Givens

[Harrison Owen]

Thomas -- I knew you were out there somewhere! On the subject of "Givens"
and how you use them -- I would guess that it is ultimately a matter of
personal preference and comfort (the facilitator's personal preference and
comfort). As I said when I started all this, I felt uncomfortable, and so my
preference was never to bring the matter up for discussion -- at least in
terms of specific things that would be withheld from the arena of Open
Space. For sure I would (and do) engage the sponsor deeply in terms of
desired outcomes (why are we having this meeting anyhow -- and what would be
different if we didn't have it at all???). But in all honesty, I have to say
that if, as, or when I found a sponsor/client who would require that
"certain things" be withheld from the realm of consideration, my response is
virtually automatic. Don't do an Open Space. Doubtless there will be other
ways to proceed, but none that I would care to follow.

You mention working with school groups and the idea that the pedagogical
curriculum might/should be "off limits." I have worked with any number of
school groups, and it is absolutely true that Principals, Teachers, and
School Administration desperately want to keep the discussion of the
curriculum off the agenda. They see this as their own professional "patch."
And all interlopers keep out!! Generally speaking, they are quite successful
in their effort -- and then they wonder why parents are less than
enthusiastically involved... Odd! At the end of the day, at least in a
democratic society, the parents/public WILL talk about these issues and
decide them (Who pays the taxes?). The real issue is -- will this
conversation be nasty or nice? If the conversation is avoided long enough,
it will happen, but explosively -- and usually destructively. So for my
money, anybody who places that sort of conversation in the protected area of
"The Givens" is simply storing up trouble for the future.

I think our friend Artur has put all this rather succinctly: "But, as you
recall, my main point about "givens" has always been the word itself. Who
"gives" the "givens"? It must be some sort of unquestionable authority.
Unless they would not be called "givens"...So, when you ask the sponsor "are
there any givens?" aren't you accepting the command and control way?"

Harrison

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: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Thomas
Herrmann
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 3:30 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Givens

Dear friends in Open Space
Thanks for bringing this issue up again!

I do talk with my sponsors about givens.
There are so many things to this but I will start off by describing the
overall process I use facilitating OS-meetings.
I use the basic design worked out by Birgitt Williams in working with OST.
In fact i always open space at least 3 times in such a process. Pre-meeting,
main meeting and follow-up meeting. For the pre-meeting I use
WholePersonProcessFacilitation facilitating the participants through some
easy models to get a picture of the past and present and the hopes for the
future (post-event). I let them formulate a theme, givens, how to follow up
afterwards and how to keep everyone informed later on. The post-OS-meeting
is usually facilitated using WPPF sometimes in combination with OST.

The thourough prework has several purposes one of them is to allow the
sponsor to make an informed choice of wheather he/she wants to use OST for
the meeting.  In that meeting I explain that the hot issues must be allowed
space after the conference. I guess some leader would need a lifetime to
prepare to let go for this, so on occasions we decided not to use OST. Most
of the times the givens allow us to go on using OST anyway, which I am very
happy about.

On the first OS-meeting I experienced the sponsor closed the space by
saying: "Now the management team will look at the results and come back to
you all about how we will proceed." I could feel how people sunk together
after having been very empowered during the closing round. My interpretation
was that she was afraid and unclear of how she would be able to control the
work afterwards. During the whole event she refused to talk to the
facilitator! I know many people have been very disappointed from
participative processes where the space has been closed down afterwards.

Then, as usual there is a BIG HOW! HOW always makes a huge difference. The
work with givens can be fruitful but I also think it can be harmful if done
in a bad way.

I agree with those of you saying that the ultimate is to have no givens, but
I think there are not many leaders around in organizations that are willing
to open everything up. This may be because they have some information that
others don´t have and/or that they don´t trust the employees enough. I don´t
think Sweden is exceptional regarding this situation.

Someone wrote about that the meeting will result in recommendations, in that
case I agree we do not need givens. I mostly use Open Space aiming at action
right on.

Right now I am in the middle of preparing for an OS-meeting in a school, for
parents who all are obliged to support in some way, when putting their kids
there. It seems that one of the givens will be that the pedagogy is not open
for change by the parents initative.

I´ve been trying to write this email for a few days but I was too busy with
other things while more and more was written about the subject. Thanks all
for your sharing.
Kind regards
Thomas Herrmann         Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81
Open Space Consulting   Fax   +46 (0)300-713 89
Pensévägen 4
434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden
Email: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
www.openspaceconsulting.com
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