marketplace

Elwin and Joan elwinandjoan at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 11 13:05:14 PDT 2006


Harrison wrote:
After I get to the point where I invite everybody to go and sign up
(enter the market place) – I just leave. Gone. Out of the room. Without
a word.

I'd like to think that Harrison's approach is exactly the same as mine
but the statement "without a word" is where I part company. I make a
deliberate point of saying "I am now going back to my room to take a
nap. I hope to return for the evening news."

Further, I do my best to leave in a conspicuous manner such that if
possible they can view me walking toward my room.

When I question participants at conference end, they tell me that
"witnessing” my leaving shocks them into "getting to it" right away
since it is obvious that I won't be assisting.

As Harrison said, "Try it!"

eg


Elwin Guild
Future Development International
Baltimore
elwinandjoan at yahoo.com

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>From  Wed Oct 11 22:12:28 2006
Message-Id: <WED.11.OCT.2006.221228.0400.>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:12:28 -0400
Reply-To: 76066.515 at compuserve.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: opening space with very small groups
In-Reply-To: <6.2.1.2.1.20061011072438.01ce91d0 at mail.magma.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
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Congratulations, Esther!

What a wonderful discovery you have made.

And...I always re-read the Guide before every OST I do, and bring it
along in the box of markers and bells and stuff. Sometimes I look into
the Guide during the day....

You did good!

				:- Doug. Germann

On Wed, 2006-10-11 at 08:06 -0400, Communications Esther Matte wrote:
>  Good morning to you all!
> 
> Well, I DID IT!!!! My first OST, and with a very small group of 5 people.
> 
> Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me a couple of weeks 
> ago. I went there last night  with confidence in your advice, my heart, the 
> group and the process. And it worked wonders!
> 
> There were only 5 participants. Three people chose not to come, one of 
> which was a surprise for the sponsor. So I started off by saying that the 
> people who were there were the ones who were truly passionate about the 
> theme, and they were the ones we needed.
> 
> I did the usual opening in about 10-12 minutes, skipping most of the 
> reassuring parts. They posted 11 subjects, combined three, so there were 8 
> discussions in 3 rounds of 45 minutes each.
> 
> I followed your suggestions and expressed clearly the two choices they had: 
> discuss everything as a group, which was very tempting of course, or follow 
> the method. Then I suggested they give it a try at least for the first 
> round of discussion, and one participant supported this suggestion. I added 
> that they might find that discussing as a group would make it very 
> difficult if not impossible to go through the 8 subjects in 2 hours and 
> maybe using the Law and playing bumble bees would allow them to discuss 
> everything and go deeper. Much like what happened to Diane, they gave it a 
> try and never looked back. Of course, it's less natural with a small group, 
> but it works really well anyway.
> 
> The next step will be action planning. They were all surprised at what they 
> had accomplished, felt revigorated and inspired and now have a clearer 
> picture of their situation and what they might want to do next.
> 
> As for me, it was a thrill. I felt OST was perfectly in sync with my self, 
> and was both excited and scared of doing my first event with such a small 
> group. I re-read Harrison's book during the weekend, read all of the advice 
> received from you yesterday morning, meditated a bit before going there, 
> centered my self and stayed focused to be fully present and invisible (this 
> week's discussion about presence was inspiring) and let go of any 
> expectations and fear to simply go with the flow of the moment.
> 
> I still feel the energy from the event this morning, and I know in my heart 
> I found a path on which I'll travel for a while and bring people to 
> discover. Thank you all for your support!
> 
> Esther
> 
> At 17:40 2006-09-19, you wrote:
> >Hello Esther,
> >
> >I have had a couple with less than ten people. There's a few thoughts I 
> >have about OS and a small group:
> >
> >- it seems to be even more important than with a large group to have a 
> >central question which is very powerful. After all, if you have 300 
> >participants and some really want to do something else,
> >   that's one thing. If you have a few people, it could feel different 
> > (meaning I am not sure whether it would really be different, because I 
> > haven't experienced that yet).
> >
> >- I have also with the smaller groups done a full opening but with smaller 
> >groups sometimes comes a smaller room. If the circle is very small, space 
> >can get cramped. So I suggest to make
> >   sure you have space enough
> >
> >- I have worked with teams in an organisation which had held 10-15 open 
> >space events. Each team member in the leadership team had actually been 
> >trained in OST.
> >   Several times OST was used in creating the agenda and process for a 
> > team meeting, but without the whole opening. Worked well.
> >
> >Greetings from (today) Holland,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Gerard Muller
> >Open Space Institute Denmark
> >Phone: (+45) 21269621                   Skype: openspace1
> >Mail: gm at openspace.dk
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >On Sep 19, 2006, at 2:29 PM, Communications Esther Matte wrote:
> >
> >>Hello everyone!
> >>
> >>First, let me say thank you for the wonderful learning I found in the 
> >>OSList.  I’m new to Open Space, and even though I have yet to make my 
> >>“first big circle” as Ted put it recently, I feel more confident thanks 
> >>to you all.
> >>
> >>I may have two possible projects with very small groups (5-7 people) ­ 
> >>which is what worries me.  I have participated to one OST in my 
> >>experiential training with Diane Gibeault (fantastic!), and 
> >>co-facilitated one with 45 people. But I simply cannot visualize how it 
> >>works with as few as 5 people. How do you do this? Do you have several 
> >>rounds of discussions? In separate rooms? Do people actually work by 
> >>themselves and team up? Can you do it in approximately 3 hours ? (Maybe 
> >>20-30 minutes opening, 2 X 40-minutes rounds of discussion or 3 X 
> >>30-minutes, action planning and closing).
> >>
> >>I'm sure some of you have done this. I'll be meeting with the first 
> >>possible group next week, and nothing is set in stone yet for the other. 
> >>Any comments, suggestions, ideas or warnings will be very much appreciated.
> >>
> >>Thank you very much in advance for your time!
> >>
> >>Esther Matte
> >>Communications Esther Matte
> >>1011, Marie-Victorin
> >>Verchères (Québec) J0L 2R0
> >>www.excellence.ca
> >>
> >>"L'art de dire"
> >>
> >>Tél. : (450) 583-5849
> >>Téléc. : (450) 583-3513
> >>
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