Question on OS with a subgroup first

[Therese Fitzpatrick]

I initially hesitated to share my aswer to Peggy's question about an
OS with a subgroup because my answer is rooted in some work I did with
Kathie Dannemiller's Whole Scale design, which is not OS.  After Peggy
made it through my lengthy story, she encouraged me to share at least
some of my thoughts.

In the Whole Scale design, the consultants work with a small planning
team and always do a mini-version of the larger event with the
planning team.  Whole Scale is a complex design (I have since
concluded that it is far too complex; OS is better!).

But I saw much value in the concept of having a preliminary 'subgroup'
do a mini version of the big event.

When the main event is going to be for a very large group, I believe a
preliminary subgroup can seed the energy for the larger event by
holding a small scale version of the event.  I think of the
preliminary event as seeding the energy for the larger event.  Just as
the OS practitioner holds the container for the large event, the
smaller 'seed' group can add their energy to holding the container for
the larger group.

Having an advance subgroup do an OS in advance of a large scale event
is not about having a microcosm of the whole doing the event. . . it
is about seeding energy and creating a container for the larger event.
 And it might be about leveraging that energy.

I am amazed that OS Practitioners think nothing of being the only
consultant to hold the space for two thousand people.  My friend and
mentor Kathie D. never worked alone; if the client would only pay for
one consultant, she split the fee with a colleague but she never
worked alone.  If I were holding space for two thousand people, one
way to avoid holding such space all by myself would be to do a
preliminary OS with the event planners. I believe that the more people
holding the container for an event, the greater the potential  for
that event to be more and more open and bigger and bigger in terms of
energy and/or results.

With a preliminary subgroup, the container for the 2,000 person event
would begin to form and have the potential to create even more energy,
more space and more openness for the larger group.

An ancillary benefit to having a subgroup is that it gives a skeptical
client a chance to see the OS open.  I am thinking of how Peggy's
priest tried to hog the microphone at the open space for street kids
in Bogota.  I think the priest's energy would have been quite
different if he had done a preliminary OS and seen space open.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 09:44:12 +0100, Lucas Gonzalez <lgs0a at yahoo.es> wrote:
> Peggy Holman writes:
> > Is there ever a time when you have found it useful to do an OS with a
> > subgroup before bringing the whole system together?
>
> I was wondering about that myself.  As a full newbie, looking at
> stories from Colombia and Chile, and thinking about health care and
> what's at hand for me, my guess is that a "whole system together"
> approach is not very likely to happen at all.
>
> So last night, while completing the translation, I thought maybe OS
> "scales up" better than it "scales down", but that it *does* scale
> down.  The maximum a "groupal way" can scale down is down to two or
> even one people, and from there upwards.
>
> I don't know what I'll personally be able to do, of course, but my
> guess is I'll be able to have one-on-one conversations around this
> story and then open the space "for the two of us", asking: "what would
> be our compelling theme here?".
>
> After that, who knows.
>
> What are your "big bang", zero minute, experiences?  How do OS events
> really start?
>
> Lucas
>
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