Help! And the spread of os

Thu Apr 2 06:24:23 PDT 2009

Dear list

I have been observing on this list for some time now, although I have only been working with open space for a year and a half. I think this comment is extraordinarily pertinent -- only calling it OS when it really is. However, I believe our real challenge is not in making sure that OS practitioners only call it open space when it really is . . . the real challenge is when others, who seem not to even understand the basic principles or form of OS, use the term.

I'll share an example. I was at a workshop facilitated by a consultant who got his start from "change management" training from the provincial government of Alberta. That was many years ago, and he has had many independent experiences and other training since. As someone who hosts working groups myself, I must be the worst person to have in the 'audience' -- my mind is always at least half on the form of what is being facilitated, and much more than half if the conversations are not dynamic or open in spirit. Anyway, on day 3 this guy had us all fill in cards with suggested solutions to the challenge at hand and then he asked us to lay them on the floor grouped together with similar solutions. OK, fine, I've seen this before. It often works well for me when I'm in a decision-making stage with early-teens as they often need to be very visual to communicate in a group. It's not very dynamic, and often it ends up with only 2 or 3 people out of a group doing
 all the organising and the rest just sitting around. So I was just sitting around, thinking about ways that different elements of hosting could have better addressed the needs of this group, when the facilitator says very proudly :

"this is a technique called 'open space technology'"

WHAT? Oh there are so many problems with that sentence in this context! Forget the fact it is completely and utterly not true, and I still have serious problems with pulling out the term as an unexplained jargon in the middle of the work that (some) people are doing.

So, it is wonderful that we on this list can be careful to only call something OS when it is, but we are not the only ones using the term. this leaves me with a couple of questions :

On a personal level, how can we respond to situations like the one I experienced? I was too dumbfounded to respond, and I am unsure what would have been a useful response anyway.

As practitioners, how do we encourage wide use of OST while at the same time hoping to maintain the purity (if you permit this word) and effectiveness of the 'classical' form?

Thanks for the wonderful conversations!

Lori

--- En date de : Jeu, 2.4.09, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.org> a écrit :

> De: Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.org>
> Objet: Re: [OSLIST] Help! And the spread of os
> À: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Date: jeudi 2 Avril 2009, 6 h 45
> Dear Chris,
> seems this list has provided varied and complex and utterly
> useful feedback and advice...and there will be a great event
> with those 500 that are expected.
> Reason I am chiming in is that I have been quite interested
> in spreading open space (Harrison has spoken of the day when
> OST will be as widely used as double whatever bookkeeping,
> in Berlin I refer to the day when it will be as well known
> as the "Kleine Einmaleins" which is the small
> multiplication table)and support all kinds of small and
> larger efforts to assist its spreading.
> Of course, the most obvious and simplest and most effective
> way to spread OST is to facilitate, sponsor, etc. Open Space
> events.
> And perhaps even more powerful, NOT to facilitate etc.
> events that attempt to be something like OS events.
> Actually, I have found my gentle insistence in supporting
> potential sponsors of OS events to mull over
> "complexity, diversity, conflict, urgency, real
> business issue and voluntary selfselection" and my very
> gentle insistence on the basic elements "circle,
> breath, bulletin board and market place" to result in
> the planned event at hand not to be done using OST...and
> being called upon later for other events by the same sponsor
> insisting on OST with all the essentials in place.
> Working this way (I call it "classical" OST), I
> have been approached dozens of times by participants coming
> up to me during OST events saying something like: I did not
> really want to come to this
> gathering/conference/meeting/etc. when I heard it was going
> to be an Open Space...those I have been to, were awful. But
> this time I am ...(you fill in the typical stuff)...do you
> think it could also be used in our neighborhood school (my
> business,the hospital I work in, etc)?
> Have a great day
> mmp
> 
> 
> Chris Corrigan wrote:
> > I've been at this a long time now, but I've
> run up against a situation like
> > this.  I'm stumped and looking for help.
> > 
> > I;ll be opening space for a gethering of 500+ people. 
> The client is
> > completely unwilling to set the room in a circle. 
> Instead, we will have 96
> > tables with 6 chairs at each table packed into a
> spacious but full ball room
> > facing a stage.  The walls of this room are
> incredible...they appear to be
> > actually stuffed with cotton and covered in fabric. 
> There is little hope of
> > putting anything on the walls.
> > 
> > On the plus side we will have lots of AV, so there is
> a goodly amount of
> > technology available to play with for agenda setting
> and huge screen
> > projection.
> > 
> > I'm worried on a number of levels as you can
> imagine, but at the moment I'm
> > trying to put that all aside and figure out, in this
> worst case scenario,
> > what is the best thing we could do to Open Space? 
> Anyone been faced with
> > similar constraints?  Help me out here...
> > 
> > All tips and support I get on this, I'll roll up
> into a little document on
> > "what to do when nothing is what you need it to
> be" and we can share it out.
> > 
> > OSLIST group mind...activate!
> > 
> > Chris
> > 
> 
> -- Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49-30-772 8000
> mmpanne at boscop.org
> www.boscop.org
> 
> 
> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 462
> resident Open Space Workers in 73 countries working in a
> total of 139 countries worldwide
> Have a look:
> www.openspaceworldmap.org
> 
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