OST on the inside

Mike Copeland mcopeland at doc.govt.nz
Mon Oct 11 14:01:11 PDT 2004


G'day All

After a lengthy absence from postings but a long time lurking I would like
to share some recent experience of using OST from inside an organisation.

Recently I was asked to help launch a new initiative in another region of
the country and we decided OST would be the best way to do this (surprise
surprise!). What followed was the most intense opening of space I have ever
done: six OST workshops over six  consecutive days. Gave me loads of
practice to sort out my opening!

I have struggled facilitating OST workshops working inside a big government
department. Often I am very conversant with the content, I can never get
enough time, we always have a limited budget etc. So this time I decided to
let go my scruples and broke all the rules:

*       I gave a presentation as part of a team in the morning session.
*       I crammed an OST workshop into an afternoon. In a nut shell: 30
minute intro and agenda setting, three 40minutes sessions, 15 m minutes to
read the book of proceedings, one 20 minute action planning session using
non-convergence and closing circle. 31/2 hours all up. A crash course.
*       I was intimately involved in the theme but did not enter into
discussion during the workshop.

The result: it worked! It never ceases to amaze me how all the chaos at the
start disappears like mist once the groups convene and begin their
conversations.  The body language changes, people launch into their topics
with gusto and a calm descends. People relish the opportunity to speak and
thrash ideas among themselves.  It always reminds me of those beautiful
evenings one has around the dinner table or beside the fire on a cold
winters night when the conversation becomes very intimate and well: open!

This has been very liberating for me and there have been a few learning's
for me as an OST practitioner inside and organisation, which is massively
bureaucratic:

*       Letting go oughts and shoulds even around OST (whatever happens is
the only thing that could have)
*       Big bureaucracies will seldom provide optimum conditions to do OST
so sometimes I just have to work within their closed spaces
*       The thing that irks me sometimes about this list serve is often we
get bogged in perfecting OST and turn the process into a bunch of oughts and
shoulds which are anything but open.

On that salvo and on a wet spring day here in Aotearoa (Land of the Long
White Cloud, New Zealand) I will leave you.

Thanks for listening.

Mike Copeland

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