Introduction in an OS-meeting

[Lisa Heft]

Hi, dear Thomas --

 

You wrote:

<In almost all OS-meetings I've facilitated the sponsor has started off
welcoming the participants and addressing the theme etc. Not always it has
been perfect. Today I received the idea from one of our participants to
start off by having an open dialogue with the sponsor by asking each other
some questions and talking openly in front of the participants. For example:
What do you want with this day/days? Why did you choose OST as the meeting
format? I think the idea is brilliant and I will try this asap. Did you try
this? What do you think?? Do you have any ideas regarding this
conversation?>

 

Like others, I also feel that anything said in the beginning besides the
explanation of the process, the invitation to post topics and the
explanation of how the day will go is getting in the way of the work. (and
like others have said, I think all these questions with the client are great
but should be asked in the pre-work - to help inform the design of the
focusing question/theme, the invitation, and the facilitator's knowledge of
context, setting and cultural codes or vocabulary specific to that
organization or community). 

 

Who was it? One of you, dear colleagues...said that it is like all the kids
in the town are lined up in their swimsuits with their towels waiting for
the new swimming pool to open.  And before the gates are open to let
everyone in, the Mayor of the town stands up and makes a speech...and the
kids are waiting....and the kids are waiting...and all they want to do is
jump in the pool.  

 

So to me, our job is to get out of the way and let everyone jump into the
pool!

 

So I ask the sponsor to be very short and sweet with a 'welcome, I'm so glad
you're here and I'm excited about what we are about to do' and then they
toss it to me and we start.  I also think that so often, having someone
speak is only serving...the speaker.  Not the participants.  And if that
speaker is sharing thoughts about the theme, and the work, s/he is filling
up the space with his/her interpretations and ideas.  And isn't it supposed
to - finally - be about the participants?

 

There have also been times when - as a participant - I have felt anxious to
get to work even as the host-sponsors-convenors are taking the group through
layers of welcoming-centering-weaving together exercises that they've
designed to begin the process before they go into Open Space.  I know the
intention has been good but personally, I feel that OS delivers these things
and I am a kid with a towel anxious to jump into the pool.

 

I say all of this knowing that you, Thomas, have a very wonderful way of
talking, of sensing, of sharing.  So (as I think you probably know) I am not
saying this about you personally - it is just my observation in general.
Even with the most charismatic or dynamic speaker.  Participants are still
sitting in their chairs in the passive / receiving mode.  And the longer
they sit, the less bouncing energy they have to jump into the center of that
circle.  And even if it is a physical, interactive opening, it is still
taking a bit of time that the participants could use to do their work, in my
opinion.

 

Here's a question for you, Thomas: trust the process?

 

(I know you do, but if you hear this question, what do you think about when
you use that question to reflect back on opening introduction or opening
activity?)

 

Please give my warm regards to your class, Thomas and Eva.  Let them know
that we are all there to welcome and support and learn with and from them,

 

Lisa

 

___________________________

L i s a   H e f t

Consultant, Facilitator, Educator

O p e n i n g  S p a c e

 <mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net> lisaheft at openingspace.net

 <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net 

 


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