magic can be messy

Thu Apr 15 06:43:15 PDT 2004

Skill building and Open Space:  I can understand why folks think that some
sort of personal/group skill building might be helpful. But my personal
experience is that such efforts rarely do any good, and may actually be
harmful. I remember one occasion with a large bank where there was concern
that the OS environment would be so strange to bankers that it was necessary
to provide some training by way of warm up. So, at great expense, a friend
of mine was hired to do a full day of "Creativity enhancement" before the
Open Space. Truthfully it was a lot of fun, but the almost universal
reaction from the participants was a question: Why did we waste that time?

My friend who had done the training of course wanted to know what I thought.
I tried every trick in the book to avoid the question, but eventually they
cornered me. And I said what I thought. Fun -- but no enhancement to Open
Space. I didn't tell them -- but as it happened I had just come from a 2 and
1/2 day OS with a similar group dealing with much more contentions issues.
Those folks simply showed up at 9:00 and went to work. If anything the
previous group worked better than the bank because they weren't trying to
remember all the better ways to be creative. They just concentrated on being
creative. As a matter of fact, you really couldn't tell any difference
between the groups.

One of the mantras around here is that Open Space always works -- even if it
doesn't work quite as you might have expected. I think the key here is
"expectations." In my own experience it is true at maybe a 99% level that
groups of all sorts display a degree of openness, collaboration, innovation
that is vastly in excess of what might have been expected in terms of prior
history of that group. I have never worked in Russia, but I have worked with
a number of groups who lived in similar circumstances, and it was always the
case that the sponsors were "amazed." I think it is really important,
however, to let go of our "expectations." All comparisons are odious, but to
make the point -- If you work with patients in the orthopedic section of a
hospital, a lot of the "normal" things that happen in Open Space just won't
happen. Broken legs are not healed by Open Space. But I would bet that some
very remarkable things would occur -- made even more remarkable if the
participants have some time to reflect on, and build on their experience. I
guess what I am saying is that were we to trade in our expectations for
reflections, that would be a useful move.

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
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
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
BrendanMcKeague
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 8:55 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: magic can be messy

Well done Raffi and thanks for the story - and thanks Michael and Joelle
for articulating much of my thinking in response.

For me as facilitator, I am growing into a deepening recognition of the
power of this process and my own powerful presence as facilitator - or as
some of us at OSOZ discussed - the OS practitioner. As perused previously
in this very List, learning to be comfortable with just 'being with' and
resisting the temptation to 'do for' is a grand journey towards spiritual
wisdom - albeit painful and discomforting at times for those of us steeped
in education, schooling and training that conditions and rewards
interventions, fixing, controlling outcomes etc.  I'm glad you feel like a
fraud - I did too and still do occasionally (especially whenever I'm
fortunate enough to pocket a reasonable fee) - and then I repeat my
precious mantra 'don't just do something, stand there' - easy enough for
many of my fellow laid-back Irishmen, but not this one.

As for providing others with pre-event skills in other areas of their
personal and/or collective competencies - that's another story and may be
important and necessary for the group to undertake for sure. This
discernment and subsequent action is I believe another's role - more like a
consultant to the organisation. Its great if the community itself
recognises this need for skill-building in the Open Space - or in
reflection after the event - and can then action the plans necessary to
meet its own identified needs - and look for / hire a trainer/facilitator
to design and provide a training package - that could be you or someone
else. No matter - in my experience - as long as the two roles are separated
somehow - and VERY CLEAR in my own mind -  me as the practitioner of Open
Space and me as the skills builder in other areas of personal/collective
competency-building.

Keep believing Raffi - the magic is indeed messy - that's what makes it
magic!

Brendan

  At 12:07 AM 15-04-2004 +0400, you wrote:
>Dear friends and colleagues,
>
>I just finished doing another Open Space here in Moscow with a local NGO
>that works with teenagers with substance abuse issues as well as at-risk
>youth. This was a 1.5 day strategic planning session preceded by an
>evening of storytelling.
>
>It was the first time I'd ever gotten to conduct an evening of
>storytelling prior to the OS. It was great to see, feel the power of story
>prior to an OS.
>
>The OS itself left almost all participants rather sad and disillusioned
>and some I heard felt that this seemed a little strange that the
>facilitator walks in, opens space, hangs around, and then closes it. As if
>the facilitator does nothing. I had written before that I had struggled
>with this feeling that in conducting OS, I have the sense of the Emperor
>who wears no clothes, that I felt like a fraud. While I may never hope to
>really understand what OS is, I feel it more. And feel confident enough in
>what happened in the last OS to say that right now at least the unpleasant
>truths that came up in OS with the organization I worked with were what
>was necessary at that moment. That this will take them further. They came
>face to face like never before with the difficulties people have in taking
>responsibility. They began thinking more about what it would take to "grow
>up" as an organization, to set more rules, be a little tougher on each
>other.
>
>So, as I slowly make my way into consulting work, it's so good to know
>that this is something I get satisfaction from, something I believe in
>(and my doubt alongside the faith in OS is the force that gets me more
>excited about OS!). Enchantment, mesmorized.
>
>And as always questions:
>
>1. Training of participants pre-OS in facilitation skills and other
>important skills.
>
>I wonder how much, if at all, do other OS facilitators train the client
>(or potential participants of an OS) in basic facilitation skills and
>other skills that might come handy in an OS (report writing, writing
>action plans, project development) prior to the OS as a means of helping
>the OS itself bear more fruit.
>
>I noticed that the groups did not really develop action plans at all.
>After convergence I explained that they were to work out action plans and
>answer the detailed questions in the report form (I did not read out the
>questions). Neither group did that, instead they further discussed the
>question, which probably is fine, too. Maybe that's what was needed at the
>moment.
>
>2. How much time do you spend establishing what the client will do to
>ensure the participation of all the people they intend to invite? Do you
>encourage, work with the client to ensure that participants commit to the
>whole Open Space? We had participants come and go (one person was there
>for storytelling and then showed up at the closing circle...for example!),
>which of course is fine. But I wonder if I should've worked with the
>client to think through what exactly they could do to get as strong a
>commitment on participation from invitees as possible.
>
>I'm sure I'll have more questions, but that's all for now!
>Thanks,
>Raffi
>
>*
>*
>==========================================================
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>------------------------------
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>
>To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
>http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist