making requests of leaders?

Mon Nov 29 12:52:07 PST 2010

Right on Chris and Michael. When I am asked the question by a "quote" Leader
my typical response may be a little stark, but it seems to work. When they
ask should they participate, and if so how much -- I say, "As much as you
like -- I would presume that you might add some value." And they do
(participate and add value), at least that has been the experience thus far.
But never to the point of overwhelming. Indeed I find the usual situation to
be quite the opposite. The really good stuff always seems to come from
somebody nobody ever heard of before. As for The Leader. . . My favorite
story was of The Chief of the US Forest Service who posted a session, and
nobody came. He looked rather like a 13 year old boy when nobody came to his
birthday party -- but he quickly took it in stride. He said, "I guess this
is not about me." -- and hurried off to a session he really cared about.

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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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris
Corrigan
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 2:52 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: making requests of leaders?

Echoing Michael here...I hear these concerns often, mostly from the sense of
wanting the event to go well.  My invitation to people is always to just let
their good judgement guide them in the moment, as that is what everyone else
will be doing.  

IN other situations, I have had sponsors say that they wanted people to
attend just to observe because participation would be problematic.  This is
often the case with governments who are using OST for stakeholder
consultations.  In those cases I always say that there are no "observers" in
open space and everyone is welcome to attend sessions and post whatever they
want.  If sponsors don't want people to participate I say that they should
not invite them.  

In that case people are always free to show up and participate or not, but
there are no different conditions for one set of participants than for
another.  

I can't think of any exceptions I've ever had to this basic principle.  

Chris
----
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com

On 2010-11-29, at 9:19 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:

> Dear Raffi,
> I put my money on the force of selforganisation.
> 
> In fact, in the many contacts I had with sponsors (often "leaders",
"managers") they often asked me
> --should I wait a bit so others have a chance to voice their topics
> --should I perhaps not go to the sessions so people can talk freely
> --should I have some issues up my sleeves in case nobody offers issues
> --etc.
> which was often followed by a small talk about the "assumptions" or
"images" we tend to act on and not on the stuff we are passionate about.
> 
> I think open space is real life and real conflict and lots of tough stuff
and shit happens... and it always gets sorted out and my assumption is that
the sorting out happens more readily if I as facilitator step back and give
up on control.
> 
> Have a great day in San Diego, lucky cat
> mmp
> 
> Raffi Aftandelian wrote:
>> Queridos amigos,
>> Christine, your question about the challenging OST event you are working
on
>> encouraged me to post this question today. I've been meaning to put this
out
>> for weeks. I'm wondering how much it is a practice for all you to talk to
or
>> communicate with leaders and managers who will be attending an OST event
and
>> encourage them to *hold back* a little in order to equalize the power
>> dynamics a little in the OST event.
>> Specifically by *hold back* I mean:
>> - asking them to wait a little before posting topics
>> - for them not to feel like they need to post certain topics
>> - not to try to steer the conversation, or try to resolve conflicts
>> and ask them instead to participate as just one more person in the group.
>> This question was inspired by coming across the document "Ground rules
for
>> Managers" in Lisa Heft's Open Space Idea Book. In that document, Lisa you
go
>> through a number of things that you communicate to leaders and managers
>> ahead of an OST event, which include the requests above.
>> When I came across this document in the book a few years back, I was
>> surprised as I hadn't really heard of such a practice before. And finally
for the first time I used it recently. I run a bimonthly
>> Nonviolent Communication community practice event in OST (with one small-
or
>> perhaps for some, not so small- change-- we start with a short centering
>> meditation)
>> And it's hard to gauge right now if making those requests have helped in
any
>> way. The one person who I spoke to the longest about it seemed to ignore
the
>> requests in the document (I adapted the document for my situation; and
the
>> document explains that this is really something meant to be communicated
>> orally. Most people I told them briefly about this over the phone or in
>> person and then sent a full document over email). I'm really excited
about making those requests in future OST events where it
>> seems appropriate.
>> And Lisa especially, I'm wondering that since you self-published the OS
Idea
>> Book, if your thinking around making those requests has changed.
>> Thanks all!
>> abrazos,
>> Raffi
>> *
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> 
> -- 
> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49-30-772 8000
> mmpanne at boscop.org
> www.boscop.org
> 
> 
> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 412 resident Open
Space Workers in 71 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
> Have a look:
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> 
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