Whoever comes and leaves are the wrong people?

Mon Mar 28 09:23:35 PDT 2011

I think one of the beauties of open space is its resistance to disruption. I
work a lot with public officials and in relation to public meetings for
planning, land development, etc. Often these meetings are set up in a very
structured way (like a public hearing), and one of the big worries public
officials have is about things getting out of hand. They are often subjected
to lots of very negative harassment from people who are just frustrated that
they don¹t see a way to meaningfully participate in the process. And the
people who are so hostile create such a negative environment that many other
people stay away and don¹t participate at all. OST allows the ³hostile²
people to participate without ruining the opportunity to participate for
everyone else.

Jennifer Hurley
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1500 Walnut St STE 504  |  Philadelphia, PA 19102
p: 215-988-9440  |  f: 215-988-9441  |  c: 267-971-4598
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Certified WDBE through PA UCP, City of Philadelphia OEO, and NJ UCP

From: Shani Graham <stay at thepaintedfish.com.au>
Reply-To: "OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>"

<OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:24:15 +0800
To: "OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>"
<OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Whoever comes and leaves are the wrong people?

Hi Lucas (and everyone!)
I have never written to this list but have been watching from a distance for
some time -sorry to be a lurker (I imagine there are a few out there!)

I have a story for you and a question about an open space I will convene
this weekend.

I have facilitated 5-6 OS events so far and maybe a story from my second one
might be relevant.

The theme was  "How can we make XX more sustainable?" XX being a local
council. We had 30 or so very passionate and thoughtful people enrol. I was
still pretty nervous but confident OS would work, with great sponsor support

Just as I was getting to the end of the introduction one man arrived late,
quite flustered  stood in the middle of the circle and demanded "Am I
allowed to say something at this meeting! I want to say something now!"
When I reassured him that he would have many opportunitites to talk and
asked him to sit in the circle he replied "Who are you? How much are they
paying you? I want to say something now!"

Luckily I was able to maintain my Open Space cloakand managed to stop for a
second (this is very hard for an ex primary school principal beliveve me!)
quitely repeat what he said "Can you speak" I even managed a "Hmmm"  before
saying "I think you could arrange that" (Thanks to Brendan for my training -
he said  if you are tempted to give an answer to always repeat any question
as if it is a really good one and ask the person "What would you like to do
about that!) Even as I write this I still can't believe that I managed to
just stand there and respond so quietly.

Magically at this point someone else from the group who knew the guy stood
up to talk to him, settled him down next to him and started explaining the
agenda making (which was about to start)

This guy was the first up with his topic "What is the value of trees?" When
he announced his topic he pointed to a council employee who was there and
demanded " . . . and you will come to this conversation and you will listen
to me!"

I was intrigued (an understatement!)  to see if anyone else would go
along,and have to say that as I moved coffee cups around I did keep a fairly
big ear on this group.

In the end there were four of them - the council employee, this guy and one
other couple. He talked quite loudly and aggressively for about 5 minute
before one of the couple tried to say something. He replied "You be quiet I
convened this meeting, I get to talk" The guy listened for a few more
minutes  and then said "Thanks for your ideas, but I think I might use my
two feet to go elsewhere" His wife followed him. They were the first to
move. After checking the board, they went two different ways and were warmly
welcomed into the groups they joined) A few minutes later the council
employee also said "thanks" and left. All done with no aggression and good
will - it looked like magic!

The guy was still mad, but left with no one to talk at, he stormed out, but
not before pointing at me and saying "I'm going to find out how much they
are paying you to do nothing!"

The rest of the day ran smoothly  . . . .

Over lunch a participant came up to me to say that the guy attends lots of
council meetings, is alwasy aggressive, usually ends up storming out after
an hour or os  and several people avoided him if they could (including
two who had not come to the day since he had enrolled)  He said his stomach
had fallen when he arrived . Funnily enough he tried to congratulate me on
how I handled it. I laughed and said "you guys handled it"

He then said "I suppose those who leave are the right people too!"

It was a good early Open Space lesson.

And now my question (which I think I might have answered actually  . . . .)

On the weekend I am facilitating a community meeting for a group called
Living Smarties - all about what we can do in our own lives to live more
sustainably. The day will go from 10 - 3 but I know there are several people
who can only come for part of the day - some early some late.

Do I welcome people who come after the introduction and briefly explain what
is going on? Or do I let the group do this in its own way? Normally I would
probably let the group sort this out, but this session is a bit different as
I am the convener of this group normally so people will probably come to me
for explanation naturally.

My thought was I would see what felt right on the day but resist intervening
as much as I can, redirecting people to the agenda or someone in the group.

Has anyone ever used a hand out for new arrivals?

Ideas?

Shani
On 28 March 2011 09:37, Lucas Cioffi <lucas at athenabridge.org> wrote:
> Hi All, 
> 
> We've all heard that "whoever comes are the right people;" does that also
> imply that "whoever comes and leaves are the wrong people" too?  I'm wondering
> if any of you have experience with people leaving in anger?
> 
> Here's my recent experience...
> My co-facilitator received this comment in response to a post-event survey:
>> "I for one was not impressed, I traveled 275 miles to attend, cost the
>> government quiet a bit of money and left after the first breakout group. 
>> There was not even enough of an introduction to let people know what exactly
>> what was going on.  Had I known that this was going to break out groups
>> talking about whatever with no actual solutions to what the problem was or no
>> direction on how to overcome the problem I would not have attended.  With the
>> budget being what it is I feel this was a total waste of money."
> 
> Some more context:
> * This was a workshop about internal transparency, held at a typical federal
> government agency in DC.
> * This person is well-known as an opponent to change at the agency.
> * The workshop was not an open space event nor advertised as an open space
> event, but it did include break-out groups and participants did populate an
> agenda wall for two breakout sessions.  Because of the similarities in design,
> I think this episode may be of interest to the group.
> * These breakout groups were announced on the RSVP site, so this person had an
> opportunity to know what was going to happen at the event.  Of course people
> are busy so often they don't know what they're signing up for, and I'm not
> going to blame this person for that.
> Anyway, has someone ever left your event completely frustrated?  Did you do
> anything about it?  I look forward to your thoughts.
> 
> Lucas
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-- 
Shani Graham and Tim Darby
The Painted Fish South Beach Eco Village
37 Hulbert Street South Fremantle WA
stay at thepaintedfish.com.au
www.thepaintedfish.com.au <http://www.thepaintedfish.com.au>
phone 08 9335 4886
Shani 0417 941 991
Tim 0466 210 590
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