How do you know when it has gone well?

Michael Herman mherman at globalchicago.net
Mon May 6 11:27:56 PDT 2002


hi doug,

two thoughts...

first, giles hopkins, who has done bunches of these meetings and i don't
think is here on the list, told me at an osonos once that he had (at the
time) 20 years experience and all kinds of tools and tricks in his bag,
and that he always uses open space when he can because he always feels
so clean afterward.  so in a spin on your question, i guess i figure it
went well if i walk away feeling clean.  guess that makes the outcomes
less important than the shared sense of responsibility and momentum that
'good' sessions/groups develop, so i have nothing pulling me to stay on,
physically or otherwise.

second, been thinking about the notion of evaluation, which came up some
time ago here, and have noticed that the reason i don't like evaluations
is that they mostly tend to imply a taking back of responsibility for
the quality of folks experience in open space.  even the ones that say
"was the food okay?" forgets that there were six restaurants in the
hotel and that all were accessible by two feet.  while we acknowledged
that sometimes evals are necessary/required, i think it's worth thinking
about what we really want to evaluate and how those questions can be
used to open the next spaces... in other words, how can we use the
evaluation to ask folks to evaluate the work of the entire group and
notice what more work, other topics, etc. that they think should be
considered next by the group (thus implying more open space meetings,
and continued responsibility of the whole group for continued
progress)... instead of evaluating the work of the planning committee.
the way i would explain this shift in format to potential clients is
simply to point out that once we give them responisibility for their
experience in the opening, the credit for whatever good happens is
likely to be kept, while the blame for bad things is likely to be dumped
back on the sponsors.  not sure that it's perfectly true, but it seems
reasonable enough to convince most would-be evaluators to broaden their approach.

m



"Douglas D. Germann, Sr." wrote:
>
> To m
>
> Which brings me to a question for all of you--how do you know when an OST has
> gone well?
>
> I did not feel it appropriate to pass around an evaluation sheet to all the
> participants. And I stayed out of the meetings (there aren't many coffee cups
> to pick up after 8 people!).
>

--

Michael Herman
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice
312-280-7837 fax

http://www.michaelherman.com
...an invitation.

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