2108 -- Remember the Number

[Harrison Owen]

At 09:37 AM 5/7/2003 +0200, Gabriela wrote:
>For me, OST with 10 people is always so very different as with 30. And OST
>with 90 participants is also so different as with 150. And an one-day is
>so different to a two, or three-day OST. And it is so different, if you
>have your "own" Open Space or if it is combined with another event.

I certainly agree that time makes a difference (1/2 day, 1 day 2 days) but
only (in my experience) in the depth of conversation. Given more time,
people generally do go deeper -- and that is a real plus. However, at the
level of process, I fail to see any significant difference. It all "works"
just like usual. Even the time it takes to get started is almost identical
regardless of size. For a group of 25 I always expect 1 and 1/2 hours from
start to "Going to Work." And the same is true for groups of 250, 500,
1000. With 2108, guess what ? 1 and 1/2 hours.

>  What do you think, is there also a special difference between 1000 and 2000?

None that I could see -- except more bodies and more space.

>  What I know is, that your OST was an one-day-event at the end of a very
> big 4-days-conference. With your new experiences of today - what have you
> learned about that imbedded setting?

An "embedded" (shades of Iraq!) Open Space is always a problem, and one
that I would choose to avoid if possible. And a 4 day conference is (for
me) definitely too long. The fatigue level really starts to rise. Having
said all that I really can't imagine an Open Space with greater spirit and
flow than we experienced. That did surprise me. I think part of it was,
people had spent 3 days sitting in rows in  darkened rooms, listening to
speeches. Suddenly breaking into Open Space was not unlike kids getting out
of school.

ho

>




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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