A small matter of curiosity

[Diana and Hardy]

Hi--I'm new to this list.  I have been part of two open spaces for my
organization and am extremely excited about plans to attend the Practice
and Learning Conference in Chicago.  :-)

Our staff were delighted, pleased--even awed by the fantastic success when
we opened a space at an administrators' meeting last July.   Like Chris's
client a reluctant group ended up loving the experience.  We were astounded
to receive only ONE negative comment on the evaluations:

         "The hotel coffee was terrible."

Not one "too hot/cold" or "too far" or "too expensive".  Incredible!

Many participants arrived prepared to dislike meeting in a new and
different way, and many were still feeling cranky about different aspects
of our organizational change.  In other words, we were prepared for and
expected some negative reviews.  By the end of our day spent in OS we knew
we had a hit, but were amazed at the rave reviews.  Never have the
evaluations been so positive; of course, we've never accomplished so much
nor talked together so deeply either.

This meeting was approximately 80% "new" and even the "usual" (how we
always do it) 20% ended up "new" after the OS experience.    The opening
night was devoted to Appreciative Inquiry with OST the next day.  This was
followed by the "usual" department-specific day--in which every single
department ended up in OS!  The last full day was spent in "little l"
leadership discussions.

With this recent experience in mind, I think the answer to the question
passed along by Chris is "yes":  "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?  And "no"  to: "Or was this group an anomaly and this is just one
of those moments that happens for reasons we will never know?"

Best regards,
Diana


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