Open Space for small groups

[Joelle Lyons Everett]

Justin--

I've used Open Space a few times with groups of 5-15--no question that it 
works.   I often find that the group is reluctant to divide, and may cover all 
the topics sequentially, though sometimes even a small group will break out into 
groups of 2 or 3.

After a large Open Space conference of around 100 people, I continued meeting 
with a Transition Team that was working with logistics and emotional concerns 
for a move of two work groups into one new building.   This team was 8 or 9, 
and we used a slightly modified Open Space format for our monthly 3-4 hour 
meetings.   This group chose to work together, topics were posted by tem members 
at the start of every meeting, and the talking piece created for the large 
Open Space usually came to the table.   We met in a circle around a large 
conference table, for the reason that there was no possibility, in their overcrowded 
office space, to move out the tables.   

Because there was a lot of complicated project management to track, I 
generally kept a list of items that would need to be followed up at a later meeting.  
 But it was very rare for an ongoing item to be overlooked when the topics 
were posted.   I also loved that for every action item identified in a meeting, 
someone volunteered to take responsibility for it before the meeting ended.

I think there are some parallels with the organization you mentioned.   I 
find that after a group has met a few times in Open Space, the principles and law 
become "business as usual" for the group, sometimes quite a different working 
climate.

Joelle Everett
Sound Resources
Shelton, Washington, USA 

*
*
==========================================================
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/20060810/4457211a/attachment-0016.htm>