Participant Driven Open Space Principles and Laws

[skaparlust]

Hi Joelle,
Thank you for your poetry! I see you in front of me as I write, as you stood
up in the circle in Berlin. And thank you for your insightful message.
I have never thought about changing the rules in Open Space, since I love
the simplicity and beauty of them and they work!! And I don´t think that
anyone in a meeting could come up with something like it. You can´t see the
forest for all trees, is a Swedish saying, i e. it is difficult to se the
big picture and to see what needs to change when you´re right in there.
When I work in small groups, to improve meeting participation and
effectiveness, I struggle with, should I make suggestions, for example:
listen to one person at a time,  share the time, talk in I-terms, all
questions and ideas are welcome, etc. or should I let it come from the
group. If I use a meetings analysis the group can go from what areas they
have agreed on that need to improve to formulate shared agreements.
Like you said, there are no right or wrong answers, I guess it is more a
question of the facilitators´ personality and intentions.

I have been thinking a bit more about why some of us, like to add dialogue
"rules", voluntary of course, to Open Space, and I think that has also very
much to do with personality and personal experiences. For myself I have
always, up until the last 10-15 years, been part of this group of people
that usually are silent in meetings, that have difficulties to take space,
because there was always someone else there. I knew I had interesting things
or questions to add, but I never had the guts or the selfconfidence to break
in. Which makes it even harder, you sit there and think of how to be heard,
when no one seems to be interested and that occupies your whole mind. I was
envious and also mad at the people that always talked and so easily became
the center of attention.An experience that, I believe,  for most people has
its deep roots in early childhood. This feeling of not being heard and seen,
still pops up under certain circumstances, and at times it did so in Berlin,
I am sorry to say. But on the other hand when I met people who were really
interested in what I had to say and when we had real dialogues, that made me
feel alive and very inspired.

For me the use of circles, rounds and of a talking piece, which I
encountered in the 80ties at Findhorn Foundation in Scotland was a real
breakthrough. Finally there was a model where my voice counted, as well as
everybody elses and I got full attention just because I was part of the
circle. It was a liberating experience.

Best regards
Agneta Falk







----- Original Message -----
From: Joelle Lyons Everett <JLEShelton at aol.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 6:11 AM
Subject: Re: Participant Driven Open Space Principles and Laws


> For a long time I've been interested in how changing the rules changes the
> game.  It seems that any time you re-define "the Laws" or the group norms,
it
> encourages behavior change, whether the new rules be dialogue principles,
> Open Space laws, or something as simple as brainstorming "rules."
>
> It also seems to me that such a rule change is more likely to originate
> outside than inside the group.  Having the group decide on group norms,
which
> I have done many times, brings forward best practices from participants'
> experience.  It isn't likely to result in a paradigm shift.
>
> If I, as an outside facilitator, propose such a shift, the participants
have
> a relatively low-risk setting to test new behaviors and see what happens.
> And what happens is often dramatic and effective.
>
> I think the really powerful place for participants to define what the
rules
> should be is after they have experienced a new way of being together.  For
> example, after a weekend work session when we operated under brainstorming
> rules, a group of clients realized that their habit of putdown humor was
> discouraging on-the-job creativity.  And an Open Space meeting in an
> organization often leads to discussion about what elements should carry
over
> into their everyday experience.
>
> I don't think there's one right answer to this question--I'd love to hear
> about your experience.
>
> Joelle Everett
>
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