Principles, process and people

Tue Apr 5 12:53:50 PDT 2005

OSLIST Digest - 13 Mar 2005 to 14 Mar 2005 (#2005-72)Oh yes, thank you once again Harrison for explaining so well....this is what i like about OST.

But this explains also why OST can not be marketed like other products because many people (leaders,organizations etc.) still think 
they need "drugs" to feel better, more powerful, successful and so on.  

My concern is only that the people involved have sufficient space and time to be fully themselves, to reflect on who they really are, and to accept the consequences of their actions and ways of being together......  This is what is needed in every relationship.    

Funda

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harrison Owen 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 4:29 PM
  Subject: Re: Principles, process and people

  Gyuri Wrote: I told you this story because of my doubts, how else could I have done it.  

  Guri - I have no idea how else "you" could have done it, and I certainly don't think that what you did was bad. However, in similar situations I have taken a rather different approach. My starting point may be a little different than yours. When I work with a group such as you describe, I make it very clear that my objective is NOT that their morale improve, that they "save" the company, that they produce a particular product, indeed that they accomplish any specific thing. My concern is only that the people involved have sufficient space and time to be fully themselves, to reflect on who they really are, and to accept the consequences of their actions and ways of being together. 

  In most situations in my experience, if these three things are accomplished morale will improve, (sometimes radically), products will be produced, and the organization will be on a path towards renewal. However, it may also occur (infrequently, thank goodness) that the people involved will end up taking a good hard look at who they are and what they are doing and come to the conclusion that the situation is miserable and the best outcome for all concerned is to end the misery. I have told the story before, but in one situation I was doing an Open Space with a small company where the issue was "Our Future." Shortly after lunch on the first day it became totally clear to everybody that there was no future. By 4:00 in the afternoon, they had essentially dissolved the company (gone out of that business). I considered that outcome to be completely appropriate for those people - Trust the People!

  Now as it happened, the people in that particular company, after they had put it out of business, all went to the bar and then had dinner. Over a few drinks and dinner they essentially invented two new and very different businesses which they proceeded to organize over the next day - to their complete delight and satisfaction. 

  It was very clear to me at the end that had the people not gone to the unexpected and scary place of dissolving the business - that business would have blown up sooner or later. Further, it would have been quite likely that in the explosion a number of people would have been badly hurt, everybody would have been angry, and most would have walked away with a large sense of guilt and frustration. As it turned out the people were able to let go of the old and create the new. To the best of my knowledge the two new businesses still exist and are doing very well. 

  And if you ask what I did. . . Just "Standard Open Space," by the book. Sit in a circle, create a bulletin board, open a market place, and I got out of the way. The people went to work. For me there is no real alternative to Trust the People.

  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
  OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE..EDU 

  To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

  -----Original Message-----
  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Beck György
  Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 5:16 AM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: Principles, process and people

  Dear Harrison,

  I follow your words: if it works, do it.

  Recently I facilitated an OS meeting for 40 people of a company.

  The company is in a quite bad moral shape so all the case to help them "wake up and walk" was very sensitive.

  That was the reason I accepted to use a directed invitation instead of voluntary attendence.

  These people were not practiced neither in group work nor even to listen to each other. 

  After the OS introduction they made the agenda. In every time period they could put 6 issues on the wall. In almost all of the time periods they have put 5-6 issues and later they worked on 2 or 3. There were some more burining issues, where the number of people were around 30 in the "small" groups.

  In one of the periods, when the dedicated time has expired, I suggested to choose the next topic, to tell the truth I interfered to finish the discussion. Before blaming me for abusing the principles you also have to know that the "culture" of communication in this group of people was (is?) that if they think of the "bean soup", they talk about "catering" in general.

  I could not allow them to realize, they won't get any result to talk paralelly. 

  Because of (my) need for control I inserted a feedback time after every two time periods, where they could raise new issues and put on those they found important.

  Before the last period I realized that there will be an issue, that concerned almost the whole group. I offered them, if they wish, to moderate this discussion. They accepted it so I moderated this session that was planned 1,5 hour instead of the originally planned 1 hour.

  I used the classical nominal group method to collect all the partial issues belonging to the main issue. They collected some 40 post-it "issues", belonging to the main one. After clarification of the "bean-soups" they made groups of the related post-its. Then I suggested to choose one for discussion and take home all the others for further discussions.

  Since we were close to the end of the whole program, there was no time to open the space later, after getting a way of solution for problem solving. 

  I showed them a problem solving method for the issue chosen. They could end up with specific results and they were happy with the solution. 

  I told you this story because of my doubts, how else could I have done it.  

  Regards, Gyuri

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