Open Space to Build Communities of Practice

[Harrison Owen]

Diana -- I am not sure that this really qualifies -- but some years ago the
group of people who made a business of helping family owned businesses (such
folks as lawyers, psychologists, OD folks, and accountants) -- got together
to see if they could work together instead of as disassociated disciplines.
300 folks showed up for two days and according to them it all worked out. At
least they are now an "organization" with multiple years common experience.

Harrison

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Diana
Larsen
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 2:24 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Open Space to Build Communities of Practice

Hello all,

I'm sending out a request for help. Has anyone opened and held space  
to help build an community of practice (CoP) inside a larger  
organization?

Last year I worked with clients to hold an OS event to jump-start the  
creation of a community of practice inside a corporate organization.  
Two managers internal to the organization acted as sponsors and  
"apprentice" open space holders for the original event. Since then  
they have opened space approximately once every six months for their  
CoP. Lovely things have happened. One of the managers and I will  
collaborate to write an article about this experience.

I'm looking for other examples where OS has been used to reach a  
similar goal. Of course, we will give appropriate attribution (or  
shielding, as you request, ;-) ) for any stories we include in the  
article.

Before someone suggests it, I have searched the openspaceworld.org  
archive and google. From that search, I have found a small number of  
references to building a community of practice among open space  
facilitators, but nothing that relates to opening space for a  
different CoP.

Thanks in advance for considering my request. I know how responsive  
this group will be. :-)

Best wishes,
Diana


Diana Larsen
www.futureworksconsulting.com
co-author: "Agile Retrospectives" http://tinyurl.com/3dr5v3
Ask me about:
"Secrets of Agile Teamwork: Beyond Technical Skills" workshop
Sept 17-19, Stockholm Sweden; Dec 11-13, Portland OR

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