[OSList] weekly evening meetings - Open Space program proposal

[Lisa Heft]

Hi, wonderful Kári -

I am assuming this is the same group of people coming every time - so  
that for example when you explain the principles and such they all  
have received the same information and experience and are all  
traveling together throughout the successive meetings?

Perhaps the Sponsor's *much briefer* words come before opening space.  
Because once you Open Space it is about the participants as  
individuals and as a whole. And you want them to jump right in to  
naming and thinking about things.

And: if your culture for this group is rapid thinkers / rapid  
responders, fine. If it is a mix of slower more contemplative  
thinkers, be sure your agenda co-creation time is not to rapid (like  
'speed dating') to make it seem as if everyone's thinking of ideas but  
is actually only time enough for the quickest thinkers to do so.

And as for any facilitation - Open Space or otherwise - I think it may  
be important to have some form of reflection at the end of each  
meeting - even if it is inviting them to write one word on a card to  
describe their thoughts at the end of each evening (and you can scribe  
that and add it to their documentation).

You might want to see if you need some mechanism for communication  
between meetings as a week happens in between each meeting.
You might want to design a way to help them remember to do and turn in  
their documentation between meetings so that vital element that's  
useful to their learning and reflection can move smoothly forward - as  
it is hard for participants to want to step away to transcribe notes  
during such short meetings.

Do be sure that you are including action planning because it makes  
sense for this group to do so given the objectives and desired  
outcomes but also because it is realistic and achievable for them to  
follow the actions and next steps through (if you include action and  
next steps in your design - do all individuals have the freedom and  
mobility, resources, support, information, skills support, time and  
flexibility within their jobs or roles to actually follow through with  
the actions or next steps they identify at the meeting? Would it be  
better to end the meeting and then wait a week for everyone to read  
their Book of Proceedings so they can make better ideas about  
achievable and inspired actions and next steps rather than doing that  
at the meeting / before they integrate and reflect on all the  
information they've discussed in their different groups?

Have a great time with your uncharted territory.
Send up a flag to tell us the story, your discoveries, and your  
lessons learned,

The sun is peeking out on this California morning, as I wave to you  
and your volcano - breathe well, my friend,
Lisa



Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
Opening Space
lisaheft at openingspace.net


On May 23, 2011, at 9:06 AM, Kári Gunnarsson wrote:

> Dear Open Space Community
>
> I am adventuring into uncharted territory. I got the Idea at the
> Wosonos2011 in Berlin that a full os with action planning could be run
> at a weekly meetings format. I set up as six weekly
> evening meeting from 19:30 - 24:00.  I like to know if anyone has
> experience to share with me of working with os in this type of format.
>
> This is the idea for the Program
>
> 14. June
> 19:50 - Opening Space
> 20:10 - Few words about the theme from the Sponsor
> 20:30 - Making the Agenda wall
> 21:00 - Opening the Marketplace and Newsroom
> 21:30 - Session 1
> 22:30 - Session 2
>
> 21. June
> 19:50 - Opening news
> 20:30 - Session 3
> 22:00 - Session 4
>
> 28. June
> 19:50 - Opening news
> 20:30 - Session 5
> 22:00 - Session 6
>
> 5. July
> 19:50 - Opening news / Deadline day for reports
> 20:30 - Session 7
> 22:00 - Butterfly session / last time to write up reports
>
> 12. July
> 19:50 - Opening news / opening for action planing
> 20:30 - Newsroom Bee session
> 22:00 - Action planning session
>
> 19. July
> 19:50 - Opening news
> 20:30 - Next steps session
> 21:30 - Closing circle
>
> With love to you all
> Kári

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20110523/1a87a05e/attachment-0008.htm>