FW: participant organized Open Space-training, second installment

Sat Mar 20 18:04:40 PST 2004

This went straight to Michael, but I meant it to go to the LIST. So
Herewith....

Michael -- this is totally magnificent!!! I hope that everybody on the
OSLIST, particularly those who are doing training or thinking about it, will
read closely. Great Stuff! And for those of you who may be JUST thinking
about doing training -- REMEMBER -- Share the Love! You will certainly have
fun, and you might even make some money, but don't count on it. And your
idea about an OS on Training (if we can still call it "training") is right
on the money. For sure I will be "there" or maybe "there" could be
Washington??? Cherry Blossom time 2005????

ho

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
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harrison Owen [mailto:hhowen at comcast.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 6:26 PM
To: 'Pannwitz, Michael M'
Subject: RE: participant organized Open Space-training, second installment

Michael -- this is totally magnificent!!! I hope that everybody on the
OSLIST, particularly those who are doing training or thinking about it, will
read closely. Great Stuff! And for those of you who may be JUST thinking
about doing training -- REMEMBER -- Share the Love! You will certainly have
fun, and you might even make some money, but don't count on it. And your
idea about an OS on Training (if we can still call it "training") is right
on the money. For sure I will be "there" or maybe "there" could be
Washington??? Cherry Blossom time 2005????

ho

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 Pannwitz,
Michael M
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 4:08 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: participant organized Open Space-training, second installment

Dear Harrison,
this training design has been on a transformational journey since
1997 when Fred Moeller, Agnes v. Walther and I put on the now
legendary 12 hour training (from 10 am till 10 pm on October 31, 1997
in a round, glassed church in Berlin) a year after I had been to your
training at Roffey Park, UK in 1996 where you were assisted by
legendary arctic pedestrian Romy Shovelton and after I had
facilitated  15 open space-events myself.
In fact, the mode of working in an open space (then we chose the
traditional topic "How to create organizations that work")
immediately followed by an open space on open space was gleaned from
our long experience in training of OD consultants where experiental
learning followed by reflection on the stuff learned was highly
developed.
As further trainings followed the design was refined and expanded. In
1999 Gabriela Ender and I trained some 40 os-facilitators in Austria
(here we added action planing) closely followed by another training
in
Berlin in 2000 (we added setting up the open space by participants
themselves) and a training in Moscow with Jo Toepfer (50
participants) where we added the 3rd os designed and facilitated by
the participants themselves. Finding the theme for the first os
during the training and designating a sponsor was first introduced in
Westfalia in 2000 (51 participants) and in Hungary (41 participants)
where Jo and I were joined by Felicia Schulz.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003 there were more trainings with varying
colleagues adding and changing further nuances: Eva Gehltomholt,
Henning Bendsen in Denmark, Rudolf Netzelmann in Poland, Hans-Georg
Wicke in Weimar at an international training and then the
participant-organized training we just reported on.
Somewhere in 2001 we started working with the "Question and Answers"
posters that were put up from the moment the training started. The
point of these posters was to allow participants to record their
questions and quickly return into their role as participants
(especially in the first os when tendency is high to focus on the
technology). To deal with questions not answered we had a "nuts and
bolts" session towards the end of the training. In our last training
we installed "travel groups" that had various tasks among others to
look at the questions and answers posters so that we could skip the
"nuts and bolts" session at the end.
This worked fine except that on the fifth day participants requested
that we have an evening session just before their last night party.
We agreed to that session at 8 pm under the condition that we would
answer some questions with "its in the book" and would be served cold
beer. Well, about half the group showed up beer and all, there were
fine questions but about 30 minutes into this another part of the
group came in for the "laugh therapy" session in the same room and
that put an end to that. (later one participant came up to me and
mentioned that she was also interersted in that session but stopped
at the door as she heard me tell a story that she had heard a couple
of times before and went to a more productive place for her).
I myself then joined the laugh therapy session and we set a new world
record of  powerful, nonstop laughing in a group of about 20 people
close at the edge of wetting my pants.
After this encounter with participants I withdrew to quieter quarters
in the bar.
I think we will continue to skip the nuts and bolts part but respond
to high energy requests from the group.
Adding the "finding the theme", setting up the os by participants and
designating a sponsor for the first os in the training (this happens
between 4pm and 7:30pm on Sunday)  has had the effect that the focus
on the technology is reduced...in fact, the action planning part of
this os produces tangible action steps.
As we dropped "Delphi" and other statistical methods leading to
prioritization in our ongoing work with open space we also kicked it
out of the training design replacing it with the mini-os leading to
action around issues people have passion for rather than issues that
have high priority. This time we added this kind of action planning
to the third os that was set up and facilitated by participants
themselves followed by feedback. That worked just fine.
But it also drained the participants so that on the last half day
(Friday) the final round of dialog was cancelled in favor of having
more time for individual work on the further journey as facilitators.
As far as your question is concerned:
Things did happen as we thought that they would.
Still, it is a huge challenge every time (even though I have been
through this with close to 600 participants in trainings) to fend off
the idea that os can be learned or taught.
Sticking to knowing that it can only be remembered (providing a
selfexplanatory setting for the nuts and bolts) frustrates
participants and trainers...two or three days down the road
participants will send signals that they are on the remembering
journey. But up to that point they experience the trainers as
humorless, cold nitwits.
As we were talking about future designs, we are now thinking that we
would change the sequence of the 3 os-events.
Instead of  having the osonos between the os in which the "trainees"
experience themselves as participants of an os and the os organized
and facilitated by the "trainees" themselves we are now thinking of
having the osonos as the last and third os with the possibility to
reflect on both of the two prior experiences.

One other thing that we keep ruminating over is the urge to meet with
others that have had extensive training experience, an os on
designing events for remembering open space. In the meantime, we
invite colleagues to walk with us during the training week.
Greetings from Berlin still groggy
mmp

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 08:35:24 -0500, Harrison Owen wrote:

>And -- when you catch your breath (get some sleep), I would really be
>interested in knowing what you thought was going to happen versus what
>actually happened. And what did you learn from that.
>
>Harrison

Michael M Pannwitz
boscop
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelmpannwitz.de
www.openspace-landschaft.de

An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open
space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.

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