questions on OS's form

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Mon Jun 23 17:32:01 PDT 2003


At 12:22 PM 6/23/2003 +0400 Raffi Aftandelian wrote:

>The facilitators didn't do many of the things that I associate with
>OS's form and yet the event had many of the qualities of OS, though
>admittedly not all of them. This led me to wondering just how
>absolutely essential these pieces of the form are.

The important thing to remember (for me) is that Open Space is all about
enabling the natural powers of self-organization. As a natural power,
Self-Organization is already there, working, but maybe not as well as it
could. Under circumstances where self-organization is just clicking right
along -- no need for Open  Space. You are already "there." On the other
hand, if a little (lot of) help is needed, that is where Open Space fits in
-- never doing more than you have do, and always remembering to do one less
thing -- just to see how much is really necessary.


>What wasn't done:
>
>1. no walking in a circle (the two co-facilitators sat at the head of
>the room)

Walking the circle focuses and centers the group. If the group is already
focused, and knows where it is, save the effort and sit down.

>2. no attention to breath, request to look about the room

Breathing is always nice, and when folks are so pre-occupied that they
forget, it is useful to remind them. But if they already have the situation
in hand (breathing in and out) why bother? As for "looking around the
room", I guess I do this (say this) more often than not. I find people
putting most of their attention  on me (the facilitator) and they "should
be" focused on the true resources for the day -- which is all around the room.

>3. the theme was framed very generally and almost accidentally. We all
>knew why we were gathered. We usually leave the last day of the
>conference for planning the year ahead. No desired result was framed
>either.

If everybody knows why they are present -- why bother with more words? In
such situations I have often gone with the No-Theme Open Space. The folks
already know it better than I could say it.

>4. clear explanation of the need to draw on one's passion and to take
>responsibility for the session topic offered

Always a useful suggestion.


>What was done:
>1. request to walk to center, write topic, write name, and post. (this
>was done once, not three times as I understand is better)
>2. report forms given out
>3.
>
>Also facilitators took it upon themselves to tell us where we should
>post the topics.

Sounds reasonable --

>But the energy of the sessions felt very much like OS. I wouldn't call
>it full OS.

If you think that Open Space is the way we are (which I do) -- but
sometimes we forget -- then we are always in Open Space. Albeit
forgetfully. So the facilitator doesn't create or do a thing -- Just
reminds folks of what they already are. Some times this reminder requires
the Whole Enchilada -- and sometimes just a whisper will do. In the best of
times -- NO words are required.

Harrison

>Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm

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