Thoughts on a Town Crier

Mon Jan 14 05:53:46 PST 2008

Dear Peggy, Michael, Elena and others!

I will support Elena and tell why we are doing this in our part of the
world. We have the lucky opportunity to introduce OST to different
categories of the state and municipal civil servants here at the Siberian
Academy for Public Administration (SAPA). It's written in their program as
Business game with the theme on improving their work.They come to us for 3
and often for only 2 hours. It gives us only 30 minutes for each item:
Introduction (including moving tables and putting chairs into the circle), 2
sessions and Closure (in case of 2 hours). In 3 hours I have some time for
reports, voting and convergence and after it Closing circle. As I call it
Voluntarily-compulsory participation in  OST. Great majority of our
participants have no idea what to expect from this event and we have a very
short time to invite them and explaine it as a good way to have
conversations about issues and opportunities of How to improve their work.
In first 30 minutes they have a collective cultural shock while they are
sitting in the circle and facilitator going inside telling them what they
can do and everything is OK even to go away if they don't like it ( in this
case it is voluntary participation). Common reaction is : We all will be
butterflies today. Then, as Harrison said it happens always everywhere, some
people begin to write the topics and all works well. When people at the
Market place are trying to realize what to do and where to go I wish them
all well and say when we will meet again in the circle and go out. But then
I usually come back at the time of change between sessions to see if they do
it or not.  Sometimes they can do it themselves, sometimes little bit later
than on the schedule. But their shock of freedom is so big and they have
such a fun talking in their first groups and leaders of the second sessions
are too weak to break it, that mostly they expect someone to take the lead
and say - now it is time for the second session or they miss it at all. I do
the same as "Town crier", saying - it's time for the second session, but
it's up to you what you are doing now. Then they can move or not. I agree
with Elena that when we have such short time we have to encourage them to
take the lead and organize second groups. Sometimes they come all into one
big circle and discuss all issues alltogether. The energy is high, they have
great fun, but some issues even discussed, don't get the reports. 
I learnt to take it easy and let them  do whatever they want during this 2
or 3 hours, because I know that at the end they say - it was the best in our
2 weeks here and it should be at the beginning of the course. Each time
somebody says "I will do it at my working place". I give them short written
instructions.
What else you don't do normally - listen the reports - I do it every time -
have them in the circle to share briefly their reports. I have a 3 minutes
sand-glass and show to them, but don't interrupt. They have chance to ask
questions or discuss something. If it goes longer I show the principle "When
it's not over it's not over" and say that it needs additional discussion.
Because my class takes place normally at the end of their 2 weeks course
this sharing in the circle is the only way they could really see the results
of their work and feel their collective wisdom. They always say that they
learnt more from each other than from all their other classes.
You will be surprised, but I also collect their reports and type them and
give them back to take home with them as tangible "Collective wisdom",
because it's no other way yet - they don't have access to computers. 
 So, you see, we really do some more things than you and probably do it in a
different way. But I realized that even 2 hours in open space is more
powerful than two weeks of passive learning from teachers. That is why I try
to use every opportunity to introduce OST to every possible group. The
shortest one I had OST in 1,5 hours with a group of trainers, where we all
worked very fast, but had all 4 items - opening, 2 sessions and closing. If
i don't have much time for closing I send the bell and ask people to say one
word or two. It's always positive and inspiring. I believe that we have
homeopathic influencing on the civil servants in Siberia through these short
OST classes at SAPA. Some people come and say "I've heard about a workshop
which is must to participate". We help people to feel happier, more
self-confident  and be leaders. If additional ring of the bell helps us to
do this, we will ring. By the way, for the Russian people tibetian bells
work magicly. I also like the arrow, but someone have to come and move it.
With warm greetings from cold Siberia,

Marina Tyasto
tyasto at sapa.nsk.su <mailto:tyasto at sapa.nsk.su> 

 -----Original Message-----
From: Elena Marchuk [mailto:marco at mail.nsk.ru]
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:25 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Thoughts on a Town Crier

Dear Peggy,
I wish I could NOT ring the bells and let participants to work as they care,
but most OSs I provide are very limited in time, and several time I missed
the time by chance (though not much...) I could see, that people are just
seeting and talking in a previous groups. If I had the time to give them a
'teach' that it is their way of doing things and will have time to 'spread'
time for another quant of session, I would probably do, but I'm affraid, may
be it is ok to be, and just do, but I'm afraid, that we would have just no
time for the next session, so I usualy ring, though say in opening, that it
is up to them, how they will work, I would just be a Town Crier, as you
say...

thank you for the question
warm hugs from -25 C Siberia with a lot of snow, though sun shining :)

elena marchuk
novosibirsk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Peggy Holman <mailto:peggy at opencirclecompany.com>  
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU <mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>  
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 11:22 PM
Subject: Thoughts on a Town Crier

Has anyone noticed more milling about before people move into sessions over
the last few years?  I'd been noticing enough of a trend this way that I
always intend to explicitly tell people that there won't be anyone telling
them when to move, that it is up to them to follow their own rhythms and
interests.  I haven't quite internalized this yet, so I usually forget.
Anyway, I think I may have figured out what is going on.

I just did an OS for a friend for a group of about 50.  He uses OS a lot but
wanted to be able to really participate in this one.   He told me that he
was a little surprised when the first round of breakout sessions was
starting that I didn't tell people it was time to get started.  He came to
me when the first round after lunch were scheduled to start and asked me
wasn't I going to ring a bell and let people know?  I basically told him
that I never did that.  The participants were adults and could figure it out
for themselves.  He was floored and a little upset.  He said he always lets
people know.  And then it dawned on me:  there are more and more people who
have experienced OS.  Perhaps there are many practitioners doing what Jon
does - telling people when it is time to start the next session.  I realized
that since most of these folks came at Jon's invitation, they were probably
enculturated to responding to a bell.  

So I took what seemed a middle ground to me and rang a bell, saying, "It's
1:30 and all's well."  I figured a town crier was a minimalist thing to do
-- providing information without attachment to how people used it.

I then spoke more with Jon because I wanted to understand his perspective.
He said that to him, what is posted, like the session start times, are part
of the commons and when he is holding the space, that is part of his
contract with the group, to give them the information.  He doesn't care what
they do once they hear it.  So, it strikes me that Town Crier is a good
description of what he does.

Given the trend I mentioned, I suspect Jon isn't the only one doing
something like this.  I'd love to hear other thoughts on providing
information that marks the passage of time.

from sunny (for a change) Seattle,
Peggy

________________________________
Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
(425) 746-6274 

www.opencirclecompany.com <http://www.opencirclecompany.com> 

For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to: 
www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook
<http://www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook>  

"An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt,
is to become 
the fire".
  -- Drew Dellinger
* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist 

* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist 

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20080114/2b8671c4/attachment-0016.htm>