Open Space and academic research

Wed Dec 2 03:13:21 PST 2009

Dear  Harrison, 

Yesterday I was reading (almost) all emails on this list. Learned a lot
again. What I kept wandering about last evening is your remark about how
little attention to OST is paid so far in academic research and
publications. Since I am doing research on large scale interventions
(Success factors and effects and a practical guide for effective use of LSI)
this triggered me: What research questions would you like to be answered in
academic research?  What would you like OST to be compared with? Then I
realized that touches the question: How to see OST and what is it used for?
In your book Wave rider you give examples of OST as a method for creating
high performance systems. The practitioner in me reacts: Ok, I know it
works, let's do it. The academic researcher in me sais: He, interesting, how
do I know the high performance system is there? How long will it last? What
is the influence of the length of the meeting? Does it ripple off, why/why
not? Et cetera. 

We had two conferences with researchers, practitioners and clients about my
research on success factors and effects of LSI. Thanks again Harrison for
contributing to the online conference. In the discussions, especially in the
live conference on September 17th,  a wide gap showed between LSI practice
and academic tradition. I think that explains part of the relatively little
attention in academic research. Some practitioners say: "we don't need
evidence from research, we already know it works", or "research will never
be able to grasp the magic of .." . While some  researchers say: "It is all
self reported success from founders and practitioners with an interest in a
positive image", or "If you can't conceptualize it you should try harder".
Moreover, you have to work with sophisticated qualitative research methods
to do justice to complex situations and the richness of an intervention as
OST. It is my opinion most academic institutes still operate in a classic
quantitative or linear research tradition. They don't want to burn their
hands on what they think wooly stuff, or they simply don't know how to
inquire complex interventions. 

Another problem with finding articles on  research on OST is that the
phenomenon is labeled with different names. On the level of OST as a large
group intervention, or as an interactive method for change more literature
is available. But you don't see OST in the title. I gathered a long list of
references, so if you are interested let me know. 

Luckily, there are also practitioners and researchers who see possibilities
and added value in academic research. Especially those who combine both
activities.  

What would you want from research?

Tonnie

Drs. Tonnie van der Zouwen MCM 

Beneluxlaan 66
5251 LE Vlijmen 
The Netherlands

Tel.:
Mobile:
E-mail:
Internet:

+31 73 - 51 11 600
+ 31 6 - 50 69 79 82  <mailto:info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl> 
info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl
 <http://www.tonnievanderzouwen.nl/> www.tonnievanderzouwen.com
 <http://www.largescaleinterventions.com> www.largescaleinterventions.com 

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