Demo OS in 90 minutes?

Suzanne Daigle sdaigle4 at gmail.com
Thu Apr 15 09:04:21 PDT 2010


Annamarie,

Last fall, I opened space in 75 minutes with great trepidation
initially but it worked.  It was a student/community/teachers group
with 2 separate groups of 40 participants each. We were 2 facilitators
in two separate rooms.  It was part of a six-week program on “Creating
a Sustainable Tampa Bay community”.   The first week, Margaret
Wheatley was addressing and engaging the group on Skype; then Week 2
was a World Café.

Wk 3 was Open Space. The group responded so well that we decided to
have Open Space in Wks 4 and 5. The first two sessions focused on
emerging and discussing Topics;  the last session focused on
convergence: prioritizing and inviting action.

Our goal was to maximize the time that participants would have
together and minimize facilitator face time.

The schedule looked like this:

3 minutes:  	Opening remarks by the Host
12 minutes	Opening the Circle (Facilitator)
10 minutes	Posting and announcing topics on the Bulletin Board
5 minutes	        Shop the marketplace
35 minutes 	Conversations and preparation of 1 flip chart sheet (3
summary points)
10 minutes	Closing circle

In order to save on any prep or facilitator time, we made sure to have
everything ready in one big room with places for topic discussions all
set up with chairs, etc. and on the floor a quick reminder instruction
sheet of the  “topic initiator role” and also a “participant sign-up
sheet”.

Our greatest concern is that we wanted to honor the spirit and energy
in opening, holding and closing space in every way possible. In the
end, it was amazing that it worked as it did.  I would not choose to
do a 75 minute Open Space if it had only been a one-time event but in
this case, we had 2 more weeks so people had an opportunity to engage
in the spirit of play, passion and responsibility being butterflies
and bumble bees over time.

I saw how well it can work with multiple sessions. It seems that’s the
situation you have also Annamarie.

What I learned is the huge benefit of having Open Space over a period
of time.  It made me realize that in our organizations, it would be
fantastic to run meetings this way not just as one Special Open Space
Event. My focus in the future is to build more time for conversations
with hosts of Open Space to pre-plan and imagine the post-work of Open
Space i.e. places to open space as a way of running our businesses or
non-profits.

I am still learning but with this university experience last fall, I
saw that once people understand and give themselves permission to
choose and follow their passion and energy, lots of good stuff
happens.  I have since heard from a colleague that the University
sponsor of this program remarked that the students who took part  last
year are different in a very positive way and he seemed to feel that
this experience had something to do with it.

Hope this helps.  Here’s a link that includes 5 of our 6 weeks in
pictures and words.

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-powerpoint/


Annamarie I’ll say “go for it”; jump right in and just do it.  I had
lots of butterflies as I often do when I try something like this but
again the philosophy of  “be prepared to be surprised” gifted me with
a magical experience and I feel so grateful.

Suzanne


On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Annamarie Pluhar
<annamarie at pluharconsulting.com> wrote:
> Hoping this gets through... I tried to send a few days ago...
>
> Hi all,
> I'm wondering if anyone has opened space for a 90-minute session? And if so,
> how'd it go? I'm thinking it would take 20-30 minutes before groups started
> talking, so there may be time for one session? Closing circle of 15 minutes?
>  It seems too short to me. I'm asking because I'm considering proposing OS
> for a group that meets once a month of between 20-40 people.
> Harrison will say go for it.  I'm wondering whether anyone has.
> Thanks!
>
> Annamarie Pluhar
> Pluhar Consulting
> Results through effective group process
> http://www.pluharconsulting.com
> 802.451.1941
> 802.579.5975 (cell)
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com

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