Opening space, invocations and such...briefing sponsor

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Gladly, Chris,
I insist that the sponsor (the person in charge or the one paying the
fees) be at the meeting in which there is discussion on
1. What will your world be like the day after the open space (here
the group produces a mindmap)
2. What should be the theme considering the situation you are
envisioning after the open space (everyone works out a theme, then
consults with another participant to get his/her theme clearer, then
all themes are recorded on a poster, prioritized with sticky dots and
then there is a discussion to arrive at a preliminary theme)
3. Who all needs to be at the open space to actually make progress on
the preliminary theme (a list is produced and then sorted into
categories such as essential, important and also nice to have at the
open space ) (my intention is to get at least one more subsystem then
the group originally thought of...in the spirit of "getting the whole
system into the room")
4. What , considering what you want to arrive at and who all should
be there, is the final theme.
This process takes 2 to 2,5 hours.
At this same meeting I ask who will open the space and explain that
it is the sponsors role and that I simply provide the technology.
Usually, there is some discussion whether the person in charge should
do it and what kind of signal that is and whether the person in
charge is also a participant, etc.
Finally, after I have made the point that the person in charge opens
the space and is a participant and stays the whole time (sometimes at
this junction it turns out that in fact the person in charge would
have preferred not to be there all the time which then prompts my
standard question "What kind of signal is it when the person in
charge opens the space, stays a little and then leaves?" with the
effect that a new discussion might start around the theme or that it
is clear that whoever opens the space should also be there all the
time, etc.)
Whichever way it is decided, eventually it is clear who will open the
space.
And here is what I tell the person:
1. Make it short, 3 minutes
2. Say a couple of things on the theme (importance)
3. Make a personal statement (in German I call it an "I-message",
meaning something that comes frorm my heart, well, just has the
quality of an issue: passion and responsibility)  regarding your
personal hopes for what the outcome of the open space is.
Usually, there is some relief about the briefness and sometimes a
little confusion about the personal message. I then offer to talk to
the sponsor again just shortly before the event.
Sometime there is the wish to give more information to the
participants than can be put into a 3 minute statement. My standard
suggestion is to send that out together with the invitation or the
last written information participants get before the event starts.
Sometimes it is put on the intranet.
My experience is that regardless of what the sponsor says the most
important contribution is for the sponsor to make it clear that
she/he will participate full blast in the open space.
Under no circumstances do I tell the sponsor that he has to promise
anything up front like: "All your ideas will be supported" or
"We will look at what ideas come out of this event and will see what
gets resources"...of course, this goes along with the line "There is
good news and bad news about open space"....I suggest rather strongly
that people in the organisation know what can and will get support
and what they have to do to get support for things that everyone is
sure will not be supported.
Now, is this the kind of stuff you wanted to get out of me?
hugs
michael

On Sun, 28 Apr 2002 06:16:52 -0700, Chris Weaver wrote:

>Michael,
>
>Will you (or others) share with us some of the things you might say to a
>client/sponsor
>when briefing him/her on the role & function of opening the space?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Chris





Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
Fax2mail: 49-30-263 917 301 521
www.michaelMpannwitz.de

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