Introduction in an OS-meeting

Wed Mar 29 17:25:51 PST 2006

I often think that the word "introduction" is the wrong one. "Induction"
would do better. There really is not a lot of information to be shared. How
much can you say about sitting in a circle, creating a bulletin board,
opening a market place -- and going to work? And the point is to GET TO
WORK. Any and all verbiage that inhibits that should be dispensed with --
all under the heading of thinking of one more thing not to do. I think. 

When I do the opening, I find that I can communicate the essentials is 3-5
minutes. All the rest of the time is about creating the environment
(induction). Hence I talk just long enough to bring the folks to the point
where they are straining at the traces (reins for horses) -- just salivating
about getting to the task. The art is to talk long enough so they are really
eager -- but not so long as to become boring and tedious.

Good luck Thomas -- and my very best to your participants!

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 Michael M
Pannwitz
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 4:49 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Introduction in an OS-meeting

Dear Eva, Thomas and trainees!
Great to hear of your training.
Giving us just 8 hours to respond and midnite approaching I will skip 
kiss and do longhand:

I think it is essential that the sponsor (usually the person that pays 
my fee) not only opens the space and then participate fully in the event 
as participant but that that person has had a talk with me ahead of time 
around his role in those 3 minutes of opening.
It should really be only three minutes (the main reason to signal that 
this is everyones show and that it needs to get onto the road quickly).
The things the sponsor needs to cover are
-welcome, great you are here...
-the Theme is and three sentences to the theme...
-my expectation and hope and heartwish for our gathering is:....
-welcome to our facilitator xyz....

Any dialogue or exchange around the questions one of the participants 
suggested (all great questions but not at this juncture and rather in 
the preceeding coaching)will delay the start and will destract the 
facilitator from his main job to "be fully present and invisible".

As far as first impression is concerned here is my experienc:
Even though ost works  every time, the first impression does make a 
considerable difference in the spirit. And here I think the second phase 
(first being "Welcome" and I no longer say "Welcome to open space" as I 
try to avoid to make any reference to open space)
namely
"Focusing the Group"
appears to me the most essential.
The point here is to make a contribution to the group focusing on 
itself, that starts by asking everyone to have a look around and see who 
is sitting to ones left, to ones right, across the room etc. and 
pointing out the ressources and gifts in the room (400 years of life 
experience in case of the participants in the training, 10 complete 
treasure chests full of knowledge, skills, abilities, languages, 
cultural backgrounds...) ....
It is the first expansion of space for selforganisation...if that is 
done calmly, intensely, with a smile, from the heart...everything after 
that is a breeze.

Have a great learning journey
greetings from Berlin
and feel invited to join the world map, of course!!!

Thomas Herrmann wrote:
> Dear friends in Open Space
> Today Eva P Svensson and myself facilitated the first day of our
> OS-training. 10 increadible participants with so much wisdom. We used OST
> for half of the day and I was lucky to get the chance to participate in
the
> rich conversations and got many interesting gifts I´d like to share. If
you
> have any experiences or ideas to share I´d love to hear them. I will bring
> them back tomorrow morning to share the value of this marvellous
> OS-list(that gives you 8 hours to respond;-)).
> 
> 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?
> 
> Another thing we talked about in that session was "first impression". How
> much of a difference can the opening make? Creating a climate of trust,
> openness gives motivation, energy, creativity which inspires action which
> creates effects. What and how I say things does matter! Any reflections
> regarding this will be highly appreciated too.
> 
> Another important aspect we talked about in that session is the importance
> of how people are taken care of when they arrive on site.
> Warmest regards
> Thomas Herrmann         Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81
> Open Space Consulting   Fax   +46 (0)300-713 89
> Pensévägen 4
> 434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden
> Email: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
> www.openspaceconsulting.com
> 
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> ------------------------------
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
> 
> 
--

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 392 resident Open Space 
Workers in 65 countries (working in a total of 119 countries worldwide)
www.openspaceworldmap.org

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist