When is Open Space Not Open Space
Kerry
k at napuk.demon.co.uk
Mon Mar 5 13:56:54 PST 2007
Sheila
Sometimes people undermine the principles and practice of Open Space,
usually closing space by trying to control it or making it highly
prescriptive.
Frankly, the approach you describe is odd, especially the failure to
start and end in circles. Moreover, posting topics by everyone in
the room and voting on which to discuss must take an inordinate amount
of time when people want to start work immediately. Voting, if used to
indicate priorities, usually comes after outputs from breakout sessions
are reported back to the Community.
We have encountered examples of Open Space events which sounded
anything but open and it often gives the process a bad name. It would
be useful if your former colleague read Harrisons's OPEN SPACE
TECHNOLOGY HANDBOOK before she misleads others with something she has
chosen to call OST.
Cheers
Kerry
Edinburgh
www.openfutures.com
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>From Mon Mar 5 17:26:35 2007
Message-Id: <MON.5.MAR.2007.172635.0500.>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 17:26:35 -0500
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: Re: SV: Holding space in the small group
In-Reply-To: <LISTSERV%200703051357580578.13DF at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
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Sheila wrote: "I know this doesn't address your question specifically but
perhaps it provides some food for thought." Actually Sheila, I think you hit
the nail right on the head! The group ( and the individuals) learns, and as
it learns, it empowers itself. A group enjoying it own power is definitely
exciting. Great job sitting in the corner!
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 Sheila
Beauchemin
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 3:58 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: SV: Holding space in the small group
I recently held an open space in which some of the issues you mention came
up - dominant individual, different facilitation styles/abilities of
convenors etc. I am new to facilitating in open space but I resisted the
urge to jump in and "correct" what traditionally would have been viewed as
poor group dynamics. I remained in my corner seat, quietly avaiable as I
had mentioned I would be. Gradually, over the course of the morning,
something interesting happened. Every now and then, someone would stop by
and sit down at my little cafe table. One person said, "You didn't give
any guidance on how to facilitate in the small groups and it is
frustrating. The convenor doesn't seem in charge and is not writing on
the flip charts." My response was to ask, how could you have contributed
to the group to resolve what she saw as an issue? Could you have offered
to capture some of the ideas on a chart? Being a convenor does not
necessarily also mean responsibility for 100% of the facilitation of the
group. Faced with this notion, the individual seemed to look at the day
very differently. I had a couple of other questions of this nature
throughout the morning but by the afternoon, those floating to my table
were more interested in sharing their excitement and fascination with
their experience then with any perceived facilitaion problems.
I know this doesn't address your question specifically but perhaps it
provides some food for thought.
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>From Mon Mar 5 17:29:55 2007
Message-Id: <MON.5.MAR.2007.172955.0500.>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 17:29:55 -0500
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: Re: When is Open Space Not Open Space
In-Reply-To: <LISTSERV%200703051422261838.13ED at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
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Sounds a little closed to me, Sheila. In fact what it sounds like is
something called The Technology of Participation (TOP)which was created
about 35 years ago by people from ICA.
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
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Sheila
Beauchemin
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 4:22 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: When is Open Space Not Open Space
Hello all,
I'm very new to Open Space and am still feeling my way around. While
discussing Open Space with a former colleague (and potential client)
recently, I was surprized to hear her take on this method. She was
familiar with it, and indicated she had indeed delivered two or three Open
Space sessions - one for about 80 people and another for about 300.
However, her description of how the events were managed was not strictly
speaking, "by the book". Here's what was described:
- all participant were given post-its and asked to identify their topic
areas and put up on the wall. Then, these were themed by someone and
participants were then given 3 votes and asked to place check marks next
to those items of highest importance to them. The topics with most ticks
then became the breakout session topics.
- these sessions were short - only 2 hours in one example
- circle was not created
- results were mixed.
So, my question is...though I am definately all for adapation to meet
circumstances, when is "Open Space" not open space? And, how do you
counter the perception that what was done is what you understand to be OS?
Thanks for any thoughts on this - Sheila
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