Research observation

rnorris at digital.net rnorris at digital.net
Wed Mar 29 13:18:28 PST 2000


Recently I provided Harrison an update on my research as I promised him I
would. In it is an observation of reaction by my fellow students to the
subject of OST.  Has anyone experienced any similar reactions to OS when
not formally Opening Space.  Harrison's response to me on this is included.

Harrison,

Update - my reaserch project is about 1/2 complete.  Settled on "A grounded
theory study of the value of using OST".  I gathered as much of the written
material I could find on the WWW and other sources and am using them as my
Qualatative data.  I am using Ethnograph v5.0 Qualatative analysis software
to organize and synthesize any reported incidents of value.  Each is
categorized according to it's affiliation..value being:

* Type - personal or organizational.
* Time frame - realized immediate (during OS event), post (after OS event)
 or seen as potentially valuable (future).
* System relationship - Leadership, Vision, Community, Management.

 Am also looking for trends in what reporter/writers described as the value
 and it's relationships to the above categories. The reasearch will weave
notable linkages to contemporary theory as appropriate.

Hopefully this paper will be a great jumping off point for future research
and give quantative "umph" to the qualative data for those to use it when
approaching leadership in Orgs that are contemplating using OST.

One thing I have noticed is when I begin giving my out briefs to my peers
and Profs. they all looked at me as though I have a third eye in the middle
of my forehead.  But in every instance (3 times so far), all completely
stopped what they were doing, quickly seemed to become mesmerized by the
topic and began to make stronger connections to what they have studied in
their other graduate classes ....they are all, in my view learning at a
deeper level...guess I kind of inadvertantly (without rituals and not
intended, just mere mentioning of what OST is about) opened some space for
them, including the profs.  Have yet to complete a full briefing and we
always end up in some fantastic discussions.  Everyone is all smiles at the
end of each class (and most were not smiling when they came to class).

My learning... Open Space is a powerful catalyst and surprising! I'll keep
you in the loop as things progress and time permits. Thanks for listening.

Rich Norris
***********************************************************************

Harrison's response:

You are definitely in the loop so to speak. And good show on the
dissertation. The experience you are having with folks in the briefings has
been mine for years, which is to take nothing away from what you are doing,
only to say, don't feel like the Lone Ranger. As you well know by now,
given a paradigm which says that organization happens only by dint of major
effort and great skill (for which folks are highly compensated), it is
shocking to think that it seems to happen all by itself, with little to no
effort. And further that the end result is typically better than the finely
crafted organization design in terms of functionality and human enjoyment.
For academics, this is their whole career, and for working managers and
executives, pretty much the same thing. So there is a lot of pride and
money riding on the experience -- given all of that the truly amazing thing
is that most folks seem to come out smiling. But don't be surprised if that
smile doesn't last. Sooner or later they will  think seriously about the
consequences of what they have actually thought. You might want to consider
using Open Space as the mode of briefing. Then they can't say it never
happened.



Richard Norris
(407)779-0531
<rnorris at digital.net>



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