Is there a dead moose in the room? (was Re: LeadershipChallenging Open Space in the Open Space)

[BJ Peters]

Chris Corrigan wrote:

> I was rather taken aback myself when the notion occured to me.  But I wondered
> if there was ever a case where the facilitator is doing more harm than good...is
> this a dead moose issue for us?
>
> I have been in one really horrible feeling Open Space, where I knew it was
> wrong...nothing went right, and the wrong process had been chosen.  I stuck it
> out though, in fact I never thought of leaving, and Open Space worked it's usual
> magic, even though 75% of the particiapnts left.
>
> So I'll throw open the question....

Andrew-- your questions have been the catalyst for such wonderful dialogue to
emerge! And the contributions from Birgitt, Harrison, Chris, Ralph, Murli and
others have been inspiring.

I DO think that sometimes there is a dead moose. I worked with state leadership in
5 states of a client organization last summer. I had "twinges" in the first couple
sessions about the client's wanting to lead the groups to a foregone conclusion,
and yet was able to stay with the principles of OS for the most part until the
second to the last OS event. There, the client representative (the regional
director who had not been present at any of the other events) came to me right
after the space was opened and said she wanted to call the whole group together to
present the outcomes from the meeting that had been held in the first state (not
one of my 5, and NOT using open space but a very traditional, top down, regional
staff led approach). I suggested to her that she was free to post and announce to
the group that topic for discussion the next morning. She agreed to do that and to
see who came. She then proceeded to bring up that topic in one of the first
discussion groups that was dealing with a somewhat different topic. At the end of
the day, she announced and posted her topic (that now many in the room were
familiar with), and the group decided they all wanted to be present at that
discussion in the morning.

After her presentation the next morning, the group (and I) were stunned. They
wanted to know why she hadn't just told them that was the process she wanted to use
all along. The group quickly rallied, however, and suggested we could use the
remaining half day to begin to work within the process she had presented. I stood,
went to the newsprint chart ready to facilitate, and SHE stood and CLOSED the
meeting, saying, "We don't have the right information, expertise or people in the
room."

She came to me after the closing and said, "BJ, I hope I didn't derail your
process." I said, "You did. AND, I believe that what happens is the only thing that
could have. However, I have deep feelings about what happened, and we need to talk
soon in some depth before we do the last event scheduled next month."

We did talk. I did name the dead moose by letting her know the impact on the group,
on me and on the integrity of the process. And she didn't get it. She thought this
was the best event of all. So, I went on after obtaining her assurance that this
would not happen again at the last event (I was fully prepared to NOT go forward
without that assurance), and facilitated an event that worked well with the last
group.

My learnings were about initial contracting (checking, and rechecking, and
rechecking). I thought I had done that, and obviously, I had not done it well
enough. And I learned about letting go of the outcomes and forgiving myself. These
were very painful lessons.

In harmony --BJ

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