open space and heros

Tue Nov 30 06:14:21 PST 2010

Chris - Being the odd duck that I am - I must confess that I have never seen
a situation where Open Space was not appropriate. For sure I have
encountered times/places when people didn't want to do it, were afraid of
doing it - but at the end of the day, and no matter what they did, it would
still be Open Space. This would be true even if they chose the most
draconian, dictatorial, lockstep form of facilitation possible. Ridiculous?
Possibly, but if all systems (organizations) are open and self organizing
(as I think) then that fascist facilitator is ultimately a product of
his/her and the group's shared delusion that somebody is actually in charge!
Still Open Space - just done poorly. Actually, given the level of anxiety
and frustration usually present in such situations, it is worse than just
"poorly." Probably closer to the massive sub-optimization of the human
potential in that group. 

Or how about another strange thought? - No matter how frustrating a
particular OS  may be ("waste of time and money") it is still useful if you
understand that every Open Space is like a Rorschach Test. Since there is no
predetermined content or meaning, What you see is what you Got. Or put
another way, "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have."  Just
imagine -- you do the Open Space and a group of lethargic, backbiting, nasty
people spend their time doing nothing and/or pillaring each other.
Unpleasant for sure but clearly this is an organization ready for a funeral.
So get out your shovel and prayer book! Nasty business, but useful.

ho            

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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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris
Corrigan
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 6:15 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: open space and heros

Christine...

I don't have much more to add to what Lisa has said here, except to sya that
my own experience has borne out the fact that high levels of diversity are a
good thing and in fact if you have high levels of diversity in the room, OST
is a very good process because it allows the resilience in the container to
hold the passion that goes with that diversity.

Giving people different levels of status in OST is not something I would
ever do.  The fact is that everyone has various bits and pieces of status
because of their history and contributions and that is all going to be in
the room.  But I would never organize structure around it - such as a
"scientific committee."   The closest I have come is having indigenous
Elders sitting at tables near the middle of the room while 150 people talked
about an indigenous child welfare organization.  The Elders also convened
sessions, but they had a space in the room that was theirs and throughout
the day people came to visit with them.  I would do that in the context of
your meeting though.  In fact the wise ones may actually be happy with just
being treated like everyone else.

As for the fears, it is very difficult to engage in the "what if..." kind of
hypothetical questions.  You would be hard pressed to bring me an
unsubstantiated fear that I have not actually experienced in Open
Space...what if no one posts a session?  Been there.  What if someone gets
angry?  Yup.  What happens if a small group tries to take the process over?
Check.  THe more tied you are to your own outcomes, the harder these
situations will be to deal with.  And if you are severley constrained by
your own pre-determined outcomes, beyond even reasonable givens, you
shouldn't really be using Open Space.  

My learnings in all of these cases is that it worked out.  It wasn't always
nice or fun, and occasionally it was a waste of time and money.  I'm not
going to kid you that challenging situations can always be resolved by
simply using Open Space.  This can be very hard work.  But if I could
guarantee that everything we did was going to go perfectly we wouldn't need
to meet would we?  Dealing with complex groups of humans always has the risk
that things will be different than we expect.  Prepare to be surprised,
because most of the time in Open Space, most people's expectations are
exceeded.  Just don't panic, and if you get confused or ambushed, stop and
ask everyone the question: what's going on here?  And then open space.

Sending you great good wishes.

Chris

----

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

On 2010-11-29, at 6:12 AM, christine koehler wrote:

Hi to all

I am working with a group that wants to organize a open space event in a
highly "political" context :  Theme is very sensitive, has been discussed
for years by all actors without any results except fights and division. But
now context has changed and they feel that if they, actors of the system,
don't work together now and suggest something very quicly, the law will do
it for them without them... 
Yet it took them some time to agree to go for OST. Their fear is great :
they fear that some actors in the system will take advantage of the event
for their own interest. They also fear that "wise men (and women)" who were
pionners in their field but now do not act any more but talk talk talk ,
will take advantage of the event to . talk and bring the audience somewhere
else.
Interesting fears, aren't they ? I'd love to have your opinion on those.;

Regarding the first fear : they choose not to invite one specific person as
co-inviter with them. There was a strong veto from one of the co-inviter,
saying that working with this person had been one of the worst experience in
his life and that he won't do that again. As this co-inviter is probably one
of the most active in the group (he DOES the work), I think his request was
accepted as a given.
Yet now the group fears that this (not-invited-as-co-inviter) person, who
has a strong influence base, might come with lots of his people at the event
and influence the whole result..
The risk is that they limit the number of participants to X people per
organization (or/and whatever criteria they choose). 
My question : did you experience a situation where a person, not invited as
a co-inviter because too difficult to deal with, has "spoiled"an OS event ?
I wonder if the risk is real (if so I'd challenge the group and have him
included as a co-inviter) or if I just let them go with people they really
want to work with... 

Their second fear concerns the wise persons (who are also "big egos" ;-))
They don't want them as co-inviters, but they want them somewhere. These
people are the "heroes" of this community, but they are not so young now ,
and are not so active anymore in doing things.  They talk about  offering
them to join a "scientific committee" or something like this.  I don't like
the idea of "scientific committee" in the context of an OS event, but don't
have any better idea. What do you suggest ?
They also fear that they invide the space during the creation of the agenda.
All of those wise persons, I was told, can, with the help of a mic, bring a
group wherever they want and talk for hours. Especially if they are all in
the same room (because none of them wants to speak less than the others...)
Any suggestion to me, as facilitator , to avoid use of mic as a tribune
without being rude to their heroes ?

Christine Koehler
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