Open Space ,Self-Organizing Systems, and The Plexus Institute

[Michael Herman]

thanks, joelle.  i do remember hearing some of this on our drive north
last year.  what i find most attractive about susan's story is that
she's managed to package the whole thing up for sale.  but this story of
yours is a good reminder that a similar effect can be achieved in a more
organic way as well.  interesting that both stories currently end just
short of folks learning/convening open space directly for themselves.
 these two stories bring an image of tunnelling teams finally meeting in
the middle.  heartening, for sure.  michael




Joelle Lyons Everett wrote:

>Michael--
>
>Paul and I have had a similar opportunity in the past year or so.  Like your
>friend, we were invited into the organization.  The director of a public
>agency asked us to come in with some leadership seminars for her top management
>team.  Then, she closed the door and confided that she was taking early
>retirement in a little over a year, and wanted to leave the organization with a strong,
>well-functioning team at the top.
>
>Working with the director, we developed a program of five seminars, half
>days, off site meeting in someone's home, closing with a potluck lunch, and with
>an extra hour blocked out on managers' schedules so no one had to rush from
>seminar to something else.  We limited each session to a few simple ideas, and
>provided time for skills practice and lots of discussion about application to
>organizational issues.
>
>Two sessions on communication skills, a session on self care for leaders
>(including a piece on griefwork in organizations), two sessions on planning, one
>focussed on strategy and one on implementation.  The topic on the schedule for
>sessions 6 - 8 was "Creating an environment for inspired work."  Over lunch on
>day 5, we announced that we had reached a choice point.  We could design 3
>more seminars, or we could move to experiential learning.  We challenged the
>group to design and sponsor an Open Space conference for the sixty-person
>department.
>
>It was a long lunch, but the team accepted our challenge.  A few weeks later
>we had a one-day Open Space that just blew everybody away, very exciting.
>
>Since the Open Space, we are in more of a coaching mode--some one on one
>coaching with individual managers, and we come in for a leadership team meeting
>once a month, not to teach or facilitate, but to block out time for what they
>call "big talk"--the important conversations that are put off because they take
>too much time on a busy day.  One leadership meeting a month now includes all
>supervisors and coordinators as well as division managers, to continue the
>cross-division, cross- level conversation.
>
>They have not moved to Open Space for their regular meetings, but more and
>more agendas are put together in the meeting, by the participants.  They are
>planning a department-wide Open Space to welcome the new director.  Maybe more
>important, there is a new criterion in their decision-making.  Often now, when
>an action is proposed, someone will say, "Do we really want to do that, after
>Open Space?"
>
>By the way, in the interim between directors, the managers are working as a
>self-managing team, with one team member designated to be the liason to City
>Hall.  And they have been proactive, going to the City Manager right away and
>saying that they wanted to be actively involved in the choice of a new director.
>
>I often begin with Open Space in an organization, but it has been great fun
>this past year to turn that around and get to know a team well before we
>ventured into Open Space. This group has been just great to take the skills and
>concepts from seminars and try them out in real life, so they had a bit of
>confidence that Open Space just might work.
>
>I'd love to hear about other ways people are combining Open Space with other
>work in organizations!
>
>Joelle
>
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--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
(312) 280-7838

http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications
http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground
http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space

...inviting organization into movement

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