OS after a speaker

[Zelle Nelson]

  Hi,

Brendan's post made me think of some of the work my wife, Maureen and I
have done combining OS and a speaker.

We've had incredible success. Thus far we've done some different
versions - often in conjunction with a speaker's bureau (they book
speakers for various events, corporate, conferences, etc.). One model
consists of the speaker who was selected by the organization to give a
message, concentrate on a theme, who speaks for 1 hr then we move into
OS based on the invitation, "You've just heard a speaker with some
fantastic ideas. How can you take those ideas and integrate them into
the daily activities of your organization?". Generally, the OS time is a
minimum of 3 hours to a maximum of 6 hours, including time set aside for
conversion. These events have gone extremely well, with a great mix of
excitement for the organization as well as the speaker's themselves. It
really gives the participants the ability and the responsibility to take
the ideas they like from a presentation and make them meaningful in
their own lives. Another wrinkle on that theme includes an invitation
sent out prior to the event where the speaker, the topic, and the OS are
introduced. Group size has ranged from 60 - 250. I'm sure we could do
more. We have the speaker address the group in circle, so that the
spirit of inclusion is supported from the beginning.

We have our first multiple day event using this model scheduled for
January where the speaker will begin at the beginning of the 3 days,
with the rest of the meeting held in OS. We can't wait to see what comes
out of having more time to spend in OS after the group gets stimulated
by the ideas of the speaker. We'll keep you posted.

With Grace and Love,

Zelle

************
Zelle Nelson
Engaging the Soul at Work/Know Place Like Home/State of Grace Document

www.stateofgracedocument.com

zelle at maureenandzelle.com
office - 828.693.0802
mobile - 847.951.7030

Ravenswood - Isle of Skye
2021 Greenville Hwy
Flat Rock, NC 28731


Brendan McKeague wrote:
G'day Joe

I have used this recently at a three-day national conference -
non-residential - about 100 folks - theme: Spirituality in Leadership
and Management.
For days two and three, the mornings had keynote addresses and then
traditional smorgasbord offerings after lunch - three streams to choose
from -
1) presentation of papers - academic stream
2) workshops - interactive, facilitator-directed stream
3) Open Space - 2 x one hour conversation sessions

First day about 4 people came into the 'space' initially - had a
conversation, were joined by another couple - had some further
conversations - were satisfied with the choices; second day first
session 6 people - later joined by about 10 others - very stimulating
and energised - people who admitted to being overloaded with info and
wanted some time for good conversations...
 From my perspective - this was about using the framework of OS for
creating space for conversation - it worked insofar as the right people
came etc - and received what they needed at the time.
Was it Open Space? dunno about that...certainly a version of OS - though
not very satisfying for me as space-holder - in comparison to the 'real
thing' ....eeek, what am I saying?  since my views are irrelevant (other
than 'silent witness' ) in the 'evaluation' in any event - the folks who
came created their own space and whatever happened happened...

I would offer this again within such a conference setting - at the very
least it gave participants an articulated 'freedom-option' that was not
normally available to them (or so they believed...!)

Brendan

--
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