Can we be space invaders ?? - No, I just need control

[Chris Corrigan]

Mike Copeland wrote:

>
> Later on I asked the sponsor why she felt the need to do what she did.
> Her answer "I don't believe in following just one process, open space is
> only a process"
>
> What could I say to that? Isn't there something about letting it all go?
>

Yes.

When someone says "I want to do it this way..." to me I usually ask
myself why this person feels that inflicting THEIR process on people
will fix the fear and uncertainty that they personally feel in Open
Space.  And when it's a sponsor, it boggles my mind, especially if they
are paying me money to facilitate.

Once in a while, sponsors will "rebel", even after you have explained
OST to them, covered off what it is likely to feel like and they have
contracted with you for that process.  Something falls apart inside of
them and they decide to inflict their "wisdom" on the group.  In one
case in my past a sponsor got nervous at his inability to meet the
demands of the participants because he had not been honest with me or
the group about the fact that the budget he had promised to support
action was not really there.  He issued an ultimatum - also in lieu of
action planning - that involved an immediate and early break for lunch
and a reconvening in a more traditional conference format to hear some
information presentations.  He never asked permission from the group to
do this, and he sprang it on me too.  There was a lot of grumbling that
exploded after lunch when the truth was revealed.  He and his boss took
a lot of heat.

The post-event conversation focused on how the sponsor thought his
"ultimatum" to do something different was received by a group that had
convened in the spirit of Open Space, a spirit of collaboration and
respect for the feelings and contributions of others.  He didn't see
anything wrong with it.  "We simply couldn't support what they wanted to
do, and so we had to move on."  If he had been honest at the outset
about this - yes, stating it as a given - the group could have found a
number of ways around this.  But instead he opted to keep it a secret
until the situation became untenable.

When he called again the next year asking for another Open Space meeting
I declined the offer.  Instead we worked out a process for the meeting
that was more appropriate to his ideas about control and collaboration.

I have since "let go" of that particular client.

Harrison once said about dealing with the kind of situation you write
about, Chris: "that's where you earn your money."

Chris C

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