Open Space for small groups

Fri Aug 11 08:31:04 PDT 2006

one more thing, justin...

this bit about you being the chair.  so you really won't be able to or
maybe not even want to 'get out of the way.'  you'll have something to
say, as well, in the meeting.  this is probably the biggest challenge.

people in this group presumably already know you.  some like you and
maybe some are not bestest buddies.  no matter, they all have ideas
about who you are and they have habits in relating to/with you.

when open space comes along and gets potentially challenging and maybe
even frustrating for them in some new ways, the ones who are close to
you might come and say "hey, fix this, old friend."  the ones not so
close to you might sit quietly grumbling, because they can't come to
you and make you fix their frustration.  the ones who don't know you
very well at all might associate their frustrations with you.  none of
this might happen, but all of it could.

the point is that anything you can do to make clear two hats -- one as
the steward of the meeting, where you know nothing and decide nothing
for the group, and one where you have expertise and passion and work
elbow-to-elbow with the group -- will be a big help.

the size isn't the biggest challenge, to me... it's this being with
them in two states, simultaneously -- and in ways that allow them to
sort out which hat you're wearing at any one time, not just for you to
be clear about that for yourself... and then there are the moments
where you wear both, inescapably, that will make the thing really
interesting for you in the moment, and also really productive on an
ongoing basis.  this group already knows you as chair/participant.  if
you establish the 'opener' role clearly, then you'll likely be able to
have some real fun going forward, drawing on both positions as serves
best.

m

On 8/11/06, Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com> wrote:
> sounds like a great opportunity, justin, provided that you actually
> have some real work to do in this group, something meaningful and
> important to accomplish together...
>
> brian bainbridge ran a fantastic little session on this at osonos 4,
> justin.  unfortunately that was before we were posting proceedings to
> the web. <grin>  but the thing i remember him talking about most is
> the vulnerability.  there's no place for anyone to hide.  with such a
> small group the links between people are obvious and usually quite
> strong.
>
> open space introduces new ways of being connected and this can be a
> strain.  not necessarily a bad thing... but i find these small groups
> *can* be more intense than the large ones, because of the exposure,
> the closeness of the reality that, for instance, these four principles
> are obviously true and also perhaps obviously not how we usually treat
> each other.  or, for instance, when everyone is to type their own
> notes, everyone can now see that the secretary/assistant is telling
> the boss to type his/her own notes this time.  all good learning in
> the end.
>
> what makes your situation more different...
>
> ...and interesting for me, however, is that you are the chair and that
> this group, if it has a chair, must also meet with some regularity,
> even if not frequently.  at osonos 5, brian bainbridge taught me about
> using os in repeating groups.  he used the example of a school gropu
> that met for opening and 1-2 breakouts in first day, then following
> week held next breakout sessions, then the follwoing week, last 1-2
> sessions and a closing for that particular issue/theme.
>
> at each regathering, there was a quick updating of the agenda
> postings, some things having been accomplished in teh interim came
> down.  new things went up.  this is very much like the way the open
> space instititute usa runs board meetings, keeping a 'bin' of issues
> for consideration at its meetings.  since the osi meets on the phone,
> there can't be any breakouts, but the 'wall' and the responsibility
> for those who post issues to lead the conversation, in whatever order
> the group chooses to take those issues, is pure open space.
>
> one more story then...
>
> of a project team in a big-corporate environment, particularly renown
> for its bureaucracy and hierarchy.  we worked for 2.5 months on this
> fuzzy mission, the project leader bobbing and weaving trying to please
> her boss iwth the output of every weekly team meeting.  but all the
> zigging and zagging was driving the team nuts.  we didn't think we
> were gaetting anywhere and didn't know how we'd finish on time, or
> even what to finish, even as we were halfway through the project
> timeline.
>
> luckily, we managed to get permission to create the agenda in the
> meeting, the 6-7 of us, rather than spend 2 days before trying to
> wordsmith the agenda to satisfy the boss who might or might not show
> up at the meeting.  in the 3-hour meeting, we sat around a big table,
> had no formal opening briefing, but had a purpose:  issues and
> opportunities for finishing the project on time, on budget, and on
> target... whatever that was.  we raised 8 issues as i recall, and then
> started chunking through them.  we finish two of them.  but when the
> meeting ended, we went back to our cubes, and kept working on the same
> 8 issues.
>
> next week, the project team leader had the fancy typed agenda to pass
> out again, but it looked strangely familiar this time... same 8
> issues, which were updated and dutifully discussed, and then the
> "meeting" ended and we moved those same discussions outside again.
> and so we finished the project, finally working on all the most
> important issues, and also working to address them 3 hours per week in
> a "meeting" where all could apparently be managed and controlled in
> the usual ways.  but for me it was always open space after we got the
> real agenda on the wall, just that once.
>
> in this way, even a little shred of open space seemed to make a big
> difference, in an otherwise very controlled space.  what made it work
> was that everyone, for all kinds of different reasons, wanted the
> project to get done in a good way.  so the most important thing to me
> is finding this clearly shared purpose, and the rest can work out, in
> the meeting, or many meetings, whenever it starts and whenever it's
> over.  circle (a group that's known to itself, with or without a table
> in the middle of the room),  bulletin board (open agenda), marketplace
> (freedom and responsiblity to *move*), and breathing (in/out,
> back/forth, pulsation in the direction of accomplishing the purpose).
> large or small, still works.
>
> good luck!  michael
>
>
>
>
> On 8/11/06, Erich Kolenaty <e.kolenaty at aon.at> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Joelle and Chris, and all the other openspaceniks,
> >
> > I can confirm your experience with small groups. I made an OS for 13 some
> > months ago for  1 and a half day. There were 4 working sessions, 11 topics
> > and a couple of hours for conversion and deepening the found solution. It
> > was a lot like an OS for 113, but indeed it is much harder to get out of the
> > way. I tried to keep me busy all the time and not to join the people except
> > for morning news, evening news and the conversion. It was a great experience
> > and I found out once again that the important criteria of success is, that
> > all the conditions for successful open spaces (different views, important
> > business issue, complexity, urgency etc.) are fullfilled. And in my opinion
> > the fully coverage of this conditions is much more important in a small
> > group.
> >
> > Erich
> > from lovely Vienna
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Chris Corrigan
> > To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> > Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 8:07 AM
> > Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space for small groups
> >
> > 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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> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> 300 West North Ave #1105
> Chicago IL 60610 USA
> Phone: 312-280-7838
> michael at michaelherman.com
>
> skype: globalchicago
>
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> http://www.openspaceworld.org
>
> Inviting Leadership ...getting
> the most important things done in
> the easiest possible ways.
>

-- 

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Ave #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
Phone: 312-280-7838
michael at michaelherman.com

skype: globalchicago

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.openspaceworld.org

Inviting Leadership ...getting
the most important things done in
the easiest possible ways.

*
*
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