Spontaneous Open Space at CFAN

Mon Apr 23 06:20:50 PDT 2007

Well done Andrew! And now you understand that you have been working much too
hard. But of course with a bunch of facilitators who earn their living, to
say nothing of their sense of self worth, by "working hard," this could be a
problem. Just imagine the creative confusion that might evolve if everybody
understood that the best thing to do (as a facilitator) is nothing - or as
little as possible. Ideas to conjure with :-)

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com

Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Andrew
Ballance
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 8:17 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Spontaneous Open Space at CFAN

Hello to you all,

Two weeks ago I found myself holding space in Mojmirovce, Slovakia, for the
second Global Gathering of the Change Facilitation Associates Network (CFAN,
www.change-facilitation.org). This was the first Open Space event I have
facilitated, and it wasn't on the agenda 24hrs before it started. So this
was quite an exciting development. How did it happen?

CFAN is a global network of change facilitators. As a global network, it is
only possible to hold a gathering like this once a year. The business of
these five days over the Easter weekend was to reconnect with old and new
acquaintances and friends, learn together, and take and plan the next steps
of the network. You would already expect an action-packed schedule. Consider
also that the network has been expanding, evolving, and needs to find new
forms, new leaders & organisers, new legal structures for the coming years.

People arrived with many burning issues. This was evident from very early
on, but we struggled with finding ways to deal with the questions, concerns
and suggestions that we all had. The schedule had been put together with the
experience of the last year's gathering in mind, to try and ensure a more
structured and thus productive time together. An initial three days of
training followed by two days of network business. But this left much
important thinking and work unvoiced and undone during the first days. And
so the tension mounted.

On the afternoon before the network business was to take over, things were
reaching some kind of a breaking point. After some critical reflection in
one of the training sessions, someone asked why we couldn't just be, be free
to be whatever we are. This echoed the feelings of the facilitators (of
which I was one) for the next days, that somehow we needed to get things
going. For my partner, this meant a facilitated session to reach a decision
on something key to all of us. For myself.. I kept on seeing Open Space.
Open Space was suggested to the whole group as the way to go forward for the
next 2 days, but the appetite was not there for that complete freedom. Later
on that evening, it was nonetheless decided to use it. A compromise of sorts
was reached, where we took half a day of structured analysis, followed by an
unstructured format (i.e. Open Space), that would allow whatever needed to
unfold.

A beautiful thing about the transition was that it allowed the system to
become whole, or maybe as whole as it could get without external
facilitation. Everyone for the last day and a half was invited inside the
space. Great things happened. Much needed discussion, that led to new
organisational models for taking the network forward, new projects, new
sense of identity. Most importantly, the system self-organised to a
remarkable degree, throwing out of the window the schedule for
action-planning, as well as the closing circle (it had already happened in
another sub-process) - this was the most important 'therapeutic outcome' of
the event, to the eyes of this observer. The system needed to prove to
itself that it could self-organise. It did. I think everyone went home
feeling that the best that could have happened, did. But it was a surprise!
:)

You can also read about this event on the Change Management Blog, edited by
Holger Nauheimer, the founder of CFAN.
http://www.change-management-blog.com/2007/04/cfan-global-gathering-has-star
ted.html (first of 6 posts by various people whilst the event was taking
place)
http://www.change-management-blog.com/2007/04/open-space-crystallising.html
(first of 2 posts from myself as facilitator, written some time after)

Warm greetings from an overcast London,
Andrew

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