Space
Technology event is within an intact organization that will "return back to
work together Monday morning" I vary the times I spend ahead of time. My
discipline is to always hope that the organization is so excited by the Open
Space Technology meeting that it will become interested in experiencing the
same in ongoing organizational life, and want to become an Open Space
Organization. I don't discuss this ahead of the event, but it is my
discipline to assume that this might happen, so I do my work to be sure we
have laid the best possible foundation not only for the Open Space
Technology event but for ongoing use of Open Space. Early in my contact with
the organization I ask to be introduced to their vision statement, their
statement of purpose, their values or philosophy statements. When doing an
Open Space Technology meeting, these are either open for discussion and
change, or they are solid and are to be considered "givens" that inform the
event. If these statements are open for discussion, I don't add to my
pre-work time. If they are not open for discussion and are in fact givens,
and they are clear and I am told they are actually "lived" within the
organization, I also don't increase my pre-work time. However, if they are
weak, not lived, unclear and so on, I know that this lack of clarity will
affect the Open Space Technology event. Now, don't get me wrong--it won't
effect the event itself and there is the usual number of glowing comments
etcetera and everyone is pleased as can be. However, in my experience, it is
this step that affects what is possible in the ongoing organizational life
after the Open Space event. When done well, I have experienced that the
amount of follow up from the event is about 100%. When not done well because
I have missed some important cues, and I have not gotten the best handle on
the theme or givens, the follow up sometimes comes to a grinding halt, and
at other times is far less than the ideal. So, if I believe we will work
with finding out what the clarity about purpose, mission and so on really
is, I allow for a few extra days up front. They may not be needed if we can
get clarity quickly, but my experience is that this doesn't usually happen
quickly when things are this unclear upfront. The outcomes I am after are
still the same. I just know it will take longer.

There is a lot to be learned about getting at the "givens". It is my
experience that sometimes, just when I think this might take an hour or so,
we discover that it is a major and ongoing problem amongst the management
team that they don't agree on givens, never have and that in exploring them,
we uncover a major organizational "dead moose". It is my experience that
sometimes the work done on getting clarity on the givens is as influential
for good organizational health as is the Open Space Technology meeting. One
time, the management team and I spent three days getting at the givens. A
story I will share at some time if I get the time to write it out. And the
healing that took place was phenomenal. And two years later, they are still
an Open Space Organization.

During our 4-6 hours together, the outcomes I am after include getting a
clear theme (focusing question) that is really about what they intend,
getting authentic "givens" (parameters), and helping the group think through
some of the logistical items including wording in the invitation. I want to
be confident I have done my best job of getting ready for the Open Space
event so that we "have the toboggan going down the right hill". It is true
that Open Space Technology always works unless there are serious control
issues, however it works in accordance with the stated theme and givens, and
if these are wrong, a great event might have been had and people have those
wonderful glowing remarks at the end, but space B was created, when the
group really had meant to create space A, and were just not clear in saying
so. Hence, my metaphor of the toboggan not going down the hill intended, and
once it is underway, there is no stopping it.

I learned the lessons of this when I started doing Open Space Technology
events for very very detailed work, such as getting enough data for my
friend Virginia Burt to use in her Landscape Architecture work. The group
was my client, but so was she, and if we had had a great event but we hadn't
gotten any data, she would have been in an unenviable position. It might
have been a great Open Space, but I would have considered that it failed.

In the follow up meeting, I do a number of things with the client group to
clarify how they would make the most out of the results of their event. And
how they are processing (usually) new knowledge about the inner greatness of
their staff, the presence of leadership, vision, community, and management
throughout all levels of the organization. Usually during the Open Space
Technology event, there are a number of organizational myths that are
de-mythed and the formal leaders need some time to reflect on this, to be
aware of it, acknowledge it, and decide how and if they want to work with
it.

One other element I have brought into some training sessions that I have
done with Harrison, when I interupt him to do a stage whisper with
participants: there are those things to do with Open Space Technology that
Harrison and only Harrison can do/get away with because he is Harrison. And
then there is the real world for the rest of us and sometimes we have a few
extra steps :-)

Kindest regards,
Birgitt

Birgitt Williams
Make Genuine Contact!
Dalar Associates: organizational
effectiveness consultants

Striving for Success? Ready to exceed
your expectations?

Contact us for consulting services, training,
conference and meeting facilitation,
and keynote speaking.

www.openspacetechnology.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Harrison
Owen
  Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 8:25 PM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: Re: How much planning and preparation time do you find you need?

  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

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20000216/5211cefe/attachment-0010.htm>