2108 -- Remember the Number

Wed May 7 09:56:26 PDT 2003

I think the basic answer to your questions Gabriela, for me any way is:
good preparation, good preparation and good preparation.

The better prepared we are, the easier it is to hold space, because we
have no regrets about anything, and we (the facilitators) are able to
relax into that pure form of being with the group that we call "holding
space."  In times when I haven't been able hold space like I have wanted
to, it was due to the fact that there were thoughts eating away at my
peace of mind.  In almost every case, better preparation on my part, or
the part of the sponsors and me, would have taken care of that.

It works well when people are really clear on what is being done and
when the four conditions are present: passion, diversity, urgency,
complexity.  It "just works" when these four are present in less deep
quantities.  (Note to Wilberians: depth not span.8 can have greater
depth than 1000).

And in terms of lessons learned for embedding Open Space in another
conference format, the first one would be, as Harrison and Michael did,
to do it last.  As for the more subtle realms, I can point you to a
paper I did as a report on using Open Space as a track for an
international conference last year.  You can download the PDF at
http://www.chriscorrigan.com/ifoam/ifoamreport.pdf.  The paper includes
a report on what happened at the conference and recommendations for
using OST in the future.

Cheers,

Chris

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Gabriela Ender
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 6:07 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: 2108 -- Remember the Number

Thanks a lot , Harrison and Erich!

Although I believe so deep in the power of OST, and I know, that it
always works ...  that topic brought special questions to me:

-> What kind of criteria do we need to "holding space for OST quality"?

-> What are our common or personal evidences for "good quality" and for
"it worked"?

-> What basic requisites must exist, in order to combine an OST with
another, bigger event?

Certainly, ... it depends on ..., but I would very much appreciate if we
could reflect some experiences and pretensions (additionaly to our well
known OST principles). That would be very helpful for me.

Background of my present questions is, that I would not have had the
courage to facilitate such big OST. My inner believe system would have
stoped me to do this job - because I would have had the big fear to
"damage the reputation of OST" in any kind.  It is good to share with
you my personal presumptions and feelings regarding this, and to learn
from you and others! I am very open for a inner reframing ;-)

Best wishes
Gabriela

----- Original Message -----
From: Harrison Owen <mailto:owenhh at mindspring.com>
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: 2108 -- Remember the Number

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
<http://www.openspaceworld.com/>
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
<http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm

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