On "Failure"

[Harrison Owen]

Ralph -- Definitely right! Stuff happens!! Which always makes life
learning-full. (How's that for a neologism?) I totally loved your first
story, and as a senior citizen long addicted to napping my learning would be
that we might need an adjunct to the Law of Two Feet which indicated that if
bored and tired find a new position, including the horizontal. Actually if
my behavior over the years is any indication, I must have always assumed
that a good nap was a totally acceptable application of the law.

The second story could be fun, especially if we could find out why they did
what they did, and what happened later (result). I also had a very similar
situation where in the group essentially announced that it was all over at 2
pm on the first day. But what actually occurred was fascinating. The group
was a small company which had come together around the subject of their
future. You might call it Strategic Planning. But after 4 hours in Open
Space, including lunch they had surfaced a fact of their lives that
everybody knew, but nobody was willing to pronounce. They had no future. And
they quit. My take was that Open Space worked as usual but produced results
somewhat at variance with what the sponsor (President of the company)
probably had in mind. Or something.

Harrison   

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Ralph
Copleman
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 12:13 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: On "Failure"

Harrison and all,

I've had a few that sort of fell flat.

One involved a group concerned about availability of services for senior
citizens across an entire US state.  Two-thirds of the room consisted of
seniors themselves and, frankly, a lot of them ran out of energy about an
hour after lunch.  So they sat around, a number slumping in chairs with eyes
closed.

Another involved an exploration of customer service issues for an airline.
Lots of corporate leaders from the airline present, along with their booking
agents (this pre-dates internet booking sites), frequent flyer customers,
and corporate travel execs who make travel policy for their companies.  A
great mix, actually.  We were set to go from 8:00 a.m to 4:00.  About 2:00,
a group of participants more or less seized control of the meeting somehow
(I wasn't in the room when it occurred) and got everyone to agree to shorten
the meeting by a full hour.  When I returned at 3:00, someone simply
informed me, and asked that I begin the closing circle.  So that's what I
did.  I never found out what actually happened.

Not sure how to think about that last one, since I never found out how it
all developed, but the following one is more like a true failure.

I was asked to convene a two-day open space gathering for about 200 folks
from around the US.  It would be the annual meeting of an association of a
certain type of public health officer (cannot recall the details).  The
whole thing was pretty dead from the outset -- I mean 200 people posting a
total of only 15 sessions for two whole days!?  I found out the theme was
all wrong.  The planning committee chose an idea that turned out to have no
juice for the association's members.  I had spent hours in conference calls
with the leadership group and the planning committee, and they'd assured me
that the idea they chose was at the heart of the challenges facing them and
their organizations.  Turns out that was dead wrong.  Nobody else cared.  I
don't know how I might have seen through this situation ahead of time.

I essentially agree with you, H.  If the conditions are appropriate, it will
work.  But, if the three experiences above teach me anything, it's clear
that stuff can always happens.

Ralph Copleman

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