Question RE Using Open Space for Staff Meetings

Sat Jan 17 15:30:42 PST 2004

Hello Jennifer & list,

I had a enriching and very exciting experience with the staff people at one leading business development institution in La Paz, Bolivia.

It was held in november 2000. In fact, I facilitated two meetings: the first one with the participation of the general manager, a secretary, two academic coordinators, one financial officer and the messenger man, who has been an employee since the institution was formed in 1985. The central discusion was "what would be the best ways to face the future?"

As most managers, the GM was just worried about controling the meeting, which was planned for only two hours. Best ideas and suggestion came from the secretary (suggested to have a similar meeting with trainers/instructors, who are the very strength of an educational organization, mentionaing that during the 15 years of life, this one never had a "strategic meeting) and yes, from the messenger man (he witnessed competition´s growth). More important, GM learned how to get the most from his collaborators.

The second meeting was the next other day. The motif, was "how should we face the future?" About ten specialists in business development (marketing strategies, management skills, human resources) were gathered. I still remember their surprise and their wondering attitude, silently mentioning "what we are supposed to do?". Once two or three specific topics were mentioned, two groups began to work and after three hours (this time we did not mention how long the meeting should last) and arrived to a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) mattrix. This first meeting helped the institution in improving its strategic plan and also established the basis for organizing "working committees" on specific fields.

Main lessons I learned:

There have been several conversations among list´s memebers about control. It was very difficult to convince the GM to give up controling people.

Invitations were short, informal and encouraging. We did not mention "prepare to be surprised". All people invited showed up.

The first minutes were dedicated to present the main topic, the four principles and the law of two feet. I also (my colleagues were eagerly wondering "where all this come from?") briefly introduced OST and referred some well known companies/organizations cases in which OS did its job. There is a common wave of "loving and reverencing what comes from abroad" here.

Do not use secretaries for writing/copying, even when managers would not like to write flipcharts or any other material themselves!

Well that is all; feel free to contact me if you think I could be of more help.

Warm regards from rainy La Paz in Bolivia!

Jaime

Our

Jennifer Hurley <jlhurley at hfadesign.com> wrote:
Hello again. Thank you all for your throughtful responses to my question about starting an Open Space event with a Visioning Exercise. The Church I am working with has decided to develop a "Behavioral Covenant" first, and postpone the Open Space to the fall. I'll say more as the time gets closer.

Now I have a totally different question. I'm principal in a small planning consulting firm (2 principals & 3 employees). I'm intrigued by the possibility of using open space for our weekly staff meetings, but I'd like to read more about how OS works for short meetings (ours are usually about an hour) and with very small numbers of people. Does anyone have suggestions? Is there anything on the WIKI pages about this?

Thanks,
Jennifer Hurley
*****
Hurley~Franks & Assoc.
1429 Walnut St., Suite 601
Philadelphia, PA 19102
http://www.hfadesign.com

Association for New Urbanism in Pennsylvania (ANUPA)
http://www.anupa.org

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