SV: self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations [was OST and PD (Positive Deviance)]

Sun Nov 14 14:09:12 PST 2010

Hi Thomas:

Answering your questions:

- In what concerns group facilitation I only use OST (if the situation is 
adequate for that) or The World Cafe (if it is not adequate for OST, but it is 
for TWC). If the situation is not suitable for any one of these, I tell the 
(possible) client (for instance a manager that has already "the solution" and 
wants to sell it to the staff, or if he/she is a control type and wants a more 
controlled and directive method) that they must find a different facilitator. 
(This is probably easier for me to than for some others as facilitation is not 
my main job).

In what concerns the pre-planning and de-briefing I normally don't use OST and 
would only consider to use it if the customer had already used OST in many 
previous events.

In what concerns education and training I normally use un-traditional non-OST 
based methods, often followed by an OST session to discuss the issues at hand. 
But I think I still use the spirit of OST. Please read my contribution to the 
book initially called "A present for Harrison" and later "Festschrift - 25 years 
of Open Space" to see what I mean by that, how I arrived to OST and why I don't 
like directive facilitation methods.

Warm regards

Artur

________________________________
From: Thomas Herrmann <thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Sun, November 14, 2010 8:13:46 PM
Subject: [OSLIST] SV: self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations 
[was OST and PD (Positive Deviance)]

Hi and thanks for sharing
Just got curious and want to ask you Artur if you always use Open Space 
Technology when you work with a group? I find more and more opportunities but 
still think that there are times when I need a more “directed” approach. For me, 
most of the times WPPF is the best complementary method – although I usually 
separate them and use them according to when I find they fit best. When I use 
OST, (which is part of almost all of my assignments!) I consider myself to work 
pretty much “by the book” – because I think that works best!

For example I have, so far, never used only OST all through a OST-process with a 
client (prework, main event and follow up). I am pretty sure I will try a full 
OST for a pre-meeting soon, probably with one of the “free” events I 
occasionally do with non-profits (as mentioned earlier we actually used Open 
Space for the pre-work for WOSonOS here, back in 2003).

Other occasions when I find WPPF useful are when I facilitate learning during 
trainings and some workshops. One example is a workshop I facilitated a couple 
of weeks ago in a nearby University. A researcher had some findings that she was 
invited to share – and we included her sharing into a powerful WPPF container 
which gave (I think) a completely different level of learning than would have 
happened in a more traditional way of sharing research findings. With the time 
constraints of 3,5 hours I did not find OST to be a good choice for this.
Warm regards
Thomas

Från:OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] För Artur Silva
Skickat: den 14 november 2010 19:27
Till: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Ämne: Re: self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations [was OST 
and PD (Positive Deviance)]

Hi Raffi:

The Concepts of "Whole Person" and "Whole Person Approach" have been around for 
some time and are not new (for instance, 
see http://www.well.com/user/dooley/change.pdf, A Whole-Person/Systemic Approach 
to Organization Change Management, By Jeff Dooley, copyright 1998), and the same 
is true with other concepts like "left brain/right brain", "learning styles", 
etc. Of course, anyone can take a piece from here and another from there and 
give it a new name, and eventually even trademark it.

My only experience attending a Whole Person session was that I was being 
directed to do this or that, because the facilitator was convinced that this or 
that would put my right brain at work (which is not neededbecause it is always 
at work...). But the point is that I don't like being "directed" neither to 
"direct others".

For me, the magic of OST is that the facilitator does not need to direct people 
(except, eventually, as Harrison recalled, to justify the fee). Just open some 
space and the whole person will appear and real whole people will direct 
themselves and do the job.

Abraços (this time in Portuguese)

Artur

________________________________

From:Raffi Aftandelian <raffi_1970 at YAHOO.COM>
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Sun, November 14, 2010 3:23:20 AM
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations 
[was OST and PD (Positive Deviance)]

Queridos Harrison, Artur, y todos-

(...)

Artur, I was intrigued in you talking about Whole Person Process
Facilitation as a directive process. I see how you can call it that. And as
someone who has been using WPPF the past 6 years, I'm excited that the four
principles and the Law are invoked- at least the way I was taught- in a WPPF
meeting...I don't know of any other meeting method that works within a
pre-set agenda that does that.

abrazos,
Raffi

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