open space and heros
Gail West
icataiw at ms69.hinet.net
Tue Nov 30 19:25:25 PST 2010
Christine,
A favorite story about heroes and special guests
of mine: The Parents Union from an elementary
school here sponsored an OS inviting parents,
teachers, staff, some principles from other
elementary schools and members of the Education
Dept. Five special expert guests arrived, they
were presented with flowers for their lapels as
is customary here, and all joined the circle
(down low on elementary school size chairs). The
sponsor began by saying what an exciting day it
was, people were very eager to begin their topic
conversations, but they wanted to especially
welcome and honor the guests who had contributed
so much to education, etc, etc, so she would ask
each to say something to the group. And they
each had 1 minute to do that (with a very big
smile!). At the end of 1 minute she thanked #1,
passed the mic to #2, and so on. And everyone
clapped loudly. They were caught off guard but
actually looked relieved and pleased enough to
stay around for the OS to get going, which is not
the custom.
Looking forward to your report!
Gail
>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)
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
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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
><mailto:chris at chriscorrigan.com>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
>Š 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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--
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE gwestica
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