Open Space -- The Credible incredible - Thank you for this rich and dynamic dialogue......

[Birgitt Williams]

Harrison wrote:
“I'm not quite clear what you are asking here, but to the extent that I
understand, my thought would be that the real thing is to be clear who the
client is, and further that the client can change in time. For example, when
i start conversation with a group -- my contact person (the CEO-- whatever)
is my client, but should we do an Open Space, my client becomes the whole
group. My mission quite simply is to create the space in which that group
can experience and realize its full potential. Should it turn out that my
"original client" (the CEO) is the major road block, and he/she acts that
out by becoming a Nasty Space Invader, I see no alternative but to protect
the space in whatever way I can. After all I have indicated to the group
that the space will be open, and should it close down suddenly through the
actions of a single person, my integrity is at stake. “

Harrison,
For me, the sponsor (senior staff person involved) is the one who “opens
space” in the organization for the facilitator to come in and lead in an
“Open Space Technology meeting”. I have infinite respect for this senior
staff person, for the risk they take in allowing us as facilitators to come
in to their organizations. They are the ones who have to deal with all of
the pieces, however good they may be, once the facilitator has packed his or
her bag and gone home.  I agree that my job as the facilitator of the Open
Space Technology meeting is to get the space open and to keep it open no
matter who the space invader is at the time.

I also carry out my work so that I am not setting the organization up to
have space closed down by the “client” on Monday morning back at work. I
cannot prevent the space being closed down come Monday morning, but because
I am aware that Open Space Technology is a very powerful intervention in an
organization and I see it as my job to do my best to create with the
 “client” a nutrient terrain within which the Open Space Technology meeting
has its best chance of creating and then sustaining a more life nurturing,
open and participative work environment.

I have experienced too often, a wonderful closing circle for the meeting,
and then deep grief work setting in Monday morning not because the meeting
was a failure, but because it was such a wonderful success. It reminds me
often of how afraid humans still are of the great inner light in them,
afraid that they can be so successful.

 Going back to the work from the early eighties on second order
change/transformative change
there is a decline crisis (grief work) before
the new is reframed. I believe that many facilitators of OST see the grief
work/decline crisis taking place leading up to the OST meeting and that the
OST meeting is about reframing for the new followed by moving steadily along
a path with the new. It has been my experience that decline crisis/grief
work is often high leading up to an OST meeting and immediately following an
OST meeting.

The OST meeting itself is an event that is about change. With change,
however wonderful, there is always loss. And the companion of change is also
conflict. I don’t see this arising so much during the OST meeting as I do
after the OST meeting. Prior to the meeting, the participants and CEO often
believe this is just another meeting. When the results unfold, if the space
is truly kept open in the ongoing organization, it turns out that just about
everything is open for change including detailed items like how performance
reviews are done. Prior to the meeting, the CEO often had no idea that this
is what he/she was opening the space for.

I have wrestled with this all long and hard in terms of ethical
considerations. If I know that something has this power and long term
results—whether there is follow up from the meeting or not, nothing stays
the same----I make every endeavor to assist the client to understand that
he/she is really the one opening space in the organization and what this
could mean.

Again for me, this comes down to whether we work with OST as an event that
has a start and finish and no ongoing responsibility or as an intervention
that has with it the responsibility of enabling a more informed consent by
the client that this is more than simply a meeting. As you yourself say, the
good news is that OST works and the bad news is that OST works.

Birgitt


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