[OSList] A little bit of Open Space

[Harrison Owen]

I have been in conversation with a nice person who has been doing a “little
bit of Open Space.” (40 min) and wasn’t sure it was working well. I gently
tried to suggest that doing a little bit of Open Space is roughly equivalent
to being a “little bit pregnant.” I didn’t use those words, fearing the
worst -- but my meaning was clear. But I did rather like some of numbers I
came up with suggesting that a little more time to enable the facilitator to
“get out of the way” might be useful.

 

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“But even with the “standard” OST gathering, I find that anything less than
½ a day ends up almost feeling like a “party game” – or “warm up exercise.”
In that small time span the emerging process usually doesn’t have time to
flesh out, expand and grow – to the point that people forget that they are
“doing a process” – and simply get on with the business of doing what they
need to do. In my book, “facetime” for the facilitator ( that time when the
facilitator is out in front) should be very brief, a very small percentage
of the time.  In a full day Open Space, the introduction should take no more
than 20 min. After that, things pretty well run themselves – the people do
it. This means that the facilitator holds the floor for 0.0416666666666667%
of the time. Just about right, if not a little long. Personally, I find 15
min. will do.”

 

Harrison

 

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 20854

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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