[OSList] A strategic planning retreat in NJ

Sun Oct 2 09:40:16 PDT 2011

Dear Chuni and all,

Behind the scenes in our Open Space community, there is a lot of learning, a
lot of support and a lot of mutual sharing and celebration that happens.
Some of it appears publicly on this board list. In other cases, it’s a
series of private notes or personal calls on the phone or Skype.  This
community is like a community of friends and family.

With Chuni’s permission, I am sharing a sprinkling of her emails to me as
she facilitated last week. They were brief and yet ever so precious –
similar to notes that I had sent to others (Diane Gibeault, Harrison, Lisa
Heft) in the moment of awe as I was holding space, in between picking up
coffee cups.

This time I was a recipient of those notes and there are no words to
describe how moved I was to have Chuni share as she did, in the invisibility
of her role.

Last Wednesday, this first note pops into my Droid:

* “Space has been opened and sessions are going on now.” *

A few seconds later, a few photos arrive. I feel myself transported and
every so joyful.

After closing circle more words from Chuni to describe the essence of what
happened, where everyone, even the initial skeptics, expressed how much they
had enjoyed their day. No surprise there!

According to Chuni, one person said *“we were at our best today”*; another
suggested a raising of hands to signal if people love working for their
organization. All hands immediately rose.

On the second day in Open Space, Chuni describes it as being *“just as
energizing as yesterday”*.

On her first morning back to work, I chuckled upon reading:

*“I am afraid to walk down the aisles in the office today as people are just
too profuse in praising the last two days...”*

I am happy knowing the courage it takes especially when you are an internal
facilitator introducing Open Space in your own organization, knowing the
questions and the challenges that surface from so many, in the weeks
preceding the event even if the invitation was written just right.  We all
know that Open Space is not the traditional way of holding summits,
retreats, meetings and conferences. People are fearful of what they do not
know or understand even if in their heart of hearts, it is what they want
most.

The next day, Chuni’s leader sends a congratulations note to everyone
titling it: “Thank you Chuni”. In it, she expresses her appreciation to her
for providing people  *“the opportunity to be creative in service to” their
mission*.  With no title or name, her boss signs it:

Sincerely, Your butterflies and bumblebees.

Wow...  I am in awe of her leader!

My heart also skipped a beat when she shared a few notes from a few
participants.  One had been part of the opening circle on the 2nd day.
Chuni had asked him to describe the OS principles for others. His lengthy
email late, telling Chuni how much he loved those principles, recaptured on
paper what he had said. It was amazing, the stuff that facilitators say and
more!

And then finally, Chuni sent one last email which truly defines for me why
we do this work, why we must ignite our own courage to open space wherever
we can, as often as we can in our own organizations and other places!

Here’s what this participant said:

* “I felt a wonderful sense of connectedness there, which indicates - what?
That we have a cohesive team? That the venue or format works for us? That we
all operate at that level anyway, and just need an excuse to go there
together? *

* *

*Maybe all of those things. But nonetheless, the take away for me is more a
feeling, and less informational. A sense of belonging and knowing that at
least for that day, I was in the right place. Ultimately that's what
refreshes and rejuvenates, and makes us alive.” *

* *

*And I thank you for that!”*

 So Chuni, I thank you for your wonderful notes and letting me be a part of
this from afar. Thank you also for allowing me to share my side of your
wonderful story with our OS community now!

It has invigorated me for an upcoming Open Space event in Italy with clients
and also for my upcoming trip to Chile.

With great affection, Suzanne

On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 8:10 AM, <chunili2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Thank  you Elaine and Steve for your kind words and encouragement.
>
> Elaine, I also wanted to thank you for  sharing your wisdom on hosting
> small group conversations. I incorporated some of that which was helpful.
>
> Since I am doing this inside an organization, I intend to keep the OS
> spirit going as more than half of the staff have now experienced the power
> of self-organization. I have a weekly open forum that has been run  based on
> the OS principles. My intent is to encourage people to come to the forum to
> open space whenever they need to discuss issues.
>
> And then, my hope is to leverage this experience to the leaders in the
> whole System of Care at the state level. A momentum seems to be building...
>
> Chuni
>
> *From:* Elaine Hansen2 <elaine.hansen at hansen-rd.com>
> *To:* chunili2000 at yahoo.com; 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, October 1, 2011 8:38 PM
> *Subject:* RE: [OSList] A strategic planning retreat in NJ
>
> Chuni,
>
> Thanks for sharing.  It all sounds very exciting and like a huge success.
> You have inspired me.
>
> I love that your team mates adopted the language so quickly and are bumble
> bee-ing and creating butterfly moments for themselves…
>
> This sounds like the beginning of new possibilities for you…
>
> *Elaine S. Hansen*
> *Hansen Resource Development Inc <http://hansen-rd.com/>*
> *Skype: elaine.hansen*
> *513.238.5999 *
> *  *
> [image: iStock_Medium-stones-wee]
> *...in the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves
> everything.*
> *Thomas Merton*
>
>
> *From:* oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:
> oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of *
> chunili2000 at yahoo.com
> *Sent:* Friday, September 30, 2011 12:09 PM
> *To:* OSLIST
> *Subject:* [OSList] A strategic planning retreat in NJ
>
> I am writing to share my first full-scale, solo open space event that took
> place in the last two days.
>
> It was a two-day, off site (at a tranquil, wooded camp site) strategic
> planning retreat. All staff were invited to come. Of the 60 staff members,
> 37 came on the first day and 20 remained for the 2nd day (due to various
> work commitments, many couldn't do both days as we are a government
> contracted social service agency.)
>
> Words cannot describe the spirit and emotions that permeated throughout the
> two days. I am getting overwhelmingly positive feedback and profuse "thank
> you" from the participants. It created a tremendous bond for those who cared
> and were able to come to celebrate our 10-year anniversary in creating
> social innovation for children's mental health care, and to craft the agenda
> for the next 10 years as we continue to "Be the Change We Wish to See in the
> World." (This is our agency mantra and the theme for the OS retreat.)
>
> Part of the reason for a smaller number of participants on the 2nd day was
> because I didn't want people who couldn't come on the 1st day to just show
> up on the 2nd day.  However, one person who committed to coming on both
> days had an unexpected client emergency to attend to. I made an
> exception for him to come on the 2nd day. In order to prepare
> him, we asked him to read all the discussion notes from the first day
> break-out groups. Our Newsroom was set up for session conveners to type
> their notes right into our agency intranet database. Therefore all notes
> were immediately visible to all staff (including those who couldn't come)
> and also printed for the News Wall.
>
> On the 2nd day, the "new" person, Rick, showed up having indeed read all
> the discussion notes from Day 1.  During Morning News, we welcomed Rick
> and "initiated " him into the circle by sharing a lot of the positive energy
> and people talking about how their night was "wrapped up" by the Day 1
> experience.  As I opened the circle, the sponsor (my boss in this case)
> wanted me to go over all the OS posters for Rick because he never hear the
> explanation.  I said I wasn't going to go through the "ritual" again, and
> figured how about we have some volunteers to explain all the posters. With
> no hesitation, one person stood and walked the circle as he explained the 5
> principles (perfectly!); then a 2nd person stood up to explain the Law of
> Two Feet; a 3rd person walked the circle and explained the Bumblebee, and
> then a 4th person explained the butterfly. Finally, everyone asked Rick to
> explain the last poster "Be Ready to Be Surprised."  Rick stood up, slowly
> walked the circle and said matter-of-factly: "Be ready to be surprised -
> you have to keep an open mind and do not have fixed expectations about what
> ought to come."  Everyone applauded.  I found this variation of "initiating"
> a new member quite engaging and fun.
>
> Thank you Suzanne for being the support throughout the preparation and
> delivery process. Your advice on allowing an one-hour break for lunch was
> right. While it initially felt like there was too much "unfilled" free time
> in between sessions (people are used to having back-to-back activities so
> having nothing to do is hard), that free time turned out to be important for
> people to get their notes into the computer. More importantly, people
> quickly learned to use that free time to just relax, take a walk in the
> woods, or chat freely with one another. Nobody was annoyed by the free time
> and they finally realized that we were in a retreat. They began to call
> such free time "butterfly moments." The OS lingo was used throughout the
> days as people described themselves "bumblebeeing" from session to
> session. One statement I heard the most was "I just had a butterfly moment
> with so and so..." meaning they just chatted with someone incidentally by
> the coffee pot. Free time turned out to be important in creating the feeling
> of being both relaxed and productive in an OS event. In the end, people were
> tired but happy and fulfilled. And the language helped create such a bonding
> among the participants.
>
> Thank you Harrison, thank you Suzanne, and thank you Karen Davis for
> opening this door for me. And thank you to all the contributors on this
> List. I borrowed a lot of good ideas from you all, including action planning
> and using the balloons.
>
> Chuni Li
>
>
>
>
>
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>

-- 
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
twitter @suzannedaigle
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