Open Space for small groups

[Chris Corrigan]

Justin:

The hardest thingto do is get out of the way.  It is much harder for a
facilitator with a group of five to just leave the room and let them work.
So I usually volunteer to type notes for them while they work, which lets me
be with them but stay out of the way.  If I was doing my first again, I
would take the 175 I was with and not the 8.  It's a lot easier with a
crowd, ironically.

Chris

On 8/10/06, Joelle Lyons Everett <JLEShelton at aol.com> wrote:
>
> 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 * *
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-- 
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
Open Space Resources:  http://tinyurl.com/r94tj

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