My Microsoft experience

[dave stevenson]

I love what Harrison is saying here. Maybe the fact that they "never heard"
of it is good, ie, its slipping under the anti-change cultural software that
holds big systems in their current patterns, as shown when OST is seen as
another one of those facillitation things...but OST comes in many forums,
this time as ninja of change. hopefully they may never hear of it until its
too late....they are open...kind of like being caught off guard by a satori
moment...then the whole system starts to ask not what should we do
next...something easy to defend against, but what have I become...what is
this open...spacious...self-organizing self I am now living...that would be
and is good whole systems identity crisis / opportunity...

Greeting from Vancouver Island
David Stevenson



On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 8:51 AM, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.org>wrote:

> 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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