OS in Asia

[Robert.Chaffe at nre.vic.gov.au]

Jimbo
Thanks for your story.  I regret that I could not drop in and  visit while you
were  in Melbourne.

Lumping is difficult and it does seem to be universal, especially when your pet
subject is about to get a lower priority than you believe is best or may even
drop off the list.  Voting, regardless of how you do it, just reinforces this
tension.  What I think we are trying to say is," What are the things we must
work on now to  moves to our  agreed  "Vision".  Voting gets you to this quickly
but at a price.  The price is that you are now in a "win - loose" situation
compared with a "win- win" in Open Space.   The best way around this situation
that I have used is the LENS method described in the "Technology of
Participation".  It take 90 minutes or if you are quick, one and a half hours.
The method works by consensus and building a framework that includes all ideas
in the outputs but clearly identifies the critical outcomes if the group is to
reach its agreed vision.

I feel that we need to be very careful as we close a session called Open Space
that we do not loose the "spirit" by closing things down in the reductionist
way.  The participants need to return to their "normal world" with the "spirit"
knowing what must be done while understanding that their special contribution is
a valued contribution but is not the best thing to put the main energy into at
that time.  Having ideas, issues, concerns clearly visible helps others develop
relationships by knowing where the passions are.

I have been working with scientific "right answer" people many years and getting
them to move away from voting is very difficult.  The fact that there is more
than one "right" answer is the most difficult concept to overcome.

Regards
Robert