Dealing with New Entrants to OS sessions

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Stuart,
thanks for offering such a lively account of your experience...next to 
the actual practice itself this is for me one of the most productive 
ways of learning and a real gift of this community.
Chris has already said a bunch of the things that crossed my mind on 
reading your note.
Here a couple other things:
-In the spirit of doing one thing less: I have never (in the now 140 os 
events I have facilitated) asked people to "give their names and 
expectations in attending". Originally, when I started with this stuff, 
it had practical reasons: with a crowd of 150 or 300 or more this would 
delay the offering of issues which I consider the first active 
expression of selforganisation in the event. Since that has always 
worked (perhaps also because during the issue offering phase conveners 
do state their names and their issues reflect their expectations for 
attending)I never do this even with small systems.
-After having introduced the facts of life (principles) I never remind 
people of them again myself, especially not as a reaction to behavior or 
action by participants (this has to do with my understanding that my 
reactions are in fact just my reactions based on my assumptions and, 
perhaps even more important, the observation that it reduces the space 
for participants to jump in...I have experienced participants doing this 
and often in a charming and humerous way. (In the course of events, 
especially at the point when action planning starts I state the Law once 
more as part of introducing this phase).

Specifically to your questions:
-a)handling new arrivals...: Dont handle them or the situation, let them 
themselves decide on how they get into the game and also leave it to the 
system...if it is an issue or a wish on anyones part there, they will 
start to act if they are passionate enough about it...
-b)what experience is there....: My experience is that whenever I "fell 
back" into managing something the situation became my issue and I 
reduced my space for holding space and time. Invariably, just "standing 
there and doing nothing" resulted in the system in taking action itself 
(often quite different from what in the back of my mind, not being 
completely unattached, I imagined).
Most probably, "degenerating into divisions" is a very productive force 
(chaos and confusion with some conflict added in) leading to what you 
eventually perceived as "productive energised attention"...what a 
turnaround! Very likely aided by your intervention to take a break.

Thanks again for letting me (and us?) have a glimpse into your practice, 
from where I stand you touched on some of the central aspects of my 
practice of facilitating ... I enjoyed reflecting on it.
Greetings from Berlin (which is a slightly crazed place just now after 
the first match in the world soccer event)
see you in Moscow
mmp

PS: When I facilitated an os back in 1998 in Nairobi I learned from one 
of the participants that open space has been around in his village 
culture under the name of "barraza"...roughly translated with "sitting 
under a shady tree"

Stuart Worsley wrote:
> New Arrivals into OS sessions.
> 
> Yesterday, I completed a two day OS session with the council, executive 
> and public stakeholders of the city of Eldoret in Kenya. We took the first 
> day so seek and document the divergant views, and on the second day 
> produced convergance and specific action plans. The group was a collection 
> of hitherto conflicting parties, and this became the first time that they 
> could sit together and dialogue. The event was highly energised and all 
> participated fully. 
> 
> However, at the end of the first day, to close, I asked participants to 
> throw a light ball to one another, and as they received it, to reflect one 
> thing that they had learned. A couple of people stated that although they 
> had really enjoyed the sessions, they felt aggrieved that others of their 
> colleagues had collected council perdiem to attend, and had not shown up. 
> Of course I reminded them of the principles - whoever comes are the right 
> people.
> 
> Next morning, we started with convergance. Reports were given out and an 
> hour allowed for reflection and voting. We used stickies to indicate votes 
> on each issue. After we started, 5 new people arrived, grabbed a report 
> found some stickies and started to vote with the group. These were the 
> counsellors that were the subject of complaint the evening before. When  
> the circle was reformed, in order to hold the space, I decided to welcome 
> them in, and ask them to give their names and their expectations in 
> attending - as all had done yesterday. They stood up, and gave names and 
> sat down. From within the group, one vocal individual called out that they 
> should give their expectations too, in light of the fact that they had not 
> arrived until now. The new arrivals began to react demanding why they were 
> being singled out for attention. Some of the group started to defend them 
> saying that others were being too harsh, and the spirit of the circle 
> quickly dissipated into partisan hostility.
> 
> At this point, I decided to intervene by stating that we only wished to 
> welcome them in, and that we should move on to discuss the next stage of 
> convergance. I explained the next steps to a restless group, and suggested 
> that we all take some coffee. 
> 
> After reconvening to add up votes and form small groups on priority 
> issues, things settled, and we returned to productive energised attention 
> for the remainder. Some of the new arrivals did settle in, while others 
> remained aloof, and even tried to leave the procedings, only to return 
> later.
> 
> I would appreciate anyone's reflections on this specifically with respect 
> to a) handling new arrivals to an OS session, and b) what experience is 
> there in managing the balance between holding space, and letting the group 
> degenerate into divisions.
> 
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--




Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de

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