[OSList] OS in business meetings

[Lisa Heft]

Hi, Keith, and all -

Keith - you *can* have an Agenda (8:00a coffee and welcome, 8:30a  
'Plenary Session', 9:30-5:00 'Working Sessions', 5:00 'Closing  
Plenary', 'lunch will be included' ) - however you would say those  
things in the particular vocabulary of your organizational culture.   
And you *can* mention content, in a way - you can craft an invitation  
that has intriguing questions - the things you know folks are always  
puzzling about regarding the ... reason for bringing these people  
together.  And you can focus your invitational efforts on helping  
individual folks know that their diverse thinking, passion for the  
work and presence at this event are both welcome and will enrich this  
interdisciplinary, interdepartmental (or however you see it) work.   
Again: in the language of the culture you work within.

The invitation - the text, strategy (for different people, different  
messages / different strategy) and the very nature of ongoing  
invitation is key to any dialogue event. As you interact with the  
individuals you want to invite, it because clear to them that they are  
needed, wanted, welcomed, and that their special viewpoint or skill or  
different way of thinking is key to your team's success.

Oh yes, and you get to invite them to the beautiful San Francisco Bay  
Area (I live here so I am a bit in love with the place).
And hey - they can take field trips !

Seems to me those are plenty of reasons for people who want  
specificity to feel energized and excited about attending.
That and - the perfect thing for scientists and others - the output of  
the documentation component which is a natural part of Open Space -  
the Book of Proceedings - narrative data.

In your invitations I would recommend not mentioning the process much  
or at all - most people do not care at all about process - they care  
about content, and about relationships. Those intriguing questions in  
your invitation engage people about the content.

Open Space as you may know has been used very successfully with  
scientists of all different kinds.  It's just about using the right  
tool for the job (analyzing if the time, task, and lots of other  
details inform the selection of Open Space) and framing things in a  
language your culture and community relate to. And: ensuring that your  
Open Space meeting is long enough to deliver the deliverables and  
objectives you seek (different-length Open Space meetings yield  
slightly different deliverables - 1/2 day, full day, 2 day, 2.5 day).   
And: about not promising action or next steps if you really are better  
served spending the time in exploration, discovery, data / idea  
generation and divergent / diverse thinking - pausing (perhaps going  
home to their respective locations) - having folks receive their  
data / Book back afterwards - reading it, integrating the data,  
reflecting - and then (with the mechanisms you probably have for  
inviting surveys or other responses virtually / electronically -  
making more informed, realistic identification of next steps or  
decisions after they've rested, reflected and integrated the info.

As for the loss of control part - the sorts of leaders who welcome  
Open Space (or will welcome, as they learn about it) are those who say  
'I do not know the answers - but I feel that collectively there is  
rich knowledge here - and our product / company will benefit from  
tapping into that knowledge and experience'. Other leaders may feel  
anxiety - very normal in a new circumstance. You can assure them there  
is form, structure, pre-work, documentation - all designed for maximum  
productivity. You can use it for only the right reasons / objectives  
that fit the form. You can have a chat with the managers about not  
facilitating all the groups but instead, being real individual  
participants and understanding their own power dynamic - if they are  
'helpy' and 'leader-y' during the event they may erase the  
participants' ability to step forward and be co-leaders, and they may  
never have the opportunity to notice that some of those participants  
should indeed be noted as potentially greater human resources to the  
organization than thought before.

Lastly - I find that even in a meeting where a staff is required to  
attend - Open Space allows for every individual to take very good care  
of themselves, and to use the time in the way they feel is most  
productive for them. Some will engage, some will have 'butterfly  
conversations', some will not join groups, some will. Even the  
individual thinkers in Open Space are encouraged to contribute their  
different thinking to the Book of Proceedings - an option for them  
that honors them just as much as people who join groups. And because  
it's not a linear, 'business-as-usual' meeting - they usually find  
things / groups / topics that engage them.  So in my experience -  
sure, the ideal is for attendance to be voluntary - but this form  
welcomes people in all their ways of showing up, and gives them the  
gift of feeling how they feel and thinking how they thing.

Pretty productive, I'd say...

Warm wishes for great success in your event,
Lisa



Open Space facilitators: I am going to WOSonOS in Chile this October.  
Will you be joining us?
Facilitadores de Espacio Abierto: Voy a WOSonOS en Chile este mes de  
octubre. ¿Va a unirse a nosotros?
http://www.wosonoschile.cl
  - The Open Space Learning Workshop
        - October 17-18, 2011 - Santiago, Chile (en español)
        - December 14-16, 2011 - San Francisco, USA

Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
Fellow, Columbia University Center for International Conflict Resolution
Opening Space
lisaheft at openingspace.net


On Sep 9, 2011, at 7:48 AM, Blundell, Keith wrote:

> 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.

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