REFLECTIONS ON MY FIRST OPEN SPACE

Mon Jul 13 05:12:54 PDT 2009

Thank You Eleder! Always great to have another brother/sister in the band.
On the subject of doing nothing, hard job indeed. You said, "I read "OST
user's guide" to try to visualise my behaviour after opening space and
holding space during the meetings. 
But still I felt sometimes uncomfortable not knowing how to behave. Trying
to do nothing, not thinking, just being at hand,...
Would it be OK, for example, me just listening to a any group's
conversation?"

"Being present and totally invisible" is really impossible == but I find
that trying to achieve that adds to the experience, yours and the group's.
The point is to make it very clear that the group is on its own in terms of
how it organizes, what it does, and when. This is not, as some might
suspect, a matter of doctrine, dogma, or creed - it is simply that the
experience over the years has been that everything works better than way. A
fully functional self organized group will beat the pants off of any other
sort in terms of productivity, innovation, and just plain fun every time,
and all the time. The problem is that for most people, the experience and
expectation is that "somebody" (facilitator, manager, leader, etc) is going
to do the oxymoronic == organize as self organizing group. It is assumed
that this is what they are supposed to do - and so even if you as
facilitator are resolved to keep your hands off, it is very easy to get
trapped by peoples' expectations. However, if you physically remove yourself
the temptation will not arise - on your part to assume the old role, or on
the peoples' part to expect it. I think this is particularly true for a
"first time." We have all been trained to intervene and take charge.
Supposedly that is our job! So this is a sometimes painful bit of
retraining. :-)

I think you will find, once you get the hang of it, that if you will
actually leave the group (take a walk or a nap) for the first hour or so,
you can then come back and be a participant. By that time everybody should
be so involved in what they have a passion for that your presence is
basically inconsequential - at least in the old role of major domo. One of
my favorite moments on a multi-day Open Space is when somebody comes up to
me on the 2nd day, looks me in the eye (sometimes with suspicion) and says -
Who are you? When that happens I know I have really done my job.

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 

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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of ELEDER
AURTENETXE PILDAIN
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 3:21 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: REFLECTIONS ON MY FIRST OPEN SPACE

 <http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist> Hello, bright summer morning here in
Bilbao. How are you?
I'm writing some lines now to report on my first OS experience (Monday,
2009/6/29). 
Thanks for your attention, beforehand.

Overall, the event ran ok, and first time is usually harder, isn't it?

I've realised some things to improve, though, and some doubts have also
aroused. First I'll say that my first OS
was, maybe, a bit artificial (nine people interested in creativity and not
knowing each other before - 3 exceptions -
were invited to build some knowledge about it, with these questions:

    "CREATIVITY (ability to create). It is useful in education, anyone's
life, the arts, enterprises,...
        * is there a way to improve it?
        * are techniques really useful. Which ones and in which ways? "

I'll search the OST files about them, but here some of my thoughts:

1. Not too hot topic. No real deadline.   RESULT: Tension was lacking....
but it worked as a tool. 
People got involved in real conversations and written reports were
distributed in the afternoon.
The day after we commented on the experience itself, and people found it
useful... 
but next times I'll only use it in more real issues and more suitable
conditions.

2. The law of two feet wasn't almost really used (although it was
extensively explained at the beginnig).

Afterwards I was explained that they wouldn't feel comfortable doing so
because of habits, believes,...
It helped me understand this behaviour and realising that, next times, it'll
have to be more stressed in the opening.

But, besides it, should the facilitator remind it to people DURING the OS is
running?

3. LUNCH TIME:
We had lunch together (unless one fellow that got home and back with us
after lunch). How should the facilitator behave meanwhile?

Conversations were the typical of a learning group, not directly regarding
the issues spoken in the OS. I suppose it is quite normal.
Should/Could the facilitator, maybe, be apart at lunch time?

4. I read "OST user's guide" to try to visualise my behaviour after opening
space and holding space during the meetings. 
But still I felt sometimes uncomfortable not knowing how to behave. Trying
to do nothing, not thinking, just being at hand,...

Would it be OK, for example, me just listening to a any group's
conversation? 

I was appart all the time but quite near, I sometimes felt they could be
thinking 
I was some kind of spy :-),... I went off... came back afterwards, I avoided
to get in contact with the stuff people for other subjects I  had to deal
with,
I would then start thinking they were all thinking "what a witty guy, 
he just put the people working, now he's just wandering and will be charging
us for it!" :-)...

5. Would it be ok if I disappeared for a time to do something of my
business?
(I guess not because this would involve being absent for a while)...

I'll reread the user's guide and the ost-list for this issue, no doubt,...

6. After proposing a discussion subject and having a group formed, being
part of the agenda, the one who had called for it
said she wouldn't write the report (she wasn't good at it). I suggested she
could have someone else of the group write it. 

At last the group discussed about the specific subject ("creativity and
physical movement") but no report was raised.
I let it be and pointed that due to it the people that weren't engaged in
this discussion would not know much about it
(the real aim of writing reports). 

Next meetings finished with their reports written. 

Any other ideas about how I could have behaved?

7. Another question (the answer of which I can guess :-):

would it be ok if I had a small Mind-Map with the main points 
I wouldn't anyway want to forget to explain in the opening?
I found myself realising having forgot to say something
and saying it afterwards,... although there was no big trouble about it.

8. An organisation issue. As the place would be open just one hour before
beginning the OS,
I made the preparation in the hotel the day before, and was a bit uneasy
this morning.
I suppose it would have been better leaving the main things prepared on
Friday evening 
(the OS started on Monday morning and I wasn't let enter the place during
the weekend).

Kind regards,

Eleder Aurtenetxe Pildain
    BILBAO
    BM31
    www.burumapak.blogspot.com

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