Failures sought

[Harrison Owen]

On occasion I have made what I am sure sounds to be an outrageous statement:
Open Space always works. And if not outrageous, then certainly defensive (of
my baby?, orthodoxy?, ??). The basis of my statement has nothing to do with
theory, rather it has simply been the fact of my experience. And the truth
of the matter is that I would dearly love to have good, solid, examples of
clear failure in Open Space - if only because they would be marvelous
sources of learning.

 

Of course, we would need to be clear about what we mean by "worked." In my
frame of reference, there are three levels of meaning. 1) Open Space Worked
as a formal procedure - i.e. -- the people sat in a circle, opened a market
place, and went to work on an agenda of their own creation. 2) Open Space
worked as a productive environment - that is to say, serious issues of
concern were raised, discussion was intense and useful, participants were
involved and energized, and at the end of the day useful insights had been
achieved. Maybe not ultimate insights, but definitely progress on the path.
3)  Open Space worked as a long(er) term positive influence on the
organization or group.

 

Given these understandings of "worked" I can say that, in my experience,
every Open Space that I have facilitated or been a part of "worked" in
senses 1 and 2. And in situations where I have had the opportunity for
longer term association with the group or organization, OS worked in sense
#3 as well. Although to be fair what worked might not be quite in accord
with what the sponsors were hoping for. For example, one organization simply
disbanded at the end of the open space finding that they had achieved their
mission and needed to do something else. (When it's over, it's over!)

 

To be sure I have heard reports about failures. Unfortunately in most cases,
the report said little more than, "It (OS) didn't work" - which is not all
that helpful. However, in such situations where I had the opportunity to
follow up I found that the flaw in the ointment occurred for one (or both)
of two reasons - either the necessary preconditions were not present, or the
process (sit in circle, etc) was not followed. 

 

I think we have learned that when the following conditions are not in
evidence, things get a little mushy. Conditions are: 1)A real business
issue, something that people really care about 2) Lots of complexity 3) Lots
of diversity (people and ideas) 4) Lots of passion and conflict 5) A
decision time of yesterday (Urgency). If it is "made up" issue that nobody
cares about, nothing useful will happen. In a word you can't "demonstrate"
Open Space. Failure for sure.

 

The process to this point has demonstrated the elegant capacity to enable
folks to move in useful directions. Could we do it better and simpler? For
sure, and some day I hope we don't have to "do it" at all, but for the
moment it seems we still need our training wheels (thank you Chris
Corrigan). To date I have found that the so called "failures" seem to occur
when either stuff is added, complexified and combined - or the attempt was
made to do "a little bit of Open Space" either in terms of time allotted or
space provided. A 1 hour Open Space on a critical issue just won't make it.
Failure for sure. By the same token if the issue under consideration is so
confined (people can think anything they want as long as it accords with the
Sponsor's plan) the result is similar. 

 

So anyhow - those have been my findings to date. Biased, myopic, dogmatic,
orthodox? Doubtless all of the above.  And I would really love some solid
example of real failure where the conditions were appropriate and the
process followed. That could be wonderful and just might take us to OS
2.0??? - or into retirement!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

Phone 301-365-2093

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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