FW: A small matter of curiosity

[Diane Gibeault]

Hi Chris,

It has also been my experience that people meeting in Open Space are much
more focussed on their experience than on the material conditions and its
probably because they have a greater passion for the theme of the meeting
than for the sandwiches. Some may use their two feet if food isn't great but
the dining area always seems full of participants and some butterflies hang
in for a while too. Groups do change locations at time...to go in the sun or
a bigger space. The freedom they have makes them forget to complain if there
was a problem or else they fixed it.  This is a dream come true for event
organizers and at the same time, it's not an anomaly with OS and neither is
your group in my impression.

Diane


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Chris Kloth
Sent: October 26, 2004 1:33 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: A small matter of curiosity


You wrote:

 ... an interesting question from a client...one we both found as amusing as
we did curious.

This past year she began working for the Ohio Coalition On Sexual Assault.
One thing they have done for many years is host an annual conference based
on the traditional "expert" workshop model.  As we all know from the lore of
open space and direct experience, their evaluations consistently said that
the workshops were fine, but the real valuable part of the conference took
place between formal sessions.  In addition, there were always many
complaints about the food and room conditions...not matter how good or bad
the conditions really were.

At her suggestion the organization decided, with considerable trepidation,
to hold this year's conference entirely in open space.  The evaluations were
outstanding...all of the predictable feedback when people are provided a
setting within which to express passion and exercise responsibility.

But here is the curiosity...despite rooms that really were consistently too
cold or too hot or too noisy and food that was tasty, but not as portable as
it was supposed to be, there were no complaints about food or rooms!  She
said that she has been planning and conducting meetings and conferences for
many years and has never had so few comments on rooms and food.

Her questions, which I offered to pass on to the list, is "When people take
responsibility for their work and find that they are spending their time
doing what they need to do, does that lead to such focus that the rest of
the conditions don't matter?  Do people accept responsibility for making
choices within the space and, therefore, factor food or room conditions into
the decision to stay or use their two feet?  Or was this group an anomaly
and this is just one of those moments that happens for reasons we will never
know?"

Was denken sie?
Shalom,

Chris Kloth
ChangeWorks of the Heartland
250 South Virginialee Road
Columbus, OH 43209-2052
Phone: +1 614.239.1336
Fax: +1 614.239.1336
E-mail: kloth at got2change.com
URL: www.got2change.com

Think globally, act locally.

* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20041027/57c57429/attachment-0007.htm>