MG Taylor and DesignShop Events - a step on the OS continuum or something completely different?

[Chris Corrigan]

Hey there:

A couple of thoughts...

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 14:57:18 -0500, Phil Culhane <pculhane at magma.ca> wrote:

>
> Don't you hate doing OS's in rooms where the tape doesn't seem to stick to the wall, the
> ceiling is too low, the coffee too cold and there's no windows? Don't you wonder what the
> ideal Open Space space might look like? Maybe Matt started from the OS tenets, but took a
> different step at some point? That said, when CGEY buys in, there (theoretically) must be
> something there.

You would not believe the logsitical nightmares I've seen in my days
doing OST.  Somehow, sometimes though that little bit of extra effort
to make do with we have got sends just the right message to a group of
people.  I'm all for comfy surroundings, but there's something about a
hard chair that drives home the point that if you don't get up
noithing will get done.

Also, I have no doubt that there is something to DesignShop...I just
wonder what it is and how it is different from OST.

There is something to a participant saying that they got more done in
a DesignShop day than they would have in six months, but it's not too
hard to raise the bar on the general strategic planning and
implementation standard.  The real question would be how much MORE
would get done in a three day OST rather than a DesignShop workshop.
Or more to the point, how much LESS would be put on "to do" lists.
How much of what gets done in DesignShop is stuff that really needed
to get done?  In OST, it seems to me, nothing happens unless it has
to, I have yet to run and OST event in which people complained that
they came out with too much or too little work to do.

>
> I find it fascinating to think of what an ideal OS environment might look like.
>
> One of my questions about DesignShop is whether the participants own the solution.
> Knowledge Workers (scribes) copy/record everything and prepare it - so there's a real
> risk that participants won't see their own words in the final product. And knowledge
> workers/facilitators can and apparently do become active in discussions - thereby
> relieving participants of some of the responsibility.
>

I think this might be the point...responsibility.  What does an
organization look like after DesignShop vs after a good juicy OST?  I
note in Chapter 14 in Leaping the Abyss where Matt talks about running
into entrenched structure at the other end of a DesignShop.  For sure
OST runs into this too...and right now some of us are working on a
paper to look at how we might leverage the passion and responsibility
in OST to move forward through the traditional processes of assessing
and implementing outcomes.  I thin the answer lies in supporting the
responsibility of the emergent leaders.

But Matt says "Structure wins every time."  I think that might not be
true.  I think story can trump structure, and action speaks louder
than words.

Anyway, I'm still in the dark about what actually happens in
DesignShop, so perhaps I'll wait for a real story or two to comment
further.

Chris


-------------------------
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

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