Self-correcting OS : Learning and Humility

Andrew Rixon Andrew.Rixon at csiro.au
Wed Jul 27 21:00:25 PDT 2005


Dear All,

 

Last night I had my first opportunity to give the OS gift to a group.
Being a member of a facilitator network group we (my wife and I) were
given the opportunity to facilitate a meeting, of course, selfishly I
chose to use open space. The theme which we came up was "For a great
meeting: What would you like to do?" ... We tried to come up with a
theme which would allow for new & spontaneous members to feel part of
the theme as well as, I guess, an existential theme which might just
work.

 

What emerged however was a new theme that the participants spent the
whole evening discussing "What is this strange animal, open space?" ..
Challenging as it was, I practiced the art of silent facilitation and
let the group evolve and emerge with its discussions, sometimes I was
drawn out with a question which I felt I could help...

 

Interestingly, initially there appeared to be a lot of discomfort, that,
at a facilitators network meeting, there was no clear 'leading
facilitator' to stimulate and prompt the group... by the end of the
meeting however (just 2 hours which flew by the way) everyone felt
energised and inspired in some way.

 

It seemed like there was some ability for OS to self-correct itself
based on the true passions of the participants...

 

Moral of the story: There is good reason why choosing a theme (and a
good one!) is important.

 

Ps-

 

I miss you too viv. :-)

 

 

--

Andrew Rixon B.Sc(hons) PhD

Urban Water Infrastructure

CSIRO- Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology

http://www.cmit.csiro.au

P.O Box 56 (Graham Road), Highett, 3190, Victoria, Australia

Tel: +61 3 9252 6363

Fax:+ 61 3 9252 6249

Mobile: 0400 352 809

Email: Andrew.Rixon at csiro.au

 

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Thursday, 28 July 2005 8:19 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Not in Halifax

 

Viv -- you will be missed for sure. At least I for sure will miss you!!!

 

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD  20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com

 

 

	----- Original Message ----- 

	From: Viv McWaters <mailto:viv at thereef.com.au>  

	To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 

	Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 7:28 PM

	Subject: Not in Halifax

	 

	Greetings from a cold and wet 'downunder'
	
	As you prepare to gather in Halifax, I'm sitting here in my
office 
	wishing that the Jetsons had turned out to be true and that I
could 
	teleport, miraculously, from one side of the world to the other.
I'll 
	just have to be content with the miracle of electronic
communications 
	instead :-) Having sprung an open space event on an unsuspecting
group 
	on Friday and received confirmation of a major national OS in a
few 
	weeks, training with Brian in August, and not being in Halifax
when I 
	had planned to be there - well, OS is pretty much on my mind.
I've also 
	been mentoring a couple of people who are using OS and I'm
always 
	reminded how a depth understanding of OS makes decisions about
what to 
	do or not do quite straightforward, while a superficial
understanding 
	of the mechanics raises all sorts of questions. Hence the
importance 
	and significance of OSonOS where we can delve into those
sometimes 
	murky depths. So I'll experience Halifax vicariously through
Oslist and 
	will look forward to all the goss when Brian returns. Have a
great 
	OSonOS!
	
	Cheers
	
	Viv
	
	***************************
	Viv McWaters
	Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd
	PO Box 665 Torquay 3228
	Australia
	(03) 5261 9498
	0417 135 406
	
	"Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen,
but to 
	think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody
sees. "
	Schopenhauer
	
	*
	*
	==========================================================
	OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
	------------------------------
	To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
	view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
	http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
	
	To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
	http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To
subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20050728/d871b107/attachment-0015.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list