5 Simultaneous Open Spaces

[Pannwitz, Michael M]

Dear Larry,
thriving on the details your are providing.
If you haven't yet, please mark your calender for the international
gettogether for members of organizations that are on the kind of
journey (accelerating "self-organization") you are describing and for
the practitioners facilitating that journey, its September 3 (all
day) and 4 (half a day). Somewhere in Europe. Perhaps in Poland. Jo
is investigating sites in Krakow over Easter.
I think your story is also an example for ongoing work with os and
other stuff that Chris Macrae is missing in his recent mail pointing
to some of his UK colleagues.
One aspect which I busy myself with in that thread is the stuff
around "hierarchy".
You mentioned that certain aspects in your particular case are
required (givens, I suppose) by law etc.
My hunch is that most of "hierarchy" is functional. No system without
"hierarchy"....most of it is probably in place to better enable
systems/orgs to deal with adapting to its environment. I like looking
for the particular aspects that in fact provide for a better "fit"
and/or enable the org to continually respond to and then adapt to
changes in its environment.
For me as facilitator working with teams (often groups of  7 or more)
its proven to be useful to consciously design the "hierarchy" for the
team and for the interaction of the team with other subsystems
(catering, publishing, facility management, the sponsors, child-care,
sound technician, press/radio/television, etc.)  for the open
space-event (including pre-meetings, setting up the os, the os
itself, follow up). Its also one of the fields for "learning"
naturally present in a complex setting.
Greetings from sunny early spring Berlin (field sparrows and coal
tits competing in our garden for the limited housing)
mmp

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:38:32 -0500, Larry Peterson wrote:

>Michael:
>
>" Perhaps a separate open space on the issues and opportunities around
>that new kind of work they are facing?"
>
>We have in fact being doing that.  We did an OST on getting the new
>model of housing management started that included staff from different
>parts of the organization (about 350 folks).  Some managers took the
>workshop with Harrison (basically the Practice of Peace in
>Organizations) last November.  One just took the OS Workshop for
>facilitators/sponsors in early March that Diane Gibeault and I led.
>
>As the "share services" units that provide support to the new model have
>been re-designing their roles -- with another consultant's assistance--
>Starfield has facilitated OST events on how to engage staff (and
>sometimes customers or stakeholders other than tenants) in pursuing the
>new directions.  We have held two of these so far with an "intake" group
>and a "safety" staff group.  We will likely have another OST plus some
>workshops to learn how to Open Space for the staff group that provides
>support to tenants and staff as they work together to enable the local
>clusters to make key decisions.  (The group to which you alluded.)  The
>lead in that group sees the value of her staff learning how to "open
>space for citizen participation" as she states it.
>
>It is certainly going down a path to learn how to accelerate
>"self-organization" in the context of a "hierarchy" that is required by
>law and city politics.  There is some real understanding and
>appreciation of this approach by the most senior leadership.  Practice
>of the new consciousness and behaviours required is the journey and it
>is both present and yet to come.
>
> Larry
>
>Larry Peterson
>Associates in Transformation
>Toronto, ON, Canada
>416.653.4829
>
>larry at spiritedorg.com
>www.spiritedorg.com
>
>
>
>Larry Peterson
>Associates in Transformation
>Toronto, ON, Canada
>416.653.4829
>
>larry at spiritedorg.com
>www.spiritedorg.com
>
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Michael M Pannwitz
boscop
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12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelmpannwitz.de
www.openspace-landschaft.de

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