My first time

Skaparlust skaparlust at swipnet.se
Sun Nov 12 02:57:48 PST 2006


Hi Justin,
Congratulations to a productive meeting!  Part of why people reacted in this 
way, is, I believe, the confusion between the traditional meeting leadership 
which is mainly about control and the facilitation type of leadership which 
is about letting go of control and giving the participants both freedom and 
responsibility. This has been called Freedom shock on this list. I believe 
that your group is confused about your role. This could be an excellent 
opportunity to have a meeting about leadership, structure and participation 
and how different approaches impact the results of the meeting and the 
energy of the participants. This is seldom discussed in work groups, since 
the topics, "what", are soooo important, that one never takes the time to 
talk about the "how"; procedures, tools and agreements about behaviour in 
the group. In my toolbox för better meetings I have a meeting analysis that 
you are welcome to use, as a basis for such dialogues. I will work on it and 
send it next week.
Best wishes from a rainy Sweden.
(we always talk about the weather in this country)
Agneta Falk
Skaparlust, Joy of creating
+46 176 525 90, www.skaparlust.nu

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Justin T. Sampson" <justin at krasama.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 9:05 AM
Subject: My first time


> Howdy,
>
> So I held my first Open Space today, as I mentioned earlier. It
> was the regular monthly meeting of the Libertarian Party of San
> Francisco, which I serve as Chair. It felt great! There was lots
> of energy all the way through, people seemed engaged more than
> usual, and some really important things were discussed that had
> only been grumbled about before. Folks jumped right up when I
> invited them to offer topics in the opening. The physical space
> was really too cramped, but the group managed to split and
> recombine and morph and move around the room over the course of
> the meeting. I sensed a much greater commitment to action
> following the meeting than this group usually has. And the energy
> just kept going -- we usually meet formally 3-5pm and have a
> social hour 5-6pm that actually fizzles out by 5:30, but this time
> when I left at 6pm almost all of the 15+ attendees were still
> there talking. In almost every respect that I care about as a
> facilitator, this meeting was a great success...
>
> EXCEPT -- no one liked the process! There were no kind words, and
> a few nasty ones -- "we need more structure and leadership", "the
> format was horrible", "this was a bad idea."
>
> What's going on?
>
> Cheers,
> Justin
>
> *
> *
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>From  Sun Nov 12 08:04:42 2006
Message-Id: <SUN.12.NOV.2006.080442.0500.>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 08:04:42 -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: My first time
In-Reply-To: <cdca070f0611120005t5448aeb9i10202a3cada08136 at mail.gmail.com>
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Freedom Shock indeed! Even the Libertarians are victim of the dominant
paradigm even though they may eschew it! Funny thing!! And as Agneta
suggests, their reaction could well be the subject of an interesting
dialogue -- something about "Just How Much Liberty can we really stand?"

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 
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Justin T.
Sampson
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:06 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: My first time

Howdy,

So I held my first Open Space today, as I mentioned earlier. It
was the regular monthly meeting of the Libertarian Party of San
Francisco, which I serve as Chair. It felt great! There was lots
of energy all the way through, people seemed engaged more than
usual, and some really important things were discussed that had
only been grumbled about before. Folks jumped right up when I
invited them to offer topics in the opening. The physical space
was really too cramped, but the group managed to split and
recombine and morph and move around the room over the course of
the meeting. I sensed a much greater commitment to action
following the meeting than this group usually has. And the energy
just kept going -- we usually meet formally 3-5pm and have a
social hour 5-6pm that actually fizzles out by 5:30, but this time
when I left at 6pm almost all of the 15+ attendees were still
there talking. In almost every respect that I care about as a
facilitator, this meeting was a great success...

EXCEPT -- no one liked the process! There were no kind words, and
a few nasty ones -- "we need more structure and leadership", "the
format was horrible", "this was a bad idea."

What's going on?

Cheers,
Justin

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