On "Failure"

Thu Jun 3 13:09:09 PDT 2010

Thanks for this, it feels like this observation gets to the heart of  
the matter.

Denise
On Jun 3, 2010, at 1:40 PM, Michael Herman wrote:

> i have a teacher who likes to put little reminders on pencils and  
> pass them around.  one of my favorite pencils says:  "really easy  
> is often quite difficult."
>
> i think this is true of open space.  i've seen a number of  
> situations where the facilitator or the process itself was assumed  
> to be a bit of magic, so nobody needed to do much else to make it  
> happen.  this makes all kinds of large and small "failures"  
> possible -- all owing to some lapses in the quality of attention,  
> awareness, relationship.
>
> somebody once told me that carl rogers (some sort of psychologist,  
> i think) used to listen so intently that he would often break out  
> in a sweat -- just listening to someone.  sometimes i think open  
> space takes this sort of quality or intensity of attention... or  
> maybe of awareness.  that the heart is this active, even if the  
> body is apparently doing nothing.  like when so many muscles are  
> engaged in walking a balance beam, or timing a jump.  actively  
> pulsing, checking, on and off, holding and releasing, inviting and  
> reporting.
>
> i'd guess a fair number of "failures" have their roots in  
> forgetting that os is this sort of active practice, even if a lot  
> of the action is not outwardly visible or dramatic or difficult.   
> weirdenss seems to flow from gaps in clarity, in attention, in  
> awareness, in relationship.  not so much, i think, from gaps in  
> actual outer logistics.
>
> m
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
>
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> http://www.ronanparktrail.com
> http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
> http://www.openspaceworld.org
>
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 12:07 PM, VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE <mail at visuelle- 
> protokolle.de> wrote:
> Harrison and all,
>
> Another example of an OS that went terribly wrong:
>
> It was a factory producing printing machines, both in Eastern and  
> western Germany, and the participants were mixed from both areas.  
> We had the o.k. from the four directors, to whom we had illustrated  
> what to expect, and a final conference after the OS was already  
> determined. One of the directors, the one who seemed to be the most  
> employee-oriented, was choosen to say some words at the end of the  
> OS. Our partner in the company was a young man from HR, very  
> active, with good contacts to the directors. So he insisted that he  
> should brief the director what to say at the end of OS.
>
> Everything went fine. The groups worked with joy and enthusiasm. We  
> accompanied the whole OS with 3 people visualizing everything, and  
> that was a big success, because  everybody could see what had  
> happened everywhere. After we had shown the pictures in a final  
> slideshow, the director stood up and destroyed everything within 5  
> minutes. He said that he was disappointed, had expected other  
> outcomes, and that the managers wood have a hard time to use some  
> of the results.
>
> That was the end of the project for us, but much worse all the  
> participants were angry and a big chance was lost for the company.
>
> Of course the mistake was to let the young HR-man brief the director.
>
> Reinhard
>
> Reinhard Kuchenmüller
> Dr. Marianne Stifel
> VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
> Kuchenmüller & Stifel
>
> +39-0566-88 929
> www.visuelle-protokolle.de
>
>
>
>
> Am 03/06/10 18:12 schrieb "Ralph Copleman" unter  
> <rcopleman at comcast.net>:
>
> 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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