Advice for an OS for learning & sharing for software developers

[Harrison Owen]

Harold -- Welcome!

Invitation: Short, sweet, and open. For a theme -- maybe something like
"Issues and Opportunities for Building Our Business." Presuming they (your
engineers) care about the business, that should get them started.

Don't try and explain Open Space. Folks wouldn't believe you anyhow. But you
can make some definite promises. 1)Every issue they care about will be on
the agenda. 2)Every issue will be discussed. 3) All will be reported. Those
are "keepable" promises.

No need to prepare anybody -- and in fact it will be counterproductive.
Suggesting issues in advance may make people think that they SHOULD talk
about those issues, when what they need to do is to talk about issues they
care about.

If this is your first Open Space I suggest that you do nothing but
facilitate. Admittedly there is not much to do, but there is a lot to learn,
and if you are busy posting/hosting issues you could miss a big bunch.

And by the way -- Everything I have said (and a whole lot more) is "in the
book." (Open Space Technology: A User's Guide -- Berrett-Koehler). You will
probably find it helpful to get a copy (Amazon will do it)

Have fun!

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 Harold
Shinsato
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:26 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Advice for an OS for learning & sharing for software developers

Dear Open Spacetronauts,

This is my first post to the list after an excellent training in San
Francisco in OS Facilitation from Lisa Heft.  With a one day OS coming up
that I'll be facilitating in February, I'm a little daunted by the process
of building the invitation and the theme and I have a few questions of how
to manage things during the event.

Some background, we used to be an independent engineering organization of
about 50 software developers, QA, documentation, and managers in several
locations in the U.S. and Europe.  We used to hold a conventionally
organized "Summit" with 2 tracks of presentations intended to share
information about the industry and our own work.  We would submit
suggestions and management would choose the presentations.  A few of the
sessions would be interactive, but most were powerpoint talking heads.

Last July our 150 person company was acquired by a 5000+ person company,
which is being acquired by SAP, (40,000+).  Even though we've been
"assimilated", we're still fairly intact as an engineering organization. 
I've been given the ok to hold one of the three days of the Engineering
Summit as Open Space.  It's a great chance to open up great conversations
about the strains and opportunities around the integration with a larger
company.

My questions for anyone who has done anything similar: How do I build an
invitation and a theme to best engage the participants?  Engineers are often
fairly reserved.  How can we best prepare them and get them engaged to
suggest conversation topics when the actual Open Space happens?  How can I
get them thinking outside the box of a PowerPoint lecture?  Is it possible
I'll need to suggest some topics to get them started?  Is it ok to talk
about possible topics in the invitation without overtly pushing and driving
the agenda?  Do I have to hold back from suggesting topics during the agenda
building session itself, even if I'm not in management.

Thanks so much for any help.

         Happy 2008!
         Harold

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