Silence and Breath and an OS (REPORT)

Sun May 4 23:22:44 PDT 2003

Open Space happened - as always.

This was my first OS with such a high degree of complexity and potential
for problems.  We spent a lot of time in the prep creating givens (and
simplifying them) - we did the "invitation" in person to the teachers
and the parents - and then we took everything else out of the agenda (no
warmups) to leave the maximum time available for the Open Space.

The "givens" were very important - when we started the teachers had a
long long list of what they wanted the program to be - and if they had
stuck to the whole list there would have been no "space" for the
parents.  By going over the list with the teachers and paring it down to
the essentials we ended up with happy teachers - their key concerns were
taken care of - and a much larger "space" for the group to work on.  We
identified which of the original "givens" were actually issues - and
encouraged the teachers to post them - and they were willing to go
there.  (Interestingly all the teacher "issues" were posted during the
OS by parents - and the parents and teachers jointly created
recommendations that ended up high on the prioritization list).

During the planning we often hit snags and in each case we solved them
"the OS way" - and each time that was the right choice.  The planning
committee originally did not include the homeschoolers who were the
"problem" - we got them included and this really helped both clarify the
givens and ensure that the givens were not a surprise on the day of the
event.  People kept trying to add things to the event - and we kept
"thinking about that" and in the end (the night before) decided to stick
with the principle of "keep it simple".  If we had more time it would
have been great to have a story telling session - but with only one day
and needing to do convergence we needed all the time for OS we could get.

During the day we heard comments like "if we had not done this the
program probably would not have survived" "this is the best thing we
have ever done" "I am learning more about the parents today than I did
all year (teacher)"  "I can now understand the teacher's perspective
(parent)" "I am new to the school and feel welcome".

In the final session of the day - in the final 10 minutes of the session
parents and teachers came together  - over 80% of the group was crowded
into one classroom and the parents gave the teachers an overwhelming
show of support - tears flowed and healing stared.

The homeschool group did not achieve their goal (to make the program
more liberal) but the truth of the school became evident - that while
there were pockets of liberal minded parents most parents support a more
structured approach to learning - and this is what needed to become
clear for them.

Everything that needed to happen happened - and no the group did not
come out with a *final* vision - but 80 people did create 44 topics
which led to about 35 discussions and over 100 recommendations which
were prioritized and will be turned over to a visioning commitee - and
the teachers who were thinking of resigning are committed to the
program, and the level of tension was diffused, and clarity on where the
program is headed was achieved, and new parents joining the program now
feel part of the community. All this in one 7 hour session - Wow.  At
the end of the day all four walls in the gym were covered in paper as
high as anyone could reach!

I *know* that this is what Open Space does - but it still seems like a
miracle.   In the past most of my OS events have been either training
events or "business" events - this was the first time we really met the
OS "requirements" of diversity, potential for conflict and needed
yesterday - and this time more than any other it really felt like once
the space was opened something powerful just took over.

The key learning for me was that once the givens are clear just get out
of the way - trust Open Space - but give people as much time as possible
for the sessions.  We chose three longer sessions instead of four short,
and that was the right way to go.  I spent more time in the opening than
usual - the participants were asking a lot of questions which has never
happened to me before.   We chose not to start with an ice breaker and
if we had the group probably would not have ended up with the healing
that happened in the final 10 minutes.

Oh - and I *did* get the breath in :) and tried for a few minutes of
silence but someone's cell phone went off so we just carried on and that
was just fine too.

Sharon

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>From  Mon May  5 19:30:41 2003
Message-Id: <MON.5.MAY.2003.193041.0200.>
Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 19:30:41 +0200
Reply-To: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Thomas Herrmann <thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
Subject: Pre meeting at Bramstrup - a little report
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Dear friends in Open Space
Last weekend (Sunday Monday) we had a very nice Open Space meeting in
Bramstrup, the second annual Scandinavian OSonOS focusing on preparing the
11th International Open Space on Open Space which will be held here the
23-26 of August. It was great to get a bit more aquainted with the place for
the International OSonOS. Those of you who will be able to join in will come
to a place that is so very peaceful, beautiful and inspiring.

The 13 of us worked together in Open Space and made some actionplans. We
produced an activity sheet to keep track of what is being worked at. This is
now on a virtual meetingspace where we will collaborate to get everything as
good as possible. Some things are already done (Do it´s:)). We also decided
on our next physical meeting which will be held in South Sweden in June.

We were honored to be able to use the lovely carved talking stick that comes
with OSonOS since Vancouver, for morning and evening news. For closing the
little "bunch of straws etc"  was passed around the circle. The little
eucaluptus leaf and other things are still there!
Warmest regards
Thomas Herrmann         Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81
Open Space Consulting   Fax   +46 (0)300-713 89
Pensévägen 4
434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden
Email: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
www.openspaceconsulting.com

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