Givens -- Again

Thu Nov 18 20:38:55 PST 2004

Hi all

The other day I opened space and broke most of the rules - I didn't
tell my client I was going to use open space, there was no mention of
open space in the pre-workshop material that went out to participants
and I didn't even mention open space technology when opening space.
There was no discussion about givens (by me anyway). This was a bunch
of academics (about 60 people) who had been thrown together from
various institutes and campuses under a new umbrella, without any
consultation (of course) and with an ongoing process to appoint a new
head of school. They sat in a circle, we had a theme, some times and
spaces, no stickies, the principles and the law, and reporting sheets.
The convergence session used Chris's non-convergence convergence
(thanks Chris!) around the theme of implementing their ideas. About
seven action teams emerged with a range of projects and they were
stunned at how well the whole event met their needs, blah blah blah -
you know the rest.

And here's why I did this. It was a bit of an experiment. I've always
been bemused why the process of Open Space is discussed so much with
clients (sponsors) when it's the outcomes they're looking for and they
usually don't care too much about the process (as long as it's legal,
ethical and safe :-) In situations where I can't or it's not
appropriate to use OS, I rarely discuss or divulge anything about
process - mainly because I tend to improvise anyway, and I usually
don't know until I get in the room what processes I'll use! One
memorable event I planned meticulously all the way on the two-hour
flight, to get in the room and decide at the last minute to do a mini
(three hour) open space.

So to add to Harrison's missive (or is it mis-givings?) about givens, i
haven't talked about givens with a group for years - and I think I'll
even experiment a bit more about not telling them anything at all about
OS. Just a few Friday afternoon thoughts from a sunny, but showery, and
windy, Bells Beach.

Cheers

Viv

***************************
Viv McWaters
Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd
PO Box 665 Torquay 3228
Australia
(03) 5261 9498
0417 135 406

"Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to
think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. "
Schopenhauer

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>From  Thu Nov 18 21:38:57 2004
Message-Id: <THU.18.NOV.2004.213857.0800.>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:38:57 -0800
Reply-To: chris at chriscorrigan.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Givens -- Again
In-Reply-To: <EBA1CB73-39E4-11D9-BBBB-0003937976FA at thereef.com.au>
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Yay Viv!

This is exactly as it really should be.  We make a pretty big deal
about Open Space.  My last client implored me not to talk about the
process, just to facilitate the meeting.  I told him that's why I
offer a practice workshop: so we can talk about the process.  I
assured him that I was there to facilitate a meeting and that's just
what happened.

But good for you.  I think this moves towards Harrison's ultimate goal
to see Open Space fade away into everyday practice.

One thing to note about non-convergence.  It wasn't my idea alone.
Michael Herman and I talked for the better part of a night about two
and a half years ago about this topic and he wrote up a whole series
of observations stemming from that conversation and a lot of other
thinking he had been doing which he published here:

http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?NonConvergence

The truth is that Peggy Holman and Larry Peterson and others have been
looking at this idea since at least OSonOS V in Toronto.  My own
standard practice of Opening Space and then doing a non-convergence
action planning exercise is largely built on ideas I have cribbed from
all of these fine mentors.  Hopefully the next edition (wink wink,
nudge nudge) of the User's Guide might see a version of our process
described in there...although Harrison does needle me a fair amount
about my aversion to voting.  I've put it down to the quintessential
difference between monarchist Canadians and American republicans!  ;-)

Cheers,

Chris

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

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

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