[OSList] OS in business meetings (2nd question)

[Birgitt Williams]

Dear Claudia and all,

So far, there are a few good contributions to this topic thread on how OST
works in business meetings of 2-4 hours.

 

In our Genuine Contact program way of working  with Open Space Technology,
the basics of the facilitation are exactly as taught to us by Harrison and
covered in the User’s Guide. The ingredients of the form are important, each
having their own role. We also work with our personal understandings of the
essence of OST, each one deciding for themselves what the essence is and
committing to the job of keeping the space open for this essence to do its
work. The form can be done in a very short meeting. However, it is only one
dimension of the whole of an OST meeting. In planning with the sponsor, we
take care in ensuring the right theme, with accurate ‘givens’, for the right
length of time, and whether action planning is intended. Sometimes, OST is
the right meeting format. Sometimes, another format is better after going
through this discernment process. We developed a meeting process with
complimentary values to OST for use during the planning meeting, the debrief
meeting, and to use if OST is not the right method but we still want to
offer ‘maximum choice, maximum freedom’ to the degree possible. Our process
is called Whole Person Process Facilitation. We also like to use World Café
for a short meeting when OST is not the right fit.

 

Most of our business clients have companies and agencies in multiple
geographic locations. Thanks to a lot of experimentation, thinking, and
contribution by members of our GC community, we have developed an incredible
way of having distance meetings on line. The businesses we work with love
this. The software environment for the meetings is Elluminate. The meeting
facilitation platform is Whole Person Process Facilitation. We usually have
a full day meeting (two three hour segments) within a WPPF meeting platform.
The first half of the day is usually about getting familiar with subject
matter, giving all persons the opportunity to understand. The second half of
the day is held as an OST meeting within this WPPF meeting platform. It has
been truly amazing. And, people from the company who have only the three
hours, can join only for the OST meeting. One of the gifts of Elluminate is
that within five minutes of the end of the meeting, everyone can have all of
the documentation including any audio files that were made such as of the
closing circle. People who were not at the meeting can then listen and view
at their leisure, as can those at the meeting who wish to review.

 

My thoughts are similar to those of Lisa Heft. For me, anything less than a
three to four hour meeting is not an OST meeting in that I do not find that
the space opens sufficiently for me to feel the ‘essence’ of OST. Four hours
allows time for an opening, agenda creation, two sufficiently long session
times, and a closing circle. It does not allow sufficient time for a good
convergence, voting, and action planning process. My perspective is that if
this is rushed too much, then people participating are simply in the same
pattern that they are in during the work day of ‘too fast, too busy’ without
sufficient reflection time. 

 

I do know from experience, that all of the opening needs to be done even for
a short meeting.

 

If short cuts are taken, which I have been witness to sometimes, I, like
Lisa, would not call this an OST meeting. It may be more of a self managed
meeting than usual with some OST elements, but it is not OST in my opinion.
For instance, I have come across several instances where people email their
topics in ahead of time, they are given the basic overview of OST ahead of
time, and when they enter the meeting, someone has created an agenda wall
from the mailed in topics and people immediately head off into their
breakout groups. Self managed, yes, OST, no.

 

Blessings,

Birgitt

 

From: Dr. Claudia Gross [mailto:info at claudiagross.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 9:01 AM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] OS in business meetings (2nd question)

 

The 2nd issue I am interested to learn more about is “How does OS work in
business meetings (2-4h)?” 

What’s your experiences and recommendations when facilitating such an event?

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