opening space with very small groups
Gerard Muller
gm at openspace.dk
Tue Sep 19 14:40:28 PDT 2006
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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