Why is a grid sometimes useful?

Wendy Farmer-O'Neil wendy at xe.net
Tue Aug 11 10:50:19 PDT 2009


Thanks Michael for one less thing to do :)
Wendy

On 11-Aug-09, at 10:27 AM, Michael Herman wrote:

> on colors... it's easy to put a little stripe down the side of each  
> post-it note... so with a full set of markers, i never run out of  
> colors -- if i want to color code things at all.
>
> and this notion of who organizes and when can apply to setting up  
> the chairs as well.  do you set circles of 10 or 12 or 15 chairs in  
> breakout spaces?  my very first open space i did it that way.  and  
> in some groups of two and three, people ended up sitting seemed like  
> so very far away from each other.  not knowing each other well  
> enough to move closer.  ever since then i put only three chairs,  
> with front corners right together, so that anyone sitting here will  
> have to decide where it goes relative to others.  even if only two  
> people show up.  i put extras in stacks or lines along the wall and  
> more than three ppts can pull from there.  or they pull from big  
> circle.  so this gives ppts full responsibility for how close they  
> get to others and is a lot easier for setting up.
>
> m
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
>
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> http://www.ronanparktrail.com
> http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
> http://www.openspaceworld.org
>
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com 
> > wrote:
> Late to the grid talk...
>
> By default I don't use a grid.  What I like about the gridless setup  
> is that it gives the control freaks something to do.  It's hard  
> enough being in the chaos of space opening - many type A  
> personalities feel helpless.  When the come to the wall, it has  
> often been my experience that they take charge and organize things  
> by time, sometimes lining up the posters very nicely.  As a ritual  
> it seems to calm them down and ground them and it gives the message  
> that this is truly a day owned by the group.
>
> And more often than not, folks just get along fine with the collage.
>
> But there is another way I have done things, especially when the  
> start and finish times are likely to shift (in indigenous  
> communities things can start a lot later than is scheduled.)   
> Instead of writing times and spaces on dozens of post it notes, I  
> just write the spaces and I place them on a big poster that says the  
> times.  If the times change, it's easy to just make a new poster and  
> cluster the little post-it notes around it.  If you colour code the  
> writing on the poster with the colour of the post it notes, it makes  
> it kinesthetically easier to see the pattern.
>
> (I almost always use coloured post-it notes by the way, one colour  
> for each time slot).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Peggy Holman <peggy at opencirclecompany.com 
> > wrote:
> To grid or not to grid...
>
> For me, it depends.  Two circumstances lead me to offer more order.
>
> Size.  As the size of the group increases, there are more sessions  
> to track.  With a larger group, I post times along the top of the  
> agenda wall.  Like Lisa, I often use different colors for different  
> times.  When I did the OS for 2,100 street kids in Bogota, we set up  
> a grid; each time had its own wall and we put the room numbers  
> across the rows:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/78084501@N00/79452637/in/set-1700469/
>
> It just seemed the best way to support the crowd in finding sessions  
> of interest.
>
> Culture.  The other circumstance in which I've used a grid is when  
> the culture of the group seems to call for it.  As Kaliya noted,  
> engineers seem more productive with a grid.  I think it is for them,  
> one less thing.
>
> Speaking of culture, one of the most telling images for me is the OS  
> of 2108 that Harrison and Michael did in Wurtzberg and the 2,100  
> street kids.  As people waited to announce their sessions in  
> Germany, they were in a neat line.  The street kids looked like a  
> mob around Andres, who held the mic.  In both cases, it was orderly  
> but the image was sure different!
>
> Wurzberg:  http://www.transformation.at//?art_id=46
> (pages 39-41)
>
>
> Colombia:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/78084501@N00/79454421/in/set-1700469/
>
> Peggy
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________
> Peggy Holman
> The Open Circle Company
> 15347 SE 49th Place
> Bellevue, WA  98006
> 425-746-6274
> www.opencirclecompany.com
> www.journalismthatmatters.org
>
> For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to:
> www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook
>
> "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not  
> get burnt, is to become
> the fire".
>   -- Drew Dellinger
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 7, 2009, at 6:00 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:
>
>> Artur – we will be looking forward to your return! And an odd  
>> thought passed through my muddled mind. It occurred to me, I think  
>> because you mentioned being an engineer that it might somehow  
>> appear that “getting organized”  and “being organized” are somehow  
>> anathema to Open Space. It might even seem that I have implied as  
>> much – if so that would be a massive mistake on my part. The issue  
>> is not “organization” – but who does it and when does it happen?  
>> The truth of the matter is that every Open Space is highly  
>> organized, usually more so than any facilitator or planning  
>> committee could ever imagine.
>>
>> Consider 2108 German psychiatrists X 236 concurrent sessions in an  
>> 8 hour period. That would take a planning committee years! And they  
>> would never get it right -- things would always be late, and great  
>> frustration would be a predictable outcome. In the instance, the  
>> people did it all themselves in something less than an hour and it  
>> all worked out perfectly including written reports for all or most  
>> of the sessions. Now Mr Engineer, Can you beat that? Just kidding J
>>
>> For me the real issue is efficiency and effectiveness – which are  
>> presumably positive values that all engineers will ascribe to. In  
>> that case the only question is how do you get there fastest and  
>> bestest? The curious answer would seem to be Do Less!
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>> Harrison Owen
>> 189 Beaucaire Ave
>> Camden, ME 04843
>> 207-763-3261 (Summer)
>> 301-365-2093 (Winter)
>> Website www.openspaceworld.com
>> Personal Website www.ho-image.com
>> OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>>
>>
>>
>> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of  
>> Artur Silva
>> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 6:57 AM
>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Why is a grid sometimes useful?
>>
>> Being out of my office with bad internet contact and short of time,  
>> I only red some of this rich exchange.
>>
>> I must say, like Bernd, that, probably because of my education as  
>> an engineer, I never thought about doing it without a grid. And  
>> living in a Chatolic country, even with a grid, most managers think  
>> that OST is too much for them...
>>
>> But then some coments from Harrison and Lisa make me think...
>>
>> I will continue to think, and after the 18th, with better conexion,  
>> I will coment something.
>>
>> But don´t ask me what ;-)
>>
>> Regards from the countryside somewhere in the north of Portugal
>>
>> Artur
>>
>> -----------
>>
>> --- On Thu, 8/6/09, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
>> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Why is a grid sometimes useful?
>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 5:17 AM
>>
>> Lesley, I think you got it! (“It is my sense of things that the  
>> more we order….the more we take away from the process……..however  
>> this can be very uncomfortable for us(facilitator”). It is all  
>> about organizing a self organizing system. Not only is that an  
>> oxymoron, but also of questionable intelligence – regardless of the  
>> alleged increase of comfort.
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>>
>>
>>
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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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Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
CEO Prospera Consulting
wendy at xe.net
1-800-713-2351

The moment of change is the only poem. -- Adrienne Rich





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