1-day OS with action planning

Tue Apr 10 15:07:47 PDT 2007

Esther -- Sharing is really what it's all about, I think. Nobody owns Open
Space. How could they? After all circles of people, bulletin boards, and
market places have been around in one form or another ever since. But how we
can most effectively work with all of that to create conditions that
liberate the human spirit is an evolving learning. Nobody has the corner on
that market, and all of us are the richer when we pool out insights, which
you have done so elegantly. I thank you!

Responsibility is a funny thing. People often talk about GIVING somebody
responsibility or assigning responsibility. My own learning has been that
responsibility is something that can never be given or assigned -- and when
it is, the results are usually disappointing, or worse. 

The key factor is CARING. When responsibility is given or assigned there is
a high probability that we will not care for what we are responsible for.
However, when we care, responsibility is the natural concomitant, and we
will naturally assume, and take responsibility for, what we care about. In
fact, to be denied responsibility for what we care about is annoying at the
least, and may even be painful and tragic. 

The situation may be extreme, but I think of cases where parents are denied
responsibility for their children, such as happened in your country and mine
when the state moved in to "educate" the children of the 1st Nation Peoples.
It may have been done with the best of intentions, but the whole thing was a
disaster which is still with us.

So in Open Space, when I talk about taking personal responsibility for what
you have a passion for (care about), I never thought of this as a
"requirement" or an "order" -- but rather as a very natural progression.
Like the Four Principles and the Law of Two Feet -- this is descriptive, not
prescriptive. Of course you will want to take responsibility for what you
care about! It is a totally natural act!! It is a birthright, part of your
humanity, part of what makes you human. And to be denied that responsibility
is, in some real sense, to deny your humanity. It is degrading,
demoralizing, and shouldn't happen.

I am sure that your "sponsor," in asking that you go "lightly" on the
responsibility bit was doing that for the best of reasons as she/he saw the
situation. After all (as you say) the folks had a lot on their plate, and
the sponsor didn't want to add to their burdens. But just suppose that the
folks really CARED about the issues they had raised and the actions that
needed to be taken? My point is simply that your sponsor was making a
decision for "her people" that really wasn't her choice to make. Not to be
"hard" on the sponsor, but it strikes me as odd when executives ask for
inspired, effective, can-do "workers" -- they will often cut them off at the
pass. The silent message comes out something like -- You can care about
anything you want -- but don't take responsibility for it! Weird! But it
happens, and I suspect that we all do it. 

Thanks for sharing!

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
Communications Esther Matte
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 2:24 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: 1-day OS with action planning

Hi all,

As you know, I'm a newbie to OS after training last year with Diane 
Gibeault and Larry Peterson here in Canada. I already thanked you all 
after my very first OS for sharing so generously your experience on 
this List. I learned a lot with all of you. And I wish to thank you 
again as I've rarely (never?) seen such openness and genuine desire 
to help and share in a professional practice.

There was a rather disturbing series of messages this morning, but 
growing pains are to be expected I suppose. I think it's good that 
sort of an international committee is starting up, that there is some 
planning for international events two years ahead of time and that 
there is an intention to alternate between continents.

So, here I am, after my first 1-day OS with action planning. It was a 
little over a week ago, with a sub-group from a client for whom Diane 
Gibeault had facilitated an OS last December with me as assistant. 
After decanting the event (is this the right word in English? 
Refering to decanting a good wine to let it open itself, take it's 
full flavour and aroma), I can say that I learned a lot and I feel at 
my place facilitating OS. It was a small group (21), and a very 
engaged one too. I felt stress right at the beginning, when the 
sponsor first asked everyone to introduce themselves and then spoke 
for about 20 minutes (despite our 4-5 minutes preparation)! I looked 
at the "whatever" and "whenever" principles posted on the wall, and 
took a deep breath. Throughout the day, I did what we ask people to 
do if they feel confused in front of the Market place: trust 
yourself, trust the group and trust the process. And of course, it 
went fine :-) I had a follow-up meeting with the client last week, 
and the comments were very positive. The sponsor had invited people 
from the community (their clients) to join in, and it was very active 
and inspiring. All participants thought the objective was attained, 
and found the OS process efficient and highly satisfying.

One interesting thing was that sort of a pattern emerged in the 
discussion groups. In each round, there was a rather big group 
(between 10 and 15) and other small ones, even individuals by 
themselves. After priority setting, the client decided on a fourth 
priority, mostly because there was only one vote less then the third, 
but also because she didn't quite like this "big and small groups" 
pattern. As it turned out, no one went to that fourth action plan 
group. So that says a lot, again, about that "control" thing, right?

One evaluation comment (anonymous) surprised me: "too many rules". 
Ever happened to anyone? I think it may have to do with the 
priorities setting process and action planning forms. It was 
difficult to bring the group to the convergence phase. This morning, 
I read several convergence methods some of you use (on Lisa Heft's 
website - thanks Lisa for posting this!) and found great ideas for the
future.

I would like your input on something if you have time and wish to 
share your experience. This particular client was very specific not 
to insist very much on the responsability side of OS, because people 
are disseminated in a large territory with low access to technology, 
so it's not practical to work in groups, and all have an already very 
heavy workload. The client still wanted action planning in order to 
have a basic game plan for each priority and act as a "global 
coordinator", calling on people for their help when needed. So I 
mentioned personal responsibility without emphasizing it in my 
opening (since the time was short, that was fine!). I did, however, 
add a point to the action planning form so that people could state 
what they would like to do in implementation, if and how they would 
like to be personally involved. I think it can work for that group, 
as they already have regular conference calls and intend to put OS 
action plans on the agenda every time. The client will be leaving the 
organization in a couple of months, but will be replaced by someone 
who participated in the OS. So we'll see if it does work in real life 
when I have my final follow-up meeting with the new person in place. 
That being said, I still wonder if maybe I should have put a little 
more emphasis on personal responsibility anyway, as it is really what 
makes things happen. Even though people are geographically apart with 
low access to technology, there's still that need for the first phone 
call or action that will bring others. Any thoughts?

I'm looking forward to facilitating more OS events in the future, and 
thank you all for your support!

Esther

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