Autoreply: Re: Evaluations - "Why and Why Not"

Nancy McPhee nancymcphee at cablelan.net
Mon Apr 3 10:07:23 PDT 2006


I will be away from my office until Thursday, April 6th. I will be checking both phone and email messages and will get back to you as soon as I can. Nancy

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>From  Mon Apr  3 13:12:07 2006
Message-Id: <MON.3.APR.2006.131207.0400.>
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 13:12:07 -0400
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia
In-Reply-To: <003a01c6573a$66dce4b0$6b01a8c0 at PREFERREBE0731>
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For sure I would never gainsay the good work that you do. Obviously there is
a great need to hold hands, coach, support, and otherwise encourage the good
folks after an Open Space. But perhaps there is some difference when it
comes to the desired endpoint. If the desired end point is that people will
simply fit their findings/conclusions/plans into the extant system, what you
propose (and presumably do) would doubtless accomplish that. However, I am
not sure that is the best outcome, for in many ways it simply takes people
back to precisely the conditions they sought to break out of -- or why do
the Open Space?

My expectations/hopes for the client are somewhat different. On a good day,
participants will see life and work in a very new way. On a better day, they
will come to understand that a strategic plan (for example) is an
interesting exercise, but the moment the environment changes, even slightly,
that plan is probably out of date, and implementing the plan is not only an
exercise in futility, but also likely to lead to sub-optimized results. In
other words they spend so much time/energy implementing the old plan that
they fail to recognize the emergent opportunities sprouting all around them.

A "best" result (I think) is the increased capacity for real agility such
that planning is done in real time and the space between plan and action is
reduced to as close to zero as possible. Or put slightly differently, the
failure to implement a plan along with a whole bunch of action steps can
well be a major success.

Not everybody is up for all this, and a lot of organizations will simply
pass from the scene. Not because they were not nice people, competent and
caring -- but because they were not sufficiently adaptable. 

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Birgitt
Williams
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 12:20 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Hi Harrison,
I know that we have differing views on the subject of 'givens'. We also
have different views on the concept of self-organizing systems. I also
know from experience that it is difficult to have this discussion by
email. It would require a whole book, I think, to do justice to the two
viewpoints, what is behind them, and what each of our lived experiences
has been.

For me, an OST meeting can be stunningly successful during the event,
and feel so rewarding to the facilitator in the closing circle... and
then two months later be viewed as a frustrating experience by the
participants as they come head to head with the restrictions imposed on
them and the outputs of the OST meeting. While the sponsor intended for
an open discussion with action plans, the sponsor often doesn't
understand the true power of an OST meeting until it is done. And then
cannot cope with the quality and quantity of the outputs. And then the
depression from unmet expectations sets in...

There are probably as many organizations who would never have an OST
meeting again as their are those who will. I have found it interesting
to study those who will not and why.

Blessings,
Birgitt

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 11:47 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Kerry wrote: "Givens are barriers to the fundamental philosophy and
values
of Open Space."

I am not so sure it is about the philosophy and values of Open Space --
although that may be true. For me it is more about the negative impact
of
self-imposed limitations for the client. For example, several years ago
I
had as a client a large Pharmaceutical company. The business on the
table
was the creation of a 5 year research plan, and all the researchers
(500)
were to be part of the process. In the lead up to the Open Space, word
came
from the planning department that no matter what else might transpire
the
new plan must include the creation of 20 new compounds. (For those who
do
not work in the industry, you should know that a compound is a new drug
which has not received approval from the FDA.) That sounded pretty much
like
a "given" to me, and I pushed them on the advisability of doing that. To
make my point, I said -- well supposing you find 21 new compounds --
would
you be unhappy? Or suppose you only found two, but it turned out that
they
were the natural successors to Lipitor and Viagra (both of which the
company
made) -- would that be too bad? They got the point, and the "given"
evaporated.

I have another and probably deeper problem with "givens." While I do
agree
that there are certain givens in life -- things fall when dropped, life
ends
when over, taxes just won't go away -- the givens I hear spoken about in
client conversations are either so obvious as to need no statement, or
else
self imposed by the management. When working with a financial
organization
it is a given that operations will be in accord with "generally accepted
accounting principles." What else?

On the subject of "management imposed givens" -- I think we are in
rather
different waters. I would call them "The Waters of Control." With any
client
that I have occasion to deal with, a primary concern is to help them to
understand that the imposition of arbitrary controls and constraints
(those
which are non-emergent from the system itself) is not only a fool's
errand,
it is usually counter-productive. It is a fool's errand simply because
Management doesn't possess the control they presume -- never did and
never
will. They can say (order, beseech, implore, beg) anything they chose.
What
will happen is always independent. I would take the realization of this
basic fact to be the essential first step on the road to becoming a
Conscious Open Space Organization -- or just a plain, old, everyday, run
of
the mill, but well functioning -- self-organizing system. 

Beyond the basic futility of seeking such control (it won't happen), the
act
of seeking it can be very detrimental. Under the best of circumstances,
the
external controls will make no difference, either because the System was
going to do it anyhow, or because the proposed controls were so far off
the
mark as to be inconsequential. In a worst case scenario the very act of
imposing control will warp and stress the system. Even with the best of
intentions no manager, or group of managers, is sufficiently perceptive
to
fully understand the operative mechanisms and relationships in their
organization. That doesn’t make them "bad" -- just human. And the danger
is
that quite inadvertently, they will throw a spanner (monkey wrench) in
the
works.

So I guess I am quite happy to talk with a client about givens -- as
long as
we can get rid of them (givens). And if they (the Givens) persist, the
space
is just not open. I guess all of this sounds rather iconoclastic and
revolutionary, but in actual fact over the 20 years that I have been
wandering Open Space there have been less than a half dozen situations
where
Givens were ever an issue. Either they appeared and were dispensed with
--
or just never showed up.

Harrison 


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of kerry
napuk
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 7:58 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Elwin & Harrison

Write on!

Givens are barriers to the fundamental philosophy and values of Open
Space.

If a client has problems handling open discussion, maybe they should 
try some other conventional process that offers comfort through 
control.

Best regards

Kerry
Edinburgh
www.openfutures.com

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