OS birthing pains

Tue Jul 19 01:43:27 PDT 2005

Dear All,

It's so refreshing to see Brian B and Chris talk about how organisations can become more of an OS organisation... on the other side of the coin I have a story to tell of the trouble to even use the OS in a 'strategic planning' meeting.

To start with, I guess it's never good when you are told 'you are the facilitator' for a meeting which you have only just found out about, AND the high level executive has already decided on a "very draft" agenda. When I say I that OS is a powerful approach for this kind of meeting (I won't go into the details of the organisation and their need at the moment for an OS approach..thats a whole other story), the executive seems warey of me asks me "can I be sure I will get the outcomes I need?" ... *case closed* ??

So this experience, embryonic as it is, made me wonder what other stories are out there for the times when you said "NO" to being or providing an OS event? (In this case, maybe its more that OS just can't live and grow here to begin with....)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Warm regards,
Andrew

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: OSLIST on behalf of Pannwitz, Michael M 
	Sent: Tue 19/07/2005 4:08 PM 
	To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Re: Question re: size

	Dear Diana, dear Ellen,
	irrespective of your overall design or the facilitation,
	size is no problem...
	People have done anything from 5, 9. 100. 400, 650, 1800 and 2108,
	me, too.
	People that are passionate about an issue and want to act on it will
	overcome any hurdle.
	You need plenty of space in the center for people to come to and jot
	down their issues
	and you need plenty of wallspace so that everyone can go there at the
	same time during marketplace.
	The chairs are set up in concentric circles, as many as you need....I
	make sure that people can easily reach the center
	and can walk between the concentric circles (spacing).
	For pictures of the 2108 (without chairs,people sitting on pillows,
	but chairs would do just as well)
	go to
	http://www.michaelmpannwitz.de/index.php?id=69
	scroll down to
	Nr.99
	click on the lower of the two pictures and you will see
	a series of 92 pictures with German and English titles taking you
	through all the stages, including setting up the space.

	Greetings from Berlin
	mmp

	On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:17:43 -0700, Diana Larsen wrote:

	>I am forwarding the following message to the list as Ellen seems to be
	>experiencing a challenge with getting subscribed. I've copied Ellen on
	>this message, if you have a response, please include her as well as the
	>rest of the list.
	>
	>Thanks,
	>Diana
	>
	>Diana Larsen
	>http://futureworksconsulting.com 503-288-3550
	>
	>
	>> From: "Ellen Gottesdiener" <ellen at ebgconsulting.com>
	>> Date: July 18, 2005 5:05:38 PM PDT
	>> To: "Diana Larsen" <dlarsen at futureworksconsulting.com>
	>> Subject: FW: question re: size
	>> 
	>> Hello all:
	>> Maybe you can help me with..well, an issue of size!
	>> 
	>> I am facilitating an Open Space Marketplace in about a week which is
	>> going to be integrated into a traditional conference schedule (meaning
	>> there are scheduled classes and short tutorials). FYI, it is Agile
	>> 2005 (www.agile2005.com and our info on Open Space is on this page:
	>> http://www.agile2005.com/track/openspace/cfp ).
	>> 
	>> This will be the third year we are integrating OST into a traditional
	>> conference in this manner. As in prior years, we will have conveners
	>> schedule their sessions as they wish over 3 (of the 4) days of the
	>> conference. Some time slots will be concurrent with existing classes
	>> or short tutorials, and some will be in time slots that donºt compete
	>> with other sessions. 
	>> 
	>> While this is not the usual way to do Open Space, it worked pretty
	>> well, especially the first year when we had most people attend the
	>> Market Place and used chairs in concentric circles. (Last yearºs
	>> facilitator used a different physical setup that wasnºt so inviting
	>> and was more forceful in his facilitation style ¡ he drove the
	>> sessions, rather then let the group freely determine topics).
	>> 
	>> I plan to facilitate the Marketplace like the first year, but now my
	>> problem is now is: SIZE.
	>> 
	>> The conference has grown from 200 the first year to over 300 or so
	>> last year; I just learned they expect to have 600 to 650 attendees! I
	>> have a ballroom for the Marketplace, which we had originally planned
	>> to set up in concentric circles with 350 chairs (with aisles).
	>> 
	>> The question is: how to do the physical set up of the room?
	>> 
	>> The ballroom *might* (we are checking) accommodate 500 chairs in
	>> concentric circles which I imagine would be rather deep (e.g. 4, 5 or
	>> 6 circles deep). Would this be un-inviting? (Weºd have aisles, but
	>> would be feel reluctant to come forward with so deep of layout?). Is
	>> it important to provide as many chairs as possible and also retain the
	>> circle/mandala shape?
	>> 
	>> Alternatively, we could set up the 350 chairs and ask additional
	>> attendees to stand. (We will probably get more than 350 for the
	>> Marketplace..there is no other scheduled activities during this time
	>> slot and it follows the Opening Session and Keynote). However, the
	>> experience with having people stand for over 30 minutes is that people
	>> complain ¡ such was the experience of my friend and colleague, Diana
	>> Larsen (who contributes to this list).
	>> 
	>> Suggestions or recommendations??
	>> 
	>> Many thanks,
	>> ~~ ellen 
	>> 
	>> 
	>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	>> Ellen Gottesdiener, CPF (Certified Professional Facilitator)
	>> Principal Consultant, EBG Consulting, Inc.
	>> 1424 Ironwood Drive West, Carmel, IN. 46033.8722
	>> V: 317.844.3747   F: 317.844.7374  C: 317.507.7374
	>> ~ Positive and productive collaboration toward shared goals ~
	>> 
	>> ~~ Author:
	>> - Requirements by Collaboration:Workshops for Defining Needs
	>> - Scenarios, Stories, Use Cases Through the Systems Development
	>> Life-Cycle (contributing author)
	>> - Software Requirements Memory Jogger (forthcoming, fall, 2005) ~~
	>> ~~ For latest news, publications, useful links and course info, please
	>> visit: http://www.ebgconsulting.com ~~
	>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	>> This week's oxymoronica:
	>> Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere,
	>> diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
	>> ~~ Groucho Marx
	>> 
	>
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	Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
	Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
	++49-30-772 8000
	www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de

	Check out the new Open Space World Map now with 297 resident Open Space Workers in 56 countries (working in a total of 115 countries worldwide)
	www.openspaceworldmap.org

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