high end technical material for os-facilitation
Michael M Pannwitz
mmpanne at boscop.de
Wed Jan 11 14:45:17 PST 2006
Dear colleagues,
myself, I really like high quality, professional materials and
equippment when working with OST and encourage sponsors to get the best
they can in their environment (that might look a lot different in
Germany, Pakistan, Ukraine, or in different settings such as schools,
fancy businesses, NGOs, neighborhood organisations) to make me feel good.
In Germany I use a lot of the Neuland company stuff, its pricy but loads
of fun to work with. Neuland has now also expanded to the USA and
Canada. For those of you with similar inclinations and tastes have a
look at their catalog
http://www.neuland.biz/en1/index.html
Greetings from Berlin and get ready for Moscow!
mmp
--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de www.michaelmpannwitz.de
Check out the new Open Space World Map now with 371 resident Open Space
Workers in 65 countries (working in a total of 119 countries worldwide)
www.openspaceworldmap.org
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>From Thu Jan 12 11:11:25 2006
Message-Id: <THU.12.JAN.2006.111125.0500.>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 11:11:25 -0500
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: Keepin' Busy
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Hey Folks -- I wasn't just giving a report of current activities (I am alive
and breathing). I was also hoping to spark a little conversation about such
things as -- when do you give up on the sales pitch and push the client to
the wall in terms of intentions and degrees of freedom? And what are our
obligations to the client and the participants? And to our selves?
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 Harrison
Owen
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 10:22 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Keepin' Busy
I guess I fibbed a wee bit. Yes I am working on a book (or the book is
working on me) - and there are a few other things coming down as well. I
have also been working with a really neat organization which is seeking to
open some space in a very critical area. And they are more than a little
worried about really opening space. We have been going on and on until I
felt constrained to send the following message. I share it here because I
thought it might be of interest. As I was writing this about 5 this morning
I thought fondly of Lisa and her speech about "only the highly evolved..."
But I didn't think that would work in this case. Needless to say I have
scrubbed all the identifying details.
Dear XXXX -- I am glad that you still think Open Space is the way to go --
but I must confess that I am having some reservations. These reservations
have nothing to do with the capacity of Open Space enable this group, or
indeed any group, to engage in meaningful conversation and come to useful
conclusions. The issue for me is two fold -- First, Do the sponsors feel
sufficiently trusting and supportive to let the process run? There will be
moments of high tension, and experience has shown that the people themselves
can and will handle it all by themselves. The bottom line is that I just let
it go. Once underway, we are gone, and there is no place for intervention,
mid-course correction, the conference management committee doing a
re-design. It is all up to the people.
My second area of concern is whether or not what I might call "competing
interests" create conditions that are, to some real extent, antithetical to
real Open Space. I am thinking particularly of the Press. I clearly
understand the need for press coverage -- just to get the word out. The
problem is that deep conversations can rarely be reduced to sound-bites.
Even worse, deep conversations which are only partially concluded are even
less susceptible to being sound-bites. I think it is quite possible that we
will reach the end of the first day in Open Space and there is nothing to
report -- or at least nothing that anybody wants to report. It is equally
possible that we will reach the end of the conference in the same condition.
Several thousand years (well almost) of understandings, misunderstandings,
ignorance, misperceptions, to say nothing of mis-trust and anger will not be
resolved in three days. We can make a good effort, and things may well move
along much further than we have any right to expect -- but expectations of
any sort can be very problematical. The hard lesson of Open Space (and I
think life as well) is that firm attachment to specific outcomes is usually
disastrous. When you don't get what you expected the temptation is to think
that you achieved nothing at all. And if the expectation is that by the end
we will have a neatly tied up body of conclusions combined with action
plans, all of which may be "briefed" to the Press, I think that is quite
unlikely. Possible for sure -- but unlikely. And should any of this occur
(or actually NOT Occur) the press will leave frustrated and might well
report total failure. The fact that subtle, but important movement took
place in the building of relationships, the definitions of issues and
opportunities for future conversations (but not immediate resolution) will
escape them because they were not part of the conversations. That would not
be, I would judge, a desirable outcome.
An even worse scenario would be if we were to drive the whole conference
towards a final, definitive document with neat conclusions, recommendations
and actions. That would effectively shut the space down, and the only way to
assure such an outcome would be to have all of the conclusions,
recommendations and actions defined in advance. Obviously there are multiple
international conferences that do just that. Such conferences have the
advantage of meeting expectations and maintaining the semblance of control.
But that is not open space (or Open Space).
The crux of the matter, I think, is that everybody (certainly the organizing
body) must be willing to exist in that wonderful Great Cloud of Unknowing.
Something for sure will happen, but there is absolutely no way to predict or
assure what that "something" might be. Personally, I have always found that
the "something" we didn't expect was so much better than what was predicted
as to make everything worth while. But you can never tell in advance.
I have written at such length because I think it is absolutely critical that
all the responsible parties are totally clear about what we are getting into
-- which paradoxically is that we really don't have a clue, and certainly no
guarantees. Hope, desires for sure -- but we will not know what is achieved
until it has happened, and even then we may not be too sure.
Personally, I also want to make sure that nobody mistakes me for a salesman
or even an advocate for Open Space. I am delighted to share my experience
and pleased to offer my services, but the choice on how to proceed is not
mine to make. Truth to tell, I guess I am an advocate, not for Open Space
Technology -- but rather for the people and their capacity to make sense out
of the confusing and progress out of difficulty. But you can never tell how
it will all work out.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://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
<http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
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------------------------------
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To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
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>From Thu Jan 12 12:43:15 2006
Message-Id: <THU.12.JAN.2006.124315.0500.>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 12:43:15 -0500
Reply-To: birgitt at dalarinternational.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com>
Organization: Dalar International Consultancy
Subject: Keepin' Busy
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Possibly, there is no occasion to even do a sales pitch, much less give
up on one. And possibly there is no occasion to push a client to the
wall in terms of intentions and degrees of freedom.
The client opens the space in the organization for the facilitator to
then do his/her thing with facilitating an OST meeting. Sometimes the
space that the client chooses to open is quite big, sometimes it is very
small. The key in the prep work and working with the givens is whether
the space is stated truly, is authentic. I have never found an
organization that couldn’t open a little space for some conversation.
For example, in the military, it was not about the whole military, it
was only about a master plan for the landscape of the military college,
however it was truly open space for the OST meeting to take place. One
of the givens, stated by the Brigadier General who was also the
commandant was ‘democracy ends on Thursday at 5pm’. He didn’t pretend
that the space was more open than it was. It was very specific to get a
specific job done. And it got done well. Follow up even years later is
that the whole plan was financed and has been implemented.
Blessings,
Birgitt
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 11:11 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Keepin' Busy
Hey Folks -- I wasn't just giving a report of current activities (I am
alive
and breathing). I was also hoping to spark a little conversation about
such
things as -- when do you give up on the sales pitch and push the client
to
the wall in terms of intentions and degrees of freedom? And what are our
obligations to the client and the participants? And to our selves?
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
Harrison
Owen
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 10:22 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Keepin' Busy
I guess I fibbed a wee bit. Yes I am working on a book (or the book is
working on me) - and there are a few other things coming down as well. I
have also been working with a really neat organization which is seeking
to
open some space in a very critical area. And they are more than a little
worried about really opening space. We have been going on and on until I
felt constrained to send the following message. I share it here because
I
thought it might be of interest. As I was writing this about 5 this
morning
I thought fondly of Lisa and her speech about "only the highly
evolved..."
But I didn't think that would work in this case. Needless to say I have
scrubbed all the identifying details.
Dear XXXX -- I am glad that you still think Open Space is the way to go
--
but I must confess that I am having some reservations. These
reservations
have nothing to do with the capacity of Open Space enable this group, or
indeed any group, to engage in meaningful conversation and come to
useful
conclusions. The issue for me is two fold -- First, Do the sponsors feel
sufficiently trusting and supportive to let the process run? There will
be
moments of high tension, and experience has shown that the people
themselves
can and will handle it all by themselves. The bottom line is that I just
let
it go. Once underway, we are gone, and there is no place for
intervention,
mid-course correction, the conference management committee doing a
re-design. It is all up to the people.
My second area of concern is whether or not what I might call "competing
interests" create conditions that are, to some real extent, antithetical
to
real Open Space. I am thinking particularly of the Press. I clearly
understand the need for press coverage -- just to get the word out. The
problem is that deep conversations can rarely be reduced to sound-bites.
Even worse, deep conversations which are only partially concluded are
even
less susceptible to being sound-bites. I think it is quite possible that
we
will reach the end of the first day in Open Space and there is nothing
to
report -- or at least nothing that anybody wants to report. It is
equally
possible that we will reach the end of the conference in the same
condition.
Several thousand years (well almost) of understandings,
misunderstandings,
ignorance, misperceptions, to say nothing of mis-trust and anger will
not be
resolved in three days. We can make a good effort, and things may well
move
along much further than we have any right to expect -- but expectations
of
any sort can be very problematical. The hard lesson of Open Space (and I
think life as well) is that firm attachment to specific outcomes is
usually
disastrous. When you don't get what you expected the temptation is to
think
that you achieved nothing at all. And if the expectation is that by the
end
we will have a neatly tied up body of conclusions combined with action
plans, all of which may be "briefed" to the Press, I think that is quite
unlikely. Possible for sure -- but unlikely. And should any of this
occur
(or actually NOT Occur) the press will leave frustrated and might well
report total failure. The fact that subtle, but important movement took
place in the building of relationships, the definitions of issues and
opportunities for future conversations (but not immediate resolution)
will
escape them because they were not part of the conversations. That would
not
be, I would judge, a desirable outcome.
An even worse scenario would be if we were to drive the whole conference
towards a final, definitive document with neat conclusions,
recommendations
and actions. That would effectively shut the space down, and the only
way to
assure such an outcome would be to have all of the conclusions,
recommendations and actions defined in advance. Obviously there are
multiple
international conferences that do just that. Such conferences have the
advantage of meeting expectations and maintaining the semblance of
control.
But that is not open space (or Open Space).
The crux of the matter, I think, is that everybody (certainly the
organizing
body) must be willing to exist in that wonderful Great Cloud of
Unknowing.
Something for sure will happen, but there is absolutely no way to
predict or
assure what that "something" might be. Personally, I have always found
that
the "something" we didn't expect was so much better than what was
predicted
as to make everything worth while. But you can never tell in advance.
I have written at such length because I think it is absolutely critical
that
all the responsible parties are totally clear about what we are getting
into
-- which paradoxically is that we really don't have a clue, and
certainly no
guarantees. Hope, desires for sure -- but we will not know what is
achieved
until it has happened, and even then we may not be too sure.
Personally, I also want to make sure that nobody mistakes me for a
salesman
or even an advocate for Open Space. I am delighted to share my
experience
and pleased to offer my services, but the choice on how to proceed is
not
mine to make. Truth to tell, I guess I am an advocate, not for Open
Space
Technology -- but rather for the people and their capacity to make sense
out
of the confusing and progress out of difficulty. But you can never tell
how
it will all work out.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
<http://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
<http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
*
*
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OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
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To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
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------------------------------
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To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
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