A report from a taster of OST in 1,5 hours - long!

Sun Oct 9 08:29:27 PDT 2005

This is a report from my ”taster of OST in 1, 5 h with a lot of people”

The background was that I had been given the opportunity to hold breakfast
meetings to present OST as a taster around the topic about "How to create
commitment in your organizations". The participants were managers from
different companies. The sponsors was a union for managers (yes you read it
right - we do have that in Sweden :) ) and a Swedish Business School. When
the invitation was sent out they where kind of overloaded with people
signing up for the event. And as the location was kind of a given – we
decided to have both breakfast and lunch meeting. There were between 24 to
75 people in total 6 meetings in 3 days in the 3 major cities in Sweden! In
total 274 people who had a taster of OST for the first time! 

We send out written information about OST to the participants beforehand so
that they had a chance to learn a little bit more before the workshops. The
information was about what is Open Space Technology – explaining the
principles, the law, that the participants create the agenda, when to use
OST etc. This information was also available at the workshop when the
participants arrived together with some of Harrison’s books, a folder of OST
that I had made up and an “OST quiz” – an idea I got from the list – (thanks
Edward!).

Theme: How to create commitment and participation – welcome to a taste of
OST!

The Givens:

I had this printed up in the room: 

* We are not solving the topic about commitment here today in 1,5 h...

* This is a taster

* Would like to give you an experience

* I was available after for answering questions etc

And this is how it went:

I had kind of a “normal” opening – but shorter than I am used to – didn’t
tell so much about the background of OST as I use to do. Then the agenda
setting was quite short and the marketplace “buzz” even shorter. All this 3
done in 30 minutes. In the time matrix there was of course only one breakout
session but I made it visible how it could have been by putting up “empty”
post-it notes besides the actual one. Then we had one 35 min breakout
session. Reports were made on flipcharts paper, and put up on the news wall.
Then back to the collective circle were I had put up a flipchart paper with
“what could you achieve if you had; 4 hours - 1 day, 1, 5 day, 2, 5 days of
OST”. And then I talked a little about the role of the facilitator.

Closing circle – with a question from me “what have you noticed for yourself
here today about commitment” – very briefly. 

After that we did a short reflection of the process looking into the
Medicine wheel – Leadership, vision, community and management.

Everything within the 90 minutes OK,  + 5 min at the most in one workshop. 

When I planned this my first intention was to have 2 even shorter breakout
sessions but I am glad that I choose to have just one. In this format they
had the chance to have some dialogues and many commented in the closing
circle that they were very surprised how far they could get in such short
time. And that they had got good suggestions and were much energized to go
back to their workplaces.

Many of the comments was “great method”, “I will throw away the agenda in my
ordinary meetings”, “this I will definitely go home and practice on my own
group”, “it was so nice to be able to choose to use my free will” “since we
all choose were to go – we went directly to the issue” etc etc. i.e. very
positive feedback. Some thought of course that it was too short but that
they were very positive and some said “we had done it all wrong back home
when we appointed members to our project teams – we shall not appoint – they
shall choose!” 

I think that the freedom of choice was one of their biggest experience and
an unforgettable learning. 

For myself – I found it a big challenge to have 2 OST meetings so close to
each other – just 1,5 hours between breakfast and lunch - I had problem
knowing when I said what,  like “have I already said that now or was it in
the breakfast meeting?”. Time was of course too short – and of course should
we have had more time for the agenda setting – with 75 people not knowing
each other you definitely need more than 10 minutes! So there was between 6
to 10 topics posted. And the smaller the group – the more topics. 

Should I do it again – definitely but I would think it over one more time
having two in one day with just 1,5 hours in between :-)

Thanks a million to you all – for all the support, feedback, suggestions,
interest – and for holding space for me on this journey!

:o)

Eva

P. S when I tell people about our list – the support, help and loving – they
are just amazed!

Bästa hälsningar

Eva P Svensson

EPS Human Invest AB

"Verksamhetsutveckling genom människor skapar långsiktigt välmående företag
och organisationer!"

Anåsbergsvägen 22, 439 34  ONSALA

Tfn: 0300-615 05, Mobil: 0706-89 85 50

 <mailto:eva at epshumaninvest.se> eva at epshumaninvest.se,
<http://www.epshumaninvest.se> www.epshumaninvest.se

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