[OSList] Soliciting Open Space facilitation/organization "feedback"

[Peggy Holman]

I like your questions, Michael.  They're similar to ones we've used for Journalism That Matters.  

Frankly, I have little energy for feedback instruments.  My partners feel it is important for briefing funders.  So I have helped to shape the questions so that they mostly focus on what participants got out of the experience.  We don't get many responses.  And I still don't see much value in it.  Though it has been handy in responding to some foundation questions specifically asking if we've done a post-event evaluation with participants.

Peggy



__________________________________
Peggy Holman
Journalism that Matters
15347 SE 49th Place
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Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity






On May 24, 2011, at 8:42 AM, Michael Herman wrote:

> i have always advised against feedback and evaluation forms, harold, because i can only imagine two main kinds of feedback:  the food was too cold/room was too hot (which really doesn't matter) and there should have been a session/design for this or for that (which really just pushes responsibility for their experience back to the hosts).  the only kind of feedback or evaluation that seems useful would be to help suggest that this was worth doing, so as to support funding for more of the same, but anyone funding more of them ought to be able to evaluate the proceedings themselves to decide if the event worked.  when a form of some kind is an absolute non-negotiable must do, i suggest three questions of this sort:  what did you see happening during the event?  what got done because of the event?  and, given that, what are the issues or opportunities you would put on the wall next time?  the answers to these more directly evaluate the work of the group and feed directly into the writing of future invitation(s).  in this way, there is no break in the action, ownership, responsibility, etc.  there's a bit more, and some different questions, posted here:  http://www.michaelherman.com/cgi/wiki.cgi?EvaluatingOpenSpace
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> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
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> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
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> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 5:12 AM, Harold Shinsato <harold at shinsato.com> wrote:
> What do Open Space facilitators think about soliciting "feedback" as part of an improvement process for a series of Open Space events?
> 
> I was initially resistant to the idea because it is definitely "one more thing to do", but I do wonder if an appreciative inquiry style feedback solicitation could be powerful.
> 
> I notice that the Journalism That Matters event in Detroit had a feedback form - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RYP6TPT. So clearly some Open Space facilitators think this is a good idea.
> 
> Any experiences? Any thoughts?
> 
> -- 
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush
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