The Top 10 List
Blake Mills
MmmBlake at aol.com
Thu Jan 17 21:21:42 PST 2002
Dear List,
I would like to propose a topic. Generate a top 10 list of "the dumbest
things to do as an OS facilitator." or "I can't believe I did that!" top 10
list. Kind of like David Letterman's top 10 list. (a U.S. late night talk
show host) I realize "whatever happens...." is right but sometimes we can
shoot ourselves in the foot unknowingly and hamper the OS. Maybe we can have
a chuckle and learn somethings, too! Whadda say?
I will start it with mine.
Never say:
"I have never done this before...OS for 5, 50, 130, 500, 1,000 (fill in the
blank)" right before the event to a nervous client.
See results of this from a previous posting by me...I said just that the
night before 130 gathered to the nervous client. The client expressed his
anxiety by asking "does OS ever fail?". I said no. Then later, I said the
above. (I have done about 30 OS for 50 or less.) This created more anxiety
with him, which sparked more in me, which sprang to the OSList. I am banging
my head on my desk as I type.
Top that!
Blake
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>From Thu Jan 17 21:33:22 2002
Message-Id: <THU.17.JAN.2002.213322.0800.>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 21:33:22 -0800
Reply-To: lisaheft at pacbell.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Lisa Heft <lisaheft at pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Emergency Response Team - Thanks and update
In-Reply-To: <35.20a8c365.29790ae3 at aol.com>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Blake -
I am so proud of you!
Congratulations on having the instinct to send up the signal flare during
that late, late night. I, too, find that we are a community quick to
respond to stand shoulder to shoulder (or as I like to say, I'll be riding
on your shoulder and whispering things (evil, funny, helpful, not helpful,
things-you-wish-you-could-say-out-loud-in-front-of-the-client) into your ear
as you facilitate. I'm glad you could feel the warmth, and the support, and
our belief in you.
I think we should start an (imaginary) Open Space store, full of handy-dandy
devices for use by facilitators. I think we'd have trouble keeping your
Anxiety Defense Shield in stock.
Inflatable shoes, of course, will also be in this store.
Springs for the bottoms of those shoes for jumping into the unknown.
Maybe a few breathing devices.
Storage or even compacting devices for all those things one lets go of.
I'm still thinking...
Thank you for sharing your concerns, your instincts, your challenges and
your successes,
Lisa
- - -
L i s a H e f t
Consultant, facilitator, educator
Open Space Technology and Experiential Learning
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106 USA
(+01) 510 548-8449
lisaheft at pacbell.net
www.openspaceworld.com
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Blake Mills
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 9:22 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Emergency Response Team - Thanks and update
Many thanks to the 10 or so people who responded to my panic attack last
week
at midnight about convergence with 130 people This is an update to what
happened in the convergence.
Firstly, your immediate response late at night (3 AM when I got back to my
hotel room) made my heart flush with gratitude, warmth, and love...an
incredible feeling of not being alone in the world. It immediately relaxed
me and reminded me to trust my intuition (along with a couple of ideas
offline that I ended up incorporating.) It brought me fully into this
wonderful space I have been skirting around.
To refresh memories of this OS: 130 fast-paced, high tech people got
together to hold a day and a half OS at the end of a week long conference of
900 people. For the most part, they are all working 'virtually' across the
US and in 4 other countries. Theme was "How can we meet our goals this
year?" Within 15 minutes after I finished the opening, 32 topics were
posted and they were hard at work, seated in self-designed circles around
the
room and in the atrium of the hotel. (One quote I like to use in the
opening
is "Excellence is not possible with a disengaged heart.") It was truly
amazing the stampede of topics and organization and get-down-to-it-energy.
Five other topics were added during the day, one of which was "nap." There
were six 1 hour 15 minute sessions with 1/2 hour for lunch (buffet). The
client was worried few people would post topics, even tho he had hosted an
OS
for 35 people last year. His worry (possible career limiting decision to
hold OS for 130) bounced onto me and then ricocheted onto this list. Need
an
anxiety defense shield from now on.
Convergence: Start time was 9 AM
8 am to 9: Informal walk-the-wall to see what happened in all the groups. I
posted whatever came in the previous night, handwritten or typed with a
blank
page beside it. They were instructed to review topics and add any additional
thoughts, names or hyperlinks to other topics or people within or outside
the
company. I made only 10 hard copies of the session notes and placed them in
the middle of the circle. The people who partied the night before really
appreciated the sit down review time with the hard copies.
We circled-up at 9 AM with directions-they were to meet in the groups that
they wished to work with and decide the goal and the very next action step.
After 45 minutes, we circled-up again and each session's action step was
announced by the convener. (a little boring for me, but others liked
hearing
the "whole picture") We closed with "What was most meaningful for you this
week?" I thought many would pass because there were planes to catch, few
did. The majority of comments were about the "face-time" they had with their
counterparts, some they had never met. One comment "I got a lot of work
done
without having my email inbox filled!". They really appreciated the
meeting
format. After it was all over with, someone came up and told my client that
next time she wanted the rest of the conference to be involved.
Documentation: This company is going to a "paperless" workplace, so
conveners were to send an email (in template format) to my client after the
OS and it would be placed on an internal website or emailed to everyone.
Thank you, Harrison, for your brilliance.
Thank you, emergency response team, for your heart help.
Blake
*
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>From Thu Jan 17 21:35:44 2002
Message-Id: <THU.17.JAN.2002.213544.0800.>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 21:35:44 -0800
Reply-To: lisaheft at pacbell.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Lisa Heft <lisaheft at pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: The Top 10 List
In-Reply-To: <160.7474ad5.29790ae6 at aol.com>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Blake, Blake -
Stop banging your head like that!
It will hurt the desk...
Lisa
- - -
L i s a H e f t
Consultant, facilitator, educator
Open Space Technology and Experiential Learning
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106 USA
(+01) 510 548-8449
lisaheft at pacbell.net
www.openspaceworld.com
-----Original Message-----
Never say:
"I have never done this before...OS for 5, 50, 130, 500, 1,000 (fill in the
blank)" right before the event to a nervous client.
See results of this from a previous posting by me...I said just that the
night before 130 gathered to the nervous client. The client expressed his
anxiety by asking "does OS ever fail?". I said no. Then later, I said the
above. (I have done about 30 OS for 50 or less.) This created more
anxiety
with him, which sparked more in me, which sprang to the OSList. I am
banging
my head on my desk as I type.
Top that!
Blake
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:
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