Opening Space "in house"

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Mon Jan 24 05:07:25 PST 2000


At 11:05 PM 1/23/00 -0700, you wrote:

>Having said all that, I do have a couple of questions:
>
>1.  I am curious about how people have used Open Space in their own
>companies.  I read Chris' story about the OS in Vancouver and tried to
>imagine myself saying no to the "organizer" (our CEO).  (BTW, thanks for
>the story Chris, I forwarded that part to my boss just to give him some
>context for our meetings in early February).  Are there those on the list
>serve that are using OS in their own company, and how do they find the
>balance between the role of facilitator and the role of employee.
**************************************
The facilitator has exactly one job. To keep the space open. This may mean
saying no to the Boss or even chairman of the board. Obviously there can be
problems here -- and an outside facilitator, at least for the first OS in an
organization can substantially reduce the anxiety level. But I find that
opening space for your own organization can be very beneficial -- with some
safeguards. If nothing else, it keeps it all in the family and clearly says "We
can do this." To safeguard the space good conversation prior to the event is
essential with the Boss (or whomsoever). If they trust you and clearly
understand that their role is to be a participant as all other participants --
no problem. If that is questionable, best go with the outsider. But in either
case (insider or outsider) up front conversation is essential.
*********************************************
>2.  I am curious about OS in multiple languages.  I want to introduce this
>in many areas of our company, most of whom are Chinese.  We also have
>offices in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and would like to offer a OS for
>people from all areas.  I would love to hear stories of multi-language OS.
******************************************
Multiple languages in Open Space is no problem. But it goes a lot easier if
there is at least one common language for most of the people. The way I work it
is that participants are invited to post their issues in the language they
intend to use for the session, and then provide a translation of the topic in
the "common language."  So if the session is going to take place in Japanese,
and I don't speak that -- I need to find a partner who speaks Japanese and will
attend the session with me. This sounds like a hassle, but it is really not.
And the search for partners actually accelerates the group bonding process.
People who ask for help from other people are sometimes disappointed, but
usually they find a new friend. Actually the process is identical with what
happens at any good international bar. If I want to talk to somebody with whom
there is no shared language, usually there is somebody else in the bar who can
help. And the next thing you know total strangers are in conversation. I once
had a group of 150 with 27 languages, from 17 countries. Worked perfect.
********************************
>3.  I am sure there must be those who are practicing OS in Asia.  I am
>particularly interested in experiences in Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong
>and Malaysia.  Again, stories and insights would make my day.
********************************
I don't know of anybody -- but the person who would is Brian Bainbridge in
Australia <briansb at mira.net>. Actually Brian has done a mess of Open Spaces all
over, including some of the places you mention.

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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