[OSLIST] Baby-step into O.S. -- questions

Thu Feb 12 08:57:20 PST 2009

Nice Esther.

Here’s a bit that I wrote recently about hosting with two groups that were
crossing thresholds of how they meet. One in health care. The other a faith
community. It relates to the issue you are raising Lisa. Thanks for stirring
my thoughts on it

“In both, there was a feeling of launching. Launching a new era, visions of
the future, born from deliberate interaction and conversation with each
other. With both, the involvement of community, the invitation to create
together, signaled or amplified a way of working that was different. With
both, before starting, we could feel some of the concern that we have
learned is rooted in desire to do the best work possible – will this really
work? Will we get done what we need too? Will community work? 

With both of these groups, we saw concern and angst shift to conviction and
courage. We saw nervousness that unstructured agenda items would be
neglected shift to surprise at how many agenda items were created and
addressed by participants. IDWM Executive Director Adonna Bowman spoke it
beautifully after the event, when she realized that the agenda we created as
a group included 36 topics. “If the executive committee had imposed those 36
topics, we’d be lucky to have half the people care about even half of the
topics. Yet here, everybody cared about all of them. It was remarkable.” “

Tenneson

Tenneson Woolf

Lindon, Utah USA

 <mailto:tenneson at berkana.org> tenneson at berkana.org

801 785 2276

801 376 2213 Cell

 <http://www.tennesonwoolf.com> www.tennesonwoolf.com

 <http://www.berkana.org> www.berkana.org

 <http://www.artofhosting.org> www.artofhosting.org

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could
not hear the music.

Nietzsche

  _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Esther
Matte
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 4:50 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: [OSLIST] RE : [OSLIST] Baby-step into O.S. -- questions

Hi Lisa,

Welcome to the wonderful OS community!

I agree with Wendy regarding inviting everyone, including the vanguard
folks, to have the whole system in the room. I sense from your comment on
building confidence within the “laggers” that maybe you anticipate the
vanguard to be dominating the discussions, or the less active people to not
participate fully in the presence of the enthusiasts. I recently worked with
a group where the planning committee had that feeling and fear that people
would not speak up and fully participate. I then realized that if you, as a
facilitator, are fully confident and trust the process and the group, that
confidence really does project on the group and creates a safe environment
for people to express their ideas. And there is always the Law of two feet,
which helps containing any attempt to dominate.

As Wendy says so well: trust your intuition and listen to your heart. You
and the group will find your way and do great!

Esther Matte

Discover - Engage - Accomplish

New York: 212.755.0551

Montreal: 450.583.5849

www.excellence.ca

-----Message d'origine-----
De : OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] De la part de Lisa Floyd
Envoyé : 9 février 2009 23:06
À : OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Objet : [OSLIST] Baby-step into O.S. -- questions

Hello, everyone, 

I'm a new swimmer in this pool -- 1st time in the pool, actually.
I've had the pleasure of two OS Facilitator trainings with Lisa Heft this
year.
I'm not a facilitator by trade, occupation, habit, or experience....but:

I have a community of friends with a common goal and some guidelines and
action plans on how best to pursue that goal.
As always there are some in the vanguard of the process and some (of us)
that are lingering back not feeling much attraction to the tasks at hand,
not participating much, but want to participate actively in some other (not
yet explored or offered) ways.
Those in the vanguard are on 'tilt' over-time, and are scheduled to burn-out
soon, so they don't have the time -- nor the pace -- to keep holding our
hands...we need to get ourselves motivated and active. 

I've invited some of the laggers to get together to see what we can do to
support the collective effort -- for about 4 hours this Thursday (State
holiday) or this weekend depending on most convenient date -- for 3 purely
selfish reasons:

1)  I want to dialoge with the other laggers to get myself motivated in some
direction or activity -- not just a social-whine time.
2)  I want to introdue O.S. to the community.
3)  I want to practice some O.S. to the extent that I might be able to, as a
raw beginner. 

Last week -- before consulting you -- I sent out a personal invitation with
motive and purpose to about 12 people, and offered a choice of 3 dates
within this week to see which day would be best.  I'm hoping to get maybe
4-12 participants.  
I cast it as an informal O.S. experiment and a fun, productive use of our
time.
Most know that I'd like to try this (OS) method as they've heard me advocate
it as a change from the common facilitator-centered, agenda-driven,
arm-twisting mtg.) 
So, so far, I'm the "client" and the self-designated "facilitator".... 

So, my questions are: 
Obviously, I'd like to participate in the converstions, dialogues.
Must I remain faithful to a facilitator roll?  
Or can I open the space then put on my "participant" hat until the closing
circle, making it clear in the intro that I'm doing that and it is not
"orthodox" OS?

I'm conflicted that I did not reach out to the whole community, i.e. the
enthusiasts & the people I don't really know, for this mtg.  
I basically invited those who seem to have similar needs as me.
Is that okay this time?  ("It's my party and I'll invite who I want to",
mentality.)

[Background & rationale:
The enthusiasts are already overwhelmed with their work; that's why they
need us, too.  I only invited those 'silent' folks with whom I sense common
feelings and reasons for not enthusiastically following the lead of those
who are already off & running with an action plan.  We stragglers don't
necessarily have common action ideas or abilities, so there is still a wee
bit of diversity in the group of invitees.  It's certain that we don't want
to create an alternative initiative, either.  We are very familiar with the
goals and plans of action now in process and the stretched resources and
sacrifices of those doing the work, and we would like to be useful in our
own ways.]  

So my invitation left out the vanguard folks. (They've led the agenda-driven
meetings with much enthusiasm which hasn't lit some of us up so far --
yawn.)  

By leaving them out, I thought we stragglers could get some confidence in
our own thoughts -- in an open space -- to practice our own voices for the
next community reflection/planning mtg, or to invite the enthusiasts to a
future mtg. of us stragglers.  Afterall, we need the enthusiasts' input at
some point in order to support them successfully.  Or, one could hope, that
seeing the stragglers step up with renewed enthusiasm, good ideas, and
participation might provide motive to use O.S. as the format for the next
reflection/planning meeting.

Pitfalls, counter-arguments, or encouragement, anyone? 
(I should confirm a date by tomorrow and maybe know my role by then, eh?) 

Thanks ahead of time,
lisafloyd
Santa Rosa, CA, USA

-*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*-- 
=*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*==*

  _____  

See how Windows connects the people, information, and fun that are part of
your life. See Now
<http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/msnnkwxp1020093175mrt/direct/01/> 

__________ Information NOD32 3841 (20090210) __________

Ce message a ete verifie par NOD32 Antivirus System.
http://www.nod32.com

* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist *
* ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20090212/03af379c/attachment-0016.htm>