research

[Larry Peterson]

As Harrison suggested, I've been encouraging and exploring OST related
Research for awhile.  There are a very small number of referred journal
articles about OST and its impact.  I have a list of a few of them, many
are in German.

I've written and submitted some time ago an article that uses HayGroup
data to suggest a substantial impact on employee and in particular
management positive regard and moral following Open Space events.  The
article was being considered by Barbara Bunker & Billie Alban for a
journal -- they decided not to include it.  It is now being considered
as part of a book they will publish.  It is already take 1.5 years from
completion to getting a publisher.

A colleague had a research article written about a corporate open space
event.  It showed a clear 15% performance improvement attributable to
the event and follow-up.  The company would not release the article
because it suggested that their performance needed to be improved by %15
or more.  Peg had that same problem with US West not releasing very
interesting data on the impact of the OS in the video.

That is one reason a number of us have initiated the data gathering
process that was recently announced on the list.  I've included it again
as a reminder to start gather data.

Please join us in a World Wide Inquiry into
The Effects of Open Space Technology

We have developed research questions and materials.  The web site and
the web log (blog) for gathering data are now up
(http://www.openspaceworld.org/network/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceResearch_). We
will start gathering in English (other language sites may emerge).  All
of us can access the information.

Our overall purpose is to increase the effectiveness of Open Space by
deepening our understanding of it: how it is used, what it accomplishes,
who is affected and how, as well as the underlying patterns that it
teaches us.

Many great stories have been told and gathered on the OS list over the
years.  We want to complement those stories with some more explicit
questions to gather information.

This particular research initiative is rooted in the Toronto September
2003 Research Conference and the Goa OSonOS in October 2004.  An ongoing
group from the Toronto Conference developed some "Descriptive" questions
focused on getting our clients' language and view.  At Goa an
Appreciative Inquiry process was used to generate another protocol for
research, and a quick version was developed as well.  We decided to try
both kinds of questions at OSonOS and we have been working on it since.

We now invite your participation.  At
http://www.openspaceworld.org/network/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceResearch you can
find the instructions.  We encourage you to go there to learn about the
initiative and to download the materials that will help you do the
interviews with your clients:

--Informed Consent Form; You will need to get your client to sign this
so that we are sure the information she/he gives can be used in the
research project.
--Context Questions:  No matter what interview approach you use, we want
you to answer the same questions about the organization and the event.
--Interview Questions:  You have three choices of research questions.
You will need to choose one for your interview with your client.  Both
the Descriptive Questions and the Appreciative Inquiry Questions have
their own blog stream for posting information.

All are provided on the web site as MS Word documents so you can
download them for your use.  You can cut and past the responses to
questions from your MS Word file into the blog.

We believe we can gather world-wide information that can later be
analyzed to suggest patterns or relationships between the context
information and the perceptions and results of OST events.  For example,
people from different sectors may use different language to describe the
impact of Open Space.  There may be a relationship between the length of
the event and its ongoing impact in the organization.

The initial interviews we have conducted have been fun and informative.
We look forward to reading the information that you gather and a number
of approaches to finding patterns.

We hope you will join us in this venture.  If you have any questions
that the site does not answer, then e-mail us.

Larry Peterson larry at spiritedorg.com
Peggy Holman peggy at opencirclecompany.com
Chris Corrigan chris at chriscorrigan.com
Michael Pannwitz mmpanne at berlin.snafu.de
Viv McWaters  viv at thereef.com.au





Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
Toronto, ON, Canada
416.653.4829

larry at spiritedorg.com
www.spiritedorg.com



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