Volunteers and conscripts
Tonnie van der Zouwen
info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl
Fri May 29 06:50:13 PDT 2009
Harrison, you are right. What I mend to say is that a lot of clients are not
familiar with, or a bit allergic for, "jargon" of consultants. They don't
ask me to make an offer to facilitate self-organization, they ask me to
facilitate a process for ....whatever their goal is. One of my challenges is
to explain the process and why it works in everyday language. And it might
be very confronting to discover that we don't really have a choice, only
indirect controls maybe?
Tonnie
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Namens Harrison Owen
Verzonden: donderdag 28 mei 2009 19:40
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: Re: [OSLIST] Volunteers and conscripts
Tonnie - As small point. You said, "I think it wise to realize that clients
don't want self-organization." Point is - Clients don't really have a
choice. At least they don't have a choice if self-organization has been the
order of the day for 13.7 billion years. I guess you could call that
"theory" but to me it feels very much like boots on the ground fact. At the
very least I know I didn't organize the cosmos - so it either happened all
by itself or. . .
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Tonnie van
der Zouwen
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:19 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Volunteers and conscripts
Hi Jack,
Thank you for your critical comments. I think it wise to realize that
clients don't want self-organization or a specific method, they want to get
a job done. It's our skill to help find and facilitate an effective process.
For my research project on success factors of large scale interventions I
certainly am going to use the quote That's all very well in practice - but
will it work in theory? Reminds me of the quote "In theory there is no
difference between theory and practice, in practice there is" ( Yogi Berra
or ?, see http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DifferenceBetweenTheoryAndPractice ).
Building bridges between theory and practice is not so easy in scholarly
research, I notice.
One of the conclusions of my research so far is that of course things can go
wrong if you do not master the technique of Open Space, but one of the most
important success factors in organizations is the play with the client and
the planning team. Expectation management, getting clear what they want to
achieve, talking about the philosophy why this approach will work,
negotiating about adequate conditions, the guts to say no if basic
requirements are not met (time is too short to get the job done, or
diversity is too low, no compelling issue, etc.). Just as in every
consultancy process. Maybe this play is less important in communities
where power is more distributed among participants and people are really
free to participate or not? Another success factor turns out to be the focus
on the bigger process, not on the event.
Although I often lack the time to respond, I am learning a lot from this
OSList. Thanks to you all! Let's celebrate on the 4th of July.
Tonnie
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Namens Jack Martin Leith
Verzonden: donderdag 28 mei 2009 11:24
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: [SPAM]Re: [OSLIST] Volunteers and conscripts
Harrison, thank you for the clarification ... and the birthday date.
I propose that we declare 4 July 2010 (July 4 2020 if you do it that way
round where you live) World Open Space Day, and mark the occasion in some
suitable way. Does anyone have some ideas about how we might do this?
I'll make a post to Osuki - let's see what emerges!
Regarding the 60 minute Open Space that someone mentioned, I'll describe the
way I did it on this list if anyone's interested. The event was the MIT
Entrepreneurship Center (http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu
<http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/> ) conference that took place in Madrid in
May 2008.
Jack
Jack Martin Leith
Innovation Next : An emerging hub for innovation next practice
Bristol, United Kingdom
Mobile: 07831 840541 (+44 7831 840541)
Skype: jackmartinleith
email: jack at innovationnext.org
www.innovationnext.org | www.jackmartinleith.com
Follow me on Twitter for innovation news: http://twitter.com/jackmartinleith
Join the management renegades at http://moon-shots.ning.com
2009/5/27 Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Jack I never said that OS would not work with "conscripts." I did say that
the result would be less than optimal - and that if one wanted the very
best, voluntary self-selection was essential. At least that has been my
experience so far. In fact Open Space works very effectively in prisons -
where voluntary self-selection is not an ordinary practice. But I cannot
believe that prison life could be confused with optimal human conditions,
although I grant that a number of places of business have much in common
with many prisons. There may be a lack of concertina wire and guard towers,
but I found the atmosphere very much the same. In such places Open Space
works as well, if only because even such miserable excuses for work
environments are also part of this self organizing world. But I think it
safe to say that high levels of performance, creativity, innovation, and the
like are not commonly found. As for the birth date of Open Space Technology
- that would be July the 4th weekend in Monterey California. Didn't think of
it at the time, but in retrospect I find that date marvelously appropriate.
Something about -- Revolution and Freedom (from the Crown). You might say
Voluntary Self-Selection!
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jack
Martin Leith
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 12:59 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Volunteers and conscripts
I've turned Bhav's question and Harrison's response into a blog post on the
Osuki website, and added a comment of my own.
Here's the link: www.osuki.net/?p=913
If you don't want to click on the link you can see my comment below.
Harrison and Bhav, I hope it's OK with you that I've posted this article. I
haven't named Bhav. I'll delete the post if either of you asks me to.
Warm wishes from Bristol, UK.
Jack
P.S. Harrison, can you please remind us of the exact date of the 25th
birthday of Open Space?
Jack Martin Leith
Innovation Next : An emerging hub for innovation next practice
Bristol, United Kingdom
Mobile: 07831 840541 (+44 7831 840541)
Skype: jackmartinleith
email: jack at innovationnext.org
www.innovationnext.org <http://www.innovationnext.org/> |
www.jackmartinleith.com <http://www.jackmartinleith.com/>
Follow me on Twitter for innovation news: http://twitter.com/jackmartinleith
Join the management renegades at http://moon-shots.ning.com
<http://moon-shots.ning.com/>
---------------------------------
http://www.osuki.net/?p=913#comments
While I agree with pretty much everything Harrison says here, in the 20
years that I've been working professionally with Open Space Technology, I
can't think of a single client that was seeking to create a self-organising
system. They simply wanted to get a job done, and OST was the chosen tool.
Many of the Open Space events I've co-designed and facilitated were not
organised on a voluntary participation basis, yet the respective clients
were happy with the results. Would voluntary participation have bettered
these results? Maybe . maybe not. We'll never know.
What's beyond doubt is that OST is a very robust process that can be
effective even when prevailing thinking suggests it's doomed to failure.
In the early 1990s I co-facilitated, with
<http://www.osuki.net/?page_id=530> Mo Cohen of this parish, a two-day Open
Space event for the change management practice of a large management
consulting firm.
The client had a hidden agenda that was shockingly revealed at the end of
the first day of a two-day Open Space event. The secret plan was a radical
reorganisation of the change management practice that would have a big
impact on everyone in the room.
At the start of the second day the participants, conscripts one and all,
binned their agenda and created a new one focused on the implications of the
reorganisation.
My friend and collaborator <http://www.osuki.net/?page_id=126> Jean-Marc Le
Tissier (also of this parish) was an employee of the consulting firm and a
participant in the event. Whenever we recollect those two days we agree that
Open Space was the right tool for the job. It shouldn't have worked - but it
did.
That's all very well in practice - but will it work in theory?
Unknown
Open Space is an extremely resilient 24 year old. Let's start planning the
25th birthday celebrations (early July 2010) now!
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