Advice for an OS for learning & sharing for software developers
Harrison Owen
hhowen at verizon.net
Mon Jan 14 13:06:03 PST 2008
Harold -- It is not about trusting the process for after all Open Space has
been "done" well over 100,000 times in 134 countries -- and it always seems
to work. It is really about trusting the people. And if the 150 employees of
your company are anything more than marginally competent, committed and
brainy, there is not a question in my mind that they will come up with the
pertinent issues for the company. After all, they ARE the company. Not
everybody will have the same issue (thank God), nor will everybody be
interested in all the issues -- but take it from an old timer you can be
totally certain that the right people will come up with the right issues --
the ones they care about. And of course, if there are no issues, you will
have a very short session.
You may also need to think about another company :-)
A suggestion: Do you Open Space as the last day - in which people are
challenged to assess and synthesize what they have learned on the first two
days, and point the way forward. Doing OS on the first or second day will
create problems. As you know from your own experience, life in Open Space
will get pretty energetic, exciting and stimulating - after which sitting at
the feet of Talking Heads will not seem appealing.
I am reminded of working with a group of Japanese engineers (software) and
the sponsor's concerns were totally similar to your own. Not only were these
engineers, but they were Japanese Engineers (whatever that was supposed to
mean). I told him that as long as the group fell generally within the
genetic pool of Homo sapiens there should be no difficulty. There wasn't.
It's true. Even Engineers can 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 1:20 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Advice for an OS for learning & sharing for software developers
Dear Owen,
Thank you, it's such an honor to get a reply directly from you. I think my
issue is faith in myself and in the process. I've read the book (some
chapters more than once). I think maybe I just needed to hear it again in a
different way to help me "get" it. I appreciate the encouragement. I've
seen Open Space work in other scenarios and I just need to trust that people
will bring the topics that they care about. But I keep thinking I have to
"do" something to make it work, to allow people to bring questions or topics
like "How can we lead in a 50K Conglomerate?" and not just some engineering
topic that they had to spend a week preparing a powerpoint based on their
prior experience, which is the "box".
It's like an ugly itch in the brain, but is there some way to help me quiet
it down? I keep seeing this image of me opening the space and then no one
filling in any topic cards, or just a few that didn't get put in the first
tracks. Has anyone had experience in a similar situation for 30-50
engineers in a single department but working on different projects?
Harold
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