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

Fri Sep 9 09:00:37 PDT 2011

Dear Keith and all who are following this thread,
I will share my perspective on your questions. I have facilitated several
national level OST meetings with operational people who have scientific
backgrounds and indeed they appear to have greater passion for detail and
data. This is a gift that they bring, and with care, can be a great asset in
an OST meeting and its outcomes.

I love hearing that your second meeting went better and that all
participants endorsed it as a meeting format. I am wondering how you intend
to leverage all this great feedback?

I am a proponent of good planning. The work, from my perspective, especially
in an intact business (rather than a one time conference), is in the
planning. OST always works and the facilitation is quite easy so with some
tweaks over time, this is not where the extra effort needs to go. It is in
the planning, with the right people. If you can imagine a sled going down a
hill, once started, it keeps going. One challenge with the planning is to
identify the correct hill for the sled to go down. In the second event that
you facilitated, the business goal is clear. In your planning, did you also
work with the 'sponsors' to decide what they wanted to capture in the
documentation of the sessions, and did you work with them to find out if
there was need for convergence and agreed upon action planning from their
findings? In an intact organization, questions such as these become more
important, so that people in the organization see results beyond the
meeting. 

I think that in a business, no matter how the invitation is worded, it is
likely that the expectation from 'bosses' is that people show up. I have
been aware of situations where people have been fired for not attending, and
in other situations where people have been fired for what they said during
an OST break out session. So, this topic you raise about is it really an
invitation is an important one to discuss. As is the topic of whether it is
truly okay for people to talk about anything that they feel moved to talk
about. I learned long ago not to assume that Open Space is Safe Space.

On the subject of leaders and struggle for control, I think that this could
be said about others in the organization too. All are humans, and part of
the human drama is fear, and fear raises its head in different ways
including something that is experienced as control. I find it useful to
avoid judging people regarding their need to control, and instead I wonder
with people what the fear(s) is (are). This is useful with senior leaders,
and then we work out what can be done to mitigate the fears. A very long
time ago, I initiated work with 'givens' for an OST meeting. These might be
the 'givens' or non-negotiables of a Board, CEO, or senior leader. The
'givens' exist so it is useful to make them explicit. I also work from a
vantage point of it being the senior leaders who open the space in their
organization for an OST meeting to take place. When approaching the OST from
this perspective, I make choices regarding what I do and how I can be of
service for a good meeting and for useful results.

I wish you well with this journey,
Birgitt Williams

Birgitt Williams
President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy
Author, The Genuine Contact Way
919-522-7750

Co-Owner of the Genuine Contact™ Program
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-----Original Message-----
From: Blundell, Keith [mailto:keith.blundell at roche.com] 
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 10:48 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] OS in business meetings (2nd question)

Dear All,

I am trying to get my organisation to think about using OS.  I have run two
sessions - the first was an afternoon session which was my first and
provided plenty of learning on how it could have been better.

The second was a two day session around learning from our experience and
working better in the future.  This session was particularly successful and
endorsed as a as a meeting format by all those attending.

Some thoughts to add to this discussion:

The first is that from a business perspective I think if you are sent a
meeting invitation there is an expectation that you will attend.  Therefore
the invite is not "open".  I am running a session later on in the year with
Line Managers and intend to send an e-mail invitation on the heels of a
calendar placeholder worded in a way that gives them the option of attending
based on their passion, rather than on an expectation that they should
attend.

Loss (or perceived loss?) of control is also something that some senior
leaders struggle with.

Finally, I work with operational people who largely have a science
background so data and detail are almost part of their "Psyche" and talking
through the possibility of using OS can be interesting.  I think this is
summed up by a comment made when we were discussing options for the session
I mentioned above which was scheduled for San Francisco.  One person was
particularly having trouble with the OS concept - "How can we invite people
[from across the globe] to a meeting when we don't have an Agenda?"

Regards,

Keith.

Dr K Blundell

Change Advisor
Communication, Innovation and Change (CIC)
Product Development Global Operations
Roche Products Limited
6 Falcon Way
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL7 1TW

Office:   +44 (0) 1707 36 6618
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Mail to:  keith.blundell at roche.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Michael M
Pannwitz
Sent: 08 September 2011 9:30 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] OS in business meetings (2nd question)

Dear Claudia,
after facilitating a regular (astreinen, if you like it in German) OST event
(Planning Meeting, 3 day OST event, Action Planning, Next Meeting) for the
study body representatives of a Berlin Highschool we were invited to be
present at one of their regular "business meetings" (2 hours each week).
They asked us to watch them work in an entirely new way that improved their
efficiency and fun 1000%.
As we entered their "Meeting Room" we noticed the complete signage (they had
taken the posters from the OST event), a circle of chairs and the issue wall
(thats what I call the Bulletin Board in German). They sat in the circle,
looked at each other for a while and then posted their business issues
(there were three beginning times 20 minutes apart) and proceeded in
breakout sessions.
After returning to the circle it turned out that they not only had discussed
their issues but also decided on stuff or on actions to be taken. They had a
closing circle and were done in the 2 hours.

They kept doing this for years... starting each school year (elections were
annually) with a classic OST event.

Of course, these were not "2 hours OST events" but definitely were open
space business sessions and for the participants the most productive thing
in their school experience... shared leadership, lots of space for
selforganisation and a peaceful atmosphere.

Any business can do that.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

PS: Several of the younger OST colleagues in Berlin had their first exposure
to OST and open space in these events. They will probably take this
experience into other "businesses" as they continue their journey.

On 07.09.2011 15:01, Dr. Claudia Gross wrote:
> The 2^nd 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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--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org	www.boscop.org

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