[OSList] How to successfully convene a single session within an os event

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Harold,
as a participant of events in which I posted an issue and convened a 
session I tried different things that worked for me.
During the introduction to an os event I as facilitator normally mention 
one approach I as convener have used in breakout sessions.
Just one!

Here what I do as participant convening a session:

1. As convener, I always invite everyone that showed up and who cares to 
do so to say briefly what brought them to this issue I convened this 
session for.
It surprises me every time how in no time flat a tapestry of motives, 
interests, goals and other tidbits (names of the participants, etc.) is 
created... it seems to provide a supportive backdrop for the following 
discussion / dialog for mutual understanding and other good stuff.
It works regardless of the size of the group. On some occasions (again 
regardless of the size of the group) most of the ("scheduled") time of a 
breakout session was taken up by this process... it "re"placed the usual 
type of discussion and at the same time apparently dealt well with the 
issue.

2. As convener, I often start a visualisation of the discussion with a 
mindmap. Sometimes, actually just about always, others jump in and 
participate in the visualisation, expanding the mindmap with their own 
handwriting. The visualisation makes it well transparent for everyone 
what is going on... people that join later can quickly get connected... 
and the mindmap has a way of documenting the emerging structure of the 
issue (it selforganises), also making "missing" stuff visible and 
providing a starting point for action planning at a later stage.

3. As convener, I always also invite for a go-around before the session 
closes where I invite comments around the question "How was it?". This 
is a simple and  productive way to learn from what just transpired in 
the last hour or so... a chance I never want to let go by unused.

None of these things are rocket science, none take long and they add to 
parameters such as information, meaning, spirit, starting points for 
action, new collaborations, dialog... and regularly change the direction 
of the initial issue, improving and deepening the initial issue or that 
which evolved.

They also seem to go well with the one and only given that I think has 
all the trappings of a given: selforganisation.

I would love to hear of things you and you others reading this post have 
tried when taking part in an open space as participant regardless of 
whether you then advocate using these things in your role as a 
facilitator introducing the participants to the OST process... and how 
you and the breakout group and the issue fared.

Greetings from Berlin
mmp


On 14.07.2011 17:37, Harold Shinsato wrote:

>
> Departing from the "givens" question for the entire Open Space, I
> continue to wonder about how to successfully convene a single session
> within an Open Space event. In each convened sessions, you might
> actually have the "let's not go there" conversation and it will work.
> The group is small enough to do so. And if the session convener starts
> with the taboos and people don't like it, they can use their two feet or
> they can just ignore the convener and have the conversation anyway.
> Mostly I think the "let's not go there" admonition works when someone
> brings up a "dead horse" topic that no one else in the circle really
> wants to hear, rather than declaring all the taboos in the beginning of
> a session.
>
> It's interesting that Open Space gives very minimal advice for convening
> sessions - but I can tell that some are much better at it than others.
> Both in the choice of topics that are relevant and in the actual
> facilitation of the group conversation. I continue to be curious about
> what works and what doesn't work for the convening of individual
> sessions in an Open Space.
>
> Harold
>