Micro Open Space

Alexander Kjerulf alexander at kjerulf.com
Wed Dec 24 13:16:15 PST 2003


Hi

I stumbled upon a very simple format that I've been using for shorter
meetings with fewer people. Say 1-2 hrs and up to 6 -8 people.

At the start of the meeting everybody who has a topic writes it on a
piece of paper, announces it briefly, and places that piece of paper on
the table. When no more topics come up, dialogue begins. We look at the
potential topics, and dcide where to start. People can break into groups
or not as they choose, most of the time we tackle all of the topics
together. Once a topic has been dealt with, you can put that piece of
paper aside.

The good thing about this format is that it takes almost no time to do
the agenda planning, and the agenda is visible to everyone, as is the
progress since the number of outstanding items on the table keeps shrinking.

I'm not sure why, but this works much better than writing down the
agenda on a piece of paper. I should probably note that I use this
format with people who are already used to open space meetings - that
may be part of the reason why it works for us.

Cheers

Alex

chris macrae wrote:

>Do we have a Micro Open Space Format and what might its components be?
>
>I am thinking deeply micro, eg 6 people
>
>Some situations where this could be a valid starting point are:
>
>A huge organisation where the 6 people who feel most passionately about
>long-term design purpose want to make sure organisation is always
>capable of doing what it was designed to do (given Harrison's book
>mentions 'many' organisations are losing this long-run structural
>gravity)
>
>Trying to get 6 large peace or humanitarian network coordinators
>together in network of network actions
>
>Where a few entrepreneurs come together because they realise their SME's
>need to cluster either to make sure the geography of the place sustains
>or because they want a network model (for me one big reason most dotcoms
>failed is that they were part businesses that desperately needed other
>partners)
>
>I've just taken some guesses at what a micro-OS format might include.
>I'm taking a guess at a 2-day format. Do feel free to open-edit:
>
>Have say 10 minutes of agenda surfacing time. Then do a poster session
>of all the agendas so that each agenda proposer had a couple of minutes
>to answer questions on the agenda. Aim to choose the top 6 agendas (or
>favourite per person) that everyone wanted to attend. Do these in a row
>back-to-back so all 6 can attend BUT still use the law of 2 feet so that
>people could go use time in their own way if any agenda wasn't working
>for that person.
>
>Have a break. Ask people to add any new agendas to the wall. Start again
>with the whole wall of agendas; some that didn't make the top 6 the
>first time might now.
>
>During this first day have some other stuff. One example might be if an
>actor had pre-interviewed the 6 people to do a short "This is your life
>and passions" collage of all of them. Include some other communal
>exercises as a group.
>
>Before retiring for the day make sure that all the meetings are written
>up in bedtime or waketime reading documentation; including those that
>didn't happen (ie at least a record of how they were Q&A'd at the poster
>session stage)
>
>Day 2 after letting the 6 informally mingle over coffee, proceed by
>letting the group talk in a circle to find out where we are : either
>huge convergence versus 24 hours ago, or no progress, or the opposite. I
>assume the rest of the day divides a lot depending on those 3 paths
>
>Summing up this conversation opener on MICRO OS:
>
>I do believe there are times where 6 people need hi-trust before they
>can take it to lots of people. I suspect their characters would need
>just as many and diverse facilitators as larger events so that the
>intensity of the content conversation is blended with spiritually
>refreshing and respect for each other.
>
>I would hope that if we ever did refine a micro open space format , one
>thing it would do even if it didn't succeed on the issue in hand is
>leave the 6 people likely to want to do big open spaces in the future.
>In other words at least as much a personal conversion process to Opening
>up conversational formats everywhere as typical Open Space
>
>I have no idea whether the sequence above is going in a good open
>direction or not, but look forward to any comments
>
>Chris Macrae, wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk
>
>2004 Year of Transparency - help nominate events/movements to watch, or
>sign up a Transparency wish of yours : www.valuetrue.com
>
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