SV: [OSLIST] Help! And the spread of os

Thu Apr 2 14:37:20 PDT 2009

Hooray – congrats to the participants, the sponsor and to you Chris – way to
go.

The OS community is cheering (anyway I hear it here)

ThomasHerrmann (new on Twitter since a little while ThomasHerr txs for that
interesting discussion too!)

  _____  

Från: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] För Chris Corrigan
Skickat: den 2 april 2009 18:23
Till: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Ämne: Re: [OSLIST] Help! And the spread of os

Great points you guys.

And so the update to the story has something to do with this.

My client is aware of the results of Open Space having used it twice
previously, in both cases with proper attention to the form.  When I
received the notes about the room set up a few days ago I spoke up for the
circle, but more importantly, I spoke up for the integrity of the process.
Part of my conversation, and this is important for OST facilitators to
remember, was to talk about why the room set up matters.  I had to explain
that my attachment to the circle was not some stubborn and irrational demand
on my part, but was rather a plea to use the process properly so that could
achieve the same quality of results that they had previously enjoyed using
OST.  I hadn't yet moved to the point of NOT calling it OST, but I would
have had no problem doing so.  

The fact is, while we as facilitators know all this stuff (or at least we
SHOULD know this stuff, if that is what we are being paid to do), most
people don't.  Most people assume that group process is some that the
facilitator does, and that the physical context doesn't matter.  I have had
dozens of clients who have come to me with a preset agenda and asked me to
do Open Space with it, knowing that this is what I do.  I mean it's funny
sometimes, but it's important that we just stay with the client and explain
to them the way process works.  Not everyone knows the ins and outs of this
kind of work in the world, and it behooves us to treat people
compassionately, remembering that 9 times out of 10, people have good
intentions.  I have never had a case where someone wanted to do anything
like this out of malicious intent..

This current situation of mine is interesting in many levels and it speaks
to the kind of attention that is required to do this properly.  We have been
designing this meeting for some time, and the client knew about, and wanted
Open Space for one day of the full gathering.  It is a good design overall,
but our planning has suffered I think from a contraction of control due to a
number of factors.  It is a very scary time for people to be spending large
amounts of money on things, and the typical reaction to fear and chaos is to
turn away from trusting the process and try to hang on to control over
anything.  The role of an Open Space facilitator always involves significant
coaching of reticent clients, and this story is no different.

Through some perseverance, and compassionate conversation, we have now got
the room set up straightened out and we are going to do an Open Space,
properly and with good attention to quality.  The ideas and conversation on
this list were a great help to me being able to stay resourceful in the face
of the changing dynamics on our planning team, and for that I thank you, and
I commit to rolling up the wisdom that has been shared here and publishing
it for us as a community to use.

Cheers,

Chris  

On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Lori Palano <lpalano at yahoo.com> wrote:

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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-- 
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Facilitation - Training - Process Design
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

Principal, Harvest Moon Consultants, Ltd.
http://www.harvestmoonconsultants.com
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