Opening the Space to Close it

[Lisa Heft]

Hello, Brendan -

The planners had then organised for the retreat to follow much of the
same pattern  - I was not on the planning group - and had been asked to
facilitate the second half of the second day of the retreat in OS - ie
Sunday afternoon 1 - 5pm. I had expressed concern that there would be
too much input and not much time to 'retreat' and process the responses
- still, "participants needed value for money and would not expect to
pay  considerable dollars just to sit around and talk or walk or sleep
or meditate..."


I have done Open Spaces where the group was very energized and did a lot
of work from just 1-5pm.  Although I am always engaging with the
organizers for as long as I can keep the conversation / possibilities
going as to how we can stretch it to longer. (and doesn't it just make
you crazy about the organizer's 'participants needed value for money and
would not expect to pay.' comment? Okay well that's another
conversation.)

Sunday morning was pretty full-on again with interactive workshops on
Leadership - the Art of Seeing, Who Are You Really?, The Emerging Big
Story: Its Impact on Individual and Corporate Spirituality, Creating
Spirit in a Local Health Care System.... So - by the time post-lunch
Open Space came along, I'm wondering if you can guess how the group was
feeling.... absolutely so...!!!!  Many of their minds (those that could
still function) had begun to wander to the two-hour journey home, kids,
school and work tomorrow, missing partners etc....



So of course I have a lot of questions here - how was the OS
'advertised' to the constituents, is the main one.  Could it be best
advertised as a 'putting it all together' or a 'plenary' session?  And
what was the lunch like, and where?  Could it have been brought as box
lunches into the same room where the Open Space was / would be?  Was
that the same room where the workshops were?  Could the workshops in the
morning be done in the big room in discussion areas, to set the
mind/body up for Open Space and ownership of the room?  Could the
question / theme of the Open Space have built somehow off the energies
in the morning - they were already talking about enspirited workplaces -
what's the next question to ask them / energize them around?

Anyway, they all wanted to stay long enough to see how Open Space worked
- I opened the space (on the theme: "opportunities for creating an
enspirited workplace") with two x one-hour time slots available and time
for convergence - three 'tired' conversations went up - a quarter of the
group left after the opening and the others went to the first session of
conversations, one of which was a continuation of one of the morning
sessions - at the end of this a further quarter left and the remainder
9taking up the Two Feet) suggested we have the closing circle and go
home - so be it and that is what happened!

.Which was all perfectly great, of course.  And you saw the
effectiveness of the Open Space reflected in Closing Circle comments.

The thing I have seen which r-e-a-l-l-y is hard for doing workshops and
conferences - if travel day is the same day as closing day there is
always a greater need for many of the attendees to check out of their
rooms, rearrange their flights, etc. beFORE they can concentrate on the
workshop/conference that day - as those are the matters of greater
urgency.  I wonder if a celebration that evening would have kept more
people there for the day?  Or not?  After all, the right people stayed,
of course.

And your title for this message - you opened the space - you didn't
close it.  Sounds like it all worked out quite well, and even better -
the conference organizers want to include Open Space next year!!  My
recommendation is that they *not* put it just for the first morning, of
course, because it's hard for folks to fit back into 'normal' conference
mode, physically and otherwise, after experiencing Open Space - but that
it appears later (and of course longer).  And is maybe marketed
differently in conference materials.

So what you did was Open Space for the participants who cared, and then
you Open Space for more Open Space in next year's conference!!!  Bravo!!

Lisa

L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, facilitator, educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
(+01) 510 548-8449
lisaheft at pacbell.net
(coming soon: www.openingspace.net)



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