outcomes and one-off OSTs and OSLIST

[Harrison Owen]

Chris Wrote:

As groups working in Open Space, we get to try out a new story, and this
is largely the process benefit of the one-off or event-based OST
meeting.  I realize now that I usually close these meetings by inviting
people to notice how the quality of the room has changed, how
relationships have changed, how the same people we looked at in the
opening circle suddenly seem different after only a few hours together.
The people haven't changed of course, but our stories about them and
about how we can relate to them, have changed.  It's nice to leave
people with a question in their minds about how that change took place
and how easy it might be to recreate it..

Providing a time of reflection at the conclusion of an OS (even a very
short time) serves to anchor the experience so that the possibility of
actually becoming a new story is enhanced. No guarantees, of course, but
it does raise the probability. I find that a group of first timers move
so fast from shock and disbelief to real involvement that they are often
hardly aware of the changes that have occurred. For most people it all
feels so easy and natural that the real differences that make a
difference can slip by, out of awareness. A few gentle questions at the
end - of the sort that Chris alludes to --  seem to open the mental
space.

For those who are interested in tracking the longer term effects of an
Open Space following the foot prints of the emergent story is a great
way to go. This can be done in a quite rigorous fashion (real science -
well at least Anthropology), and if you are interested in fussing with
any of this you might check out my book, The Power of Spirit
(Berrett-Koehler 2000 see Chapter 11).Also included in this book as an
appendix if a brief description of the methodology I employ to  actually
gather the tales. You might also be interested in an earlier (more
theoretical) effort in my first book,  Spirit: Transformation and
Development in Organizations That book is long out of print, but the
relevant chapter is on www.openspaceworld.com
<http://www.openspaceworld.com/>  . The URL
http://www.openspaceworld.com/mythos.htm should get you there.

Harrison

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