When is OS not OS?

[Brown, Nathan]

Hi

I was just recently having a discussion about this idea of "when the is the
space open?"  I think the heart of it is freedom, as you had mentioned, and
to answer your question, "how much freedom can you take away and still hold
the space open?"  The answer as I see it is none.  If you do not have all
your choices you don't have all of your freedom.  The only question then is,
how much freedom are you lacking, but what is the point in asking such a
question.  The freedom is already gone.

Nate

-----Original Message-----
From: Murli Nagasundaram
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: 5/8/00 4:10 PM
Subject: When is OS not OS?

The recent Open Space I facilitated in Belgium was a challenge and left
me
wondering whether or not to even call what we did Open Space.

The challenge actually started when the program was being designed. The
OS
process kept getting little pieces picked away here and there. I managed
to
keep six sessions (1/5 hrs each) although they were interspersed
throughout
a 6 day conference -- one the first day after the introduction, one the
second day, and two each on the third and fourth day. A few of us on the
design committee tried to get a block of time to open the space, and
proceed without interruptions of other activities, speakers, etc. No
luck.
I got to keep the morning announcements for two out of the three
mornings,
but had none on what turned out to be a key morning on the first of the
two
session days. I also lost the struggle to have evening news except at
the
end of the whole conference for closure to both OS and the conference
experience. (BIG mistake in my opinion)

But the real challenge came when I arrived at the conference site. There
were two meeting rooms. One (room A) was more lovely, could seat the 250
attendees, but with no extra space for moving around (chairs were to the
edges all around.) The second space (room B) was not as beautiful (but
certainly acceptable with large windows looking out on a treed and
flowering lawn) and had plenty of space to spread out the six sessions
along one long wall, and room for marketplace with all the 250
participants. So we settled on doing the introduction/marketplace in the
large space. Most of the rest of the whole group events were in room A.
Because we did not have access to room B for morning announcements, we
had
to move that part to the smaller room.

I was still trying to figure out how to move our walls full of the
schedule
(into room A which had NO wall space at all) and how to manage the lack
of
space for the announcements, when we discovered that we could not move
the
new translation equipment to the large room. (It used infrared beams and
there was a good chance we could not get it operational in the large
room.)
That meant that even the introduction and market place had to be done in
the smaller room A.

There was NO space to have marketplace. So here is what I ended up
doing.

Fortunately the conference facility had three whiteboards on wheels
which
had room for one session's offerings on each side. The three board just
fit
onto the stage. Anyone who wanted to convene a group had to decide in
which
session they wanted their offering. I had assistants tape them to the
appropriate side of the whiteboard -- flipping them to the back sides
for
sessions 4,5, and 6. Then after the sessions were announced and taped to
the appropriate time slot, we wheeled them out into the hallway, while
the
group sang some songs. During lunch everyone signed up for their
choices.
Then I (reluctantly) assigned the rooms, using the sign-up numbers to
give
them a adequate size room (the choices varied from a large auditorium
for
185 to small rooms for 20)

On the second day, I sort of opened a mini market place, by suggesting
that
people could try to get the convenors to move their sessions to make a
more
workable schedule for their personal needs. This again had to be done
during the lunch break. A couple of convenors actually moved their
sessions
and two offered a repeat of their topics, but it was a pretty minimal
marketplace.

While the process was successful for having the participants create part
of
the agenda, the space did not develop the potential I have seen in other
OS. There were controversal topics in the air, and they didn't go very
far
with them and some were not even brought up in a public forum. I am
convinced that if the space had been open, they would have.

I did not introduce the principles. I thought long and hard about this
decision. There was absolutely no place to post them, and by the time I
did
the introduction, I was feeling like we were pretty far from a truely
opened space, so I did not bring them up. Also, with translation of my
intro and sometimes double translation when convenors announced their
topics, it took a full 2 hours to do this whole process--any more time
was
too much. (I will post the collection of the various translations of the
principles when I get all my materials unpacked.)

I did introduce the bumblebees and butterflies, stressed the Law of two
feet (which everyone there had a pair of), and let the convenors know
they
could move their group to wherever they wanted to be. Some convenors
posted
notes from their sessions (although the translation of these was not
very
satisfactory) More reporting will happen in the followup newsletter.
(Feedback process has room for lots of improvement.)

In the introduction, I did not feel comfortable calling it Open Space.
It
was called OS in the program and I had written a preparatory article
explaining the "promises" of OS. So I did a brief disclaimer saying that
because we were limited by our physical situation, we would be using
only a
small bit of the OS process, and to honor the work which is being done
all
around the world, I wanted to use another term (we call the groups --
circles) I felt strongly that this somewhat unopened space not get
identified in their minds with OS, when I knew they could not really
experience the full potential.

I am ever hopeful that we will be able to truely open the space next
year.

While I know there is flexibility in the OS process (I have flexed it
around quite a bit other times!) this seemed to go too far for me.

So what are your thoughts? When is it no longer OS? How much freedom can
you take away and still hold the space open? Would you have called this
one
an OS?

>From  Mon May  8 16:49:01 2000
Message-Id: <MON.8.MAY.2000.164901.0400.>
Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 16:49:01 -0400
Reply-To: abc at interlog.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Audrey Coward <abc at interlog.com>
Organization: Audrey Coward and Associates
Subject: Berlin
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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I am having difficulty registering for Ososnos. Can Someone let me know
the simplest way?


Audrey Coward

>From  Mon May  8 23:39:11 2000
Message-Id: <MON.8.MAY.2000.233911.0400.>
Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 23:39:11 -0400
Reply-To: birgitt at mindspring.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Birgitt Williams <birgitt at mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: When is OS not OS?
In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.58.20000508151045.00a98660 at cobfac.boisestate.edu>
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Hi Murli,
Thank you for your sharing and description of your experience. It was a rich
experience indeed, that could result in many wisdom files. I think that the
best person to know if you opened space using open space technology is you.
Did it feel open to you,no matter what the form? What would you have needed
to take place in order for the space to feel open?

I think that space was being held for you in the great open space of the
universe to do your best with, and it sounds like you did, engaging your
creativity. And to experience, and to learn from.

Open Space Technology simply captures intentionally for one moment in time
the richness of the Open Space of the universe. Which still leaves the
question of "what is Open Space Technology anyway?".

I look forward to hearing more from you in terms of this experience and what
you will come to understand about Open Space Technology and facilitating
from this, including the upfront work with the sponsor.

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 <http://www.openspacetechnology.com>


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Murli
Nagasundaram
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2000 5:11 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: When is OS not OS?


The recent Open Space I facilitated in Belgium was a challenge and left me
wondering whether or not to even call what we did Open Space.

The challenge actually started when the program was being designed. The OS
process kept getting little pieces picked away here and there. I managed to
keep six sessions (1/5 hrs each) although they were interspersed throughout
a 6 day conference -- one the first day after the introduction, one the
second day, and two each on the third and fourth day. A few of us on the
design committee tried to get a block of time to open the space, and
proceed without interruptions of other activities, speakers, etc. No luck.