Thoughts on a Town Crier

Mon Jan 14 07:30:19 PST 2008

Ringing Bells for sessions.

I guess I can understand why you might be tempted in a short Open Space with
short sessions, but even then my feeling is that is a temptation to be
resisted. Part of this is the whole question of participants really taking
responsibility for what they care about - including the consequences of
either not caring or caring in a different way. But the real reason is a
deep feeling on my part that the essential task of the facilitator is to
create the optimal conditions under which the self-organizing system (the
group of participants) can function most effectively. It is NOT about
keeping things "on time," except for the start, and maybe the ending. For
whatever it is worth, I always make best effort to start "on time" - not
that it always works out that way.:-) And when it comes to the ending, I
feel the obligation to at least point out to folks that the official closing
time has arrived so that those who have some necessity to leave (planes to
catch etc) can do so. But in between beginning and ending it is all open
space, or should I say open time?

My learnings have been that self-organizing systems quickly generate their
own sense of time, which has little to do with the passage of hands over a
clock face, and everything to do with the flow or activity. Every group will
perceive this somewhat differently, and who am I to say what is a long time
or short time. Point is -- it is "their time," determined by their own sense
of need, accomplishment and ultimately the flow of their engagement. I can
never know how long people will require for a particular conversation, and I
think we have all been surprised how much can actually be accomplished in a
few moments when things are really flowing. Inserting "arbitrary" time
breaks interrupts that flow. "Arbitrary" in the sense that they are
determined by an external timetable (our schedule) as opposed to the
emergent and internal sense of time which the group creates for itself.  To
me this is "organizing a self-organizing system," which in addition to being
an oxymoron, usually turns out badly or at least awkwardly.

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 Peggy
Holman
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 12:23 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
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

For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to: 
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

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