My Microsoft experience

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Steven,
I have a hunch that the reason for participants not mentioning you in 
the closing circle might have very little to do with you "enabling" them 
but much more with them actually being in "self-organisation" (with your 
support, no doubt).
Had you "enabled" them they probably would have thanked you.

Greetings from Berlin where we just spent three very good days with a 
crowd of 20 folks exploring "Wave Rider".
mmp
Steven "Doc" List wrote:
> Hello, my friends.
> 
> I've just finished an interesting couple of days.
> 
> As you may or may not know, Microsoft has a highly tarnished reputation 
> when it comes to Open Space.  They've tried, and pretty much botched it 
> a couple of highly visible times.
> 
> This week was their Strategic Architect Forum, put on by the same fellow 
> who had me do their Open Space in Redmond in April.
> 
> 284 software architects and managers from 34 countries and 190 different 
> organizations/companies.
> 
> Roughly 260 of them had no idea what Open Space was about, many of them 
> being skeptical (as usual :-)).
> 
> I had faith, as always, that it would all come together, and it did.  
> I'm learning, each time, the importance of what I refer to as the 
> set-up.  Walking the circle, explaining why they're there and what they 
> have a chance to do and then how they're going to do it - that's the 
> "set-up", combined with the process of crafting the invitation (thanks, 
> Michael!).
> 
> This was my largest event to date.  Three concentric circles of chairs 
> in the opening and closing circles.  Some reluctance on the part of many 
> of them to propose topics.  A microphone as the talking stick/token in 
> the closing circle, passed as often as used to speak.
> 
> And afterward, the energy and excitement.
> 
> But between the beginning of the closing circle and the "afterward", I 
> achieved something important for the first time.
> 
> I recall Harrison saying something along the lines of "if they thank you 
> at the end, you haven't done the job of facilitation right."
> 
> Always before, someone - or several someones - has thanked me in the 
> closing circle, praising me, recognizing me.  I admit that I was 
> skeptical about the whole idea of not being thanked, since it has always 
> seemed that they're all so aware of me, even as I have worked to be 
> invisibly present.
> 
> Today, at the end of the closing circle, I realized that no one had 
> mentioned my name, thanked me, recognized me in any way.
> 
> And I realized that my contribution was in enabling them to have a 
> unique and meaningful experience, and that by doing so effectively, I 
> had achieved something new.  I had finally become only a part of the 
> overall experience, contributing and enabling, but taking a back seat to 
> the community and its experience.
> 
> And along the way, I helped to introduce a wider group to the pleasures 
> of Open Space Technology, and might get to do so again with some of them.
> 
> Wow.
> 
> Thanks, Harrison.
> 
> ..Doc
> -- 
> Steven "Doc" List, Principal Consultant, ThoughtWorks NA
> Mobile: +1 (512) 924-9248 | Skype: steven.list | Yahoo: dadjester
> email: doc at thoughtworks.com | doc at anotherthought.com | web: 
> www.thoughtworks.com
> 
> Watch me being interviewed about Open Space Technology: 
> http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Open-Spaces-Steven-List
> 
> Everyone should know it's the month of Movember! Please donate to the
> cause of men's health at http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1794841
> 
> 
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