[OSList] Poke the Open Space Box

[Koos de Heer]

Hi Harold,

Even though it is my favorite thing of all the things that I do, I am 
not sure I would want to be a full time Open Space facilitator. And I 
think  that to be successful busineswise, it is good to have focus 
but it is not always good to be a one trick pony. I like it when 
people come to me and say: I have heard you are good at creating 
great meetings, would you like to do this meeting for us? I like it 
even better when they say: we have this problem in our organization, 
would you come look at it and help us out? I like it a lot less when 
the request is something like: we have an Open Space meeting on June 
20 in Amsterdam, can you facilitate it?

The last request is just for me to do my trick. I have the idea if I 
would become Mr. Open Space, I would get a lot more of these requests 
that I don't really like. I would much rather be Mr. Great Meetings, 
or Mr. Problem Solver. What kind of Mr. or Ms would you all like to be?

Warm wishes from a rainy (finally!) Utrecht.

Koos


At 01:37 17-5-2011, Harold Shinsato wrote:
>I just read this in Seth Godin's latest tract - "Poke the Box". I've 
>heard occasionally that some folks are having trouble making ends 
>meet as Open Space Technology facilitators. Yet others seem to be 
>doing ok. I've been wishing I could do this full time - go out - get 
>clients - and facilitatre OST conferences full time - but Seth's 
>quote kind of threw that back at me.
>
>
>"My friend Jessica wants to be a conference organizer. You can hire 
>her and she'll sweat every single detail of your event. Give her the 
>attendee list, the venue, and the agenda, and the conference will go 
>off without a hitch.
>
>"The problem with this plan is that it involves being picked by the 
>event promoter. If she gets picked often, it's a fine living. If she 
>can negotiate a fair payday, it's a fine living. But Jessica must 
>pitch the promoter, hat in hand.
>
>"So... why not be the promoter, the initiator, the one in charge and 
>responsible?"
>
>    - Seth Godin, Poke the Box, p. 25
>
>
>This sounds a lot more like the spirit of OST than going out looking 
>for clients who want to do OST events. This is very personal for me 
>as Missoula BarCamp's OST event happens on Saturday. I went out and 
>just got it started - but it's not exactly a money maker at this 
>point. But what Seth says, just initiating cool OST events, sounds a 
>lot more juicy than trying to pitch OST facilitation.
>
>Any enlightenment anyone? What's the path to abundant full time Open 
>Space living?
>
>--
>Harold Shinsato
><mailto:harold at shinsato.com>harold at shinsato.com
>http://shinsato.com
>twitter: <http://twitter.com/hajush>@hajush
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