[OSList] Poke the Open Space Box

[Lisa Heft]

Well my first answer is:

"Just do what makes your heart sing."

And then (of course, being me ;o) I'll go on.

I'm an analyzer, among other things.
So I diagram the question, in a way. And of course, ask more questions  
to see the patterns.

Do you want to be around the juicy OS more?
Do you need more income or exposure for your work?
Are you trying to shift into more visibility as a facilitator /  
meeting convenor from the way people see and hire you otherwise?
Are there particular issues around which your passions invite you to  
invite others to join together about in dialogue?

The answers / 'therefores' to these may be different, depending on  
what you are like and what is important to you for this time in your  
life.

And: is your skill-set and interest *both* those of a  
facilitator...and an event producer?
For some people the answer is "yes!" and for others it is "absolutely  
my passion and skills are to facilitate - my strengths and passions  
are not in those many details of creating an event."

And: I hear a good number of facilitators who try to host their own  
events but 'nobody comes' - it is interesting to explore why that may  
be. Is it because it was the facilitator's passion or sense of urgency  
and not the participant group's highest item of urgency among the many  
issues calling for their time and presence? Is it because they created  
an event without being part of a community- / participant- /  
organization-driven interest or need?

What creates those successes such as Phelim describes in his growing  
ongoing community of vibrant OS events?
I'm guessing you did not do these things as an individual, Phelim.  
Perhaps you would like to share what you think were the ingredients  
for success from the beginning event(s). What contributes to  
sustainability in the ongoing nature, as well.

Other questions for those of you exploring this...

Do you have resources for being an event producer?

- advance funding to secure a site and possibly also food?
- flexibility in those resources so that if less people come you still  
see it as a 'go forward' and a success?
Can you really do all the tasks and roles - from outreach /  
invitation / registrar to site and food arranger to answering  
everyone's questions about local housing or resources to facilitation  
to finalizing the Book of Proceedings post-event to whatever else you  
see as part of this event?
- Do you have to do it all on your own, or can you be part of a team?

And what about...

- inviting events that are OS in their design
- traveling around helping other people do their OS - such as offer to  
run their Newsrooms - put all that on our resume / CV because it's  
real work with real responsibilities (whether it pays or not), and  
grow your visibility and your experience that way
- saying 'I do Open Space' instead of 'I would like to do more Open  
Space'
- growing your facilitator 'toolkit' to include some other fabulous  
methods / tools (World Cafe comes to mind) so you have even more  
participant-focused passion-driven offerings and be able to do those  
too, which often lead clients and communities to saying 'more of this  
kind of stuff, please'?
- doing a reflection / analysis of how you got your other similar jobs  
over let us say the past 5 years - and see where the pattern was. Was  
it because someone saw you at work doing your marvelous thing? If so,  
where can you choose to be when you choose where to be? For example -  
does it pay to invest in attending an OS gathering - or does it pay to  
say when invited that you yourself do Open Space and to help make that  
gathering happen and offer your facilitation skills for future  
gatherings for this region as well? Do you want to spend resources  
showing up at a peer conference (yes if you can learn a lot) or do you  
want to save those particular resources to use to get to / help on  
another OS event?

Perhaps another question to invite you all to respond to is - think of  
your work in facilitation / convening people in general. Not just  
about OS.
Maybe even your other work in past that was not facilitation but that  
you loved at that time.
How did you get more jobs? Visibility? Experience that you could add  
to your learning and your resume / CV?

And then another series of questions for your reflection:
- when you had a dream, that was realized, what got you there?

Just a bunch of questions ;o)

Lisa



Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
President, Open Space Institute US
Fellow, Columbia University Center for International Conflict Resolution
Opening Space
lisaheft at openingspace.net
www.openingspace.net

Ask me about these 2011 workshops for facilitators and others who  
convene people:
  - The Open Space Learning Workshop
         - June and October - Santiago, Chile (en español)
         - July-August - Buenos Aires, Argentina (en español)
         - December 14-16 - San Francisco, USA
  - The Power of Pre-Work - August 24-26 - San Francisco, USA

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