very short events - Re: Optimal Time-Slots

[Frank Deitle]

Hi Ted, enjoy seeing you on the list!

My experience:
I had a two and a half hour meeting at a coffee shop with 4 people last
week. We were all familiar with Open Space. I put a stack of blank business
cards in the middle of the table with some pens, anounced our theme
(planning an ecovillage summit in open space), and asked for topics. We then
scribbled about 12 topics in the next 5 minutes or so, remembering halfway
through that it would be good to announce them as we write them. All the
topics were scattered randomly on the table. Then we just went at it picking
one topic after another, often tangenting off onto other topics (some which
were on the agenda and some which were not). There were no time slots. Two
of us spontaneously took notes. People regularly got up to use the bathroom
or whatever and the conversation continued. Very open spacey without much of
the open space formalities. I should re-iterate that all of us had a pretty
good understanding of open space ethos (and we were all passionate about the
theme). It worked very well in all our opinions. The cards definitly helped
us focus our lively conversation. We could always come back to "what was on
the table". We finally got tired and lost energy before we covered all the
topics or resolved even a fraction of the issues but we now have a good
record of the territory we are trying to cover, commitments to future
action, and energy and enthusiasm for future collaboration.

As I write this, I find myself wondering how this would work in the context
of the topic discussions within a regular open space event? I like the
fractal nature of the idea: self-similarity of the system at all levels.
Sounds like a good OSonOS topic. I'll have to try it at my next big open
space.

Peace,
Frank Deitle


On 2/23/06, Ted Ernst <ted at chicagohumanist.org> wrote:
>
> Excellent conversation.
>
> I've facilitated two (monthly) 1.5 hour events, with a 3rd one coming
> up in a month.  I didn't bother with time slots so far, there's just
> no time with opening in and closing.  Anyone have similar experiences
> with a series of very short events?  Or something to add?
>
> peace,
> ted
>
>
>
> --
> Humanize the Earth!  http://tedernst.com
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