open space and heros
Michael M Pannwitz
mmpanne at boscop.org
Tue Nov 30 07:30:43 PST 2010
love them odd ducks that keep me up on my toes (even with my achilles
tendon torn)thinking
mmp
Harrison Owen wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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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--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org
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>From Tue Nov 30 23:53:02 2010
Message-Id: <TUE.30.NOV.2010.235302.0100.>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:53:02 +0100
Reply-To: c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Catherine Pfaehler <c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch>
Organization: Catherine Pfaehler
Subject: AW: making requests of leaders?
X-To: Raffi Aftandelian <raffi_1970 at YAHOO.COM>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
I have been in 2 OS events where we made requests for certain groups of
people to hold back.
One was a 2.5 day OS meeting with people living with AIDS and some
professionals working with them. On the first day, the professionals were
not allowed to post any topics, but were to listen only. On the second day,
they could post topics, ask for feedback on their projects etc. We decided
on that to empower the usually expert-depending people living with AIDS, and
it worked out wonderfully. The first day was much more interesting than the
second day. However, for the professionals, it was a great experience to be
so close to so many "clients", to feel them, to understand what were their
concerns as a population, so "listening only" was not bad at all for them.
The other one was a 1 day OS meeting with cancer patients and their
families. The (few) medical doctors and professionals present from the
cancer league were supposed to only listen. Some did, and others just
couldn't let go of their role. However, for the professionals, it was an
overwhelming experience to learn how well informed the "clients" were.
Before the event, the cancer league was certain never to have a patient in
any of its organs. After the event, they started looking for a patient who
would come to join their board.
Love, Catherine
Catherine Pfaehler
lic.oec.HSG
Open Space Begleitung
Burckhardtstrasse 2
CH - 3008 Bern
Telefon +41-(0)31 - 536 05 31
Mobile +41-(0)76 - 488 15 46
c.pfaehler at open-space-begleitung.ch
www.open-space-begleitung.ch
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Raffi Aftandelian [mailto:raffi_1970 at YAHOO.COM]
Gesendet: Montag, 29. November 2010 17:50
Betreff: making requests of leaders?
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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