[OSList] Any experience with short OST

Koos de Heer koos at auryn.nl
Sun Jun 10 22:42:43 PDT 2012


Hi Catherine,

My experiences with really short OST meetings are 
mixed. My experiences with OST meetings for 
demonstration purposes are not so good. Only 
spectators, no play. So I only do an Open Space 
meeting if there is a real issue to be discussed by passionate people.

A short Open Space meeting is at least 3 hours 
when I do it. I do not agree to anything shorter. 
My favorite is a day and a half. There seems to 
be a tendency that organizations do want the 
benefits of Open Space but have increasing 
trouble investing the time to make it possible. 
Sometimes I think that the biggest change we can 
offer is not the format of the Open Space 
meeting, but the idea to spend time on things, to 
stop measuring every minute against the KPIs of a balanced score card.

Having said that, a three hour meeting is much 
better than nothing at all. Key is to manage the 
expectations of the client. The benefits of a 
three hour meeting are certainly worthwile, but 
not way as good as those of a day and a half. If 
they are happy with the three hours, you can tell 
them they have seen nothing yet and there is much more where this came from.

Cheers

Koos


At 00:19 11-6-2012, donna.read at managing4wellness.org wrote:
>Hi, I did a 4-hour open space last year. It went 
>really well.  People seemed to enjoy it and a 
>lot came out of it but not as much as I 
>would  have liked.  But everyone went away happy 
>to have had the experience.  Best, Donna
>
>[]
>
>
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: Re: [OSList] Any experience with short OST
>From: Graydancer <<mailto:graydancer at gmail.com>graydancer at gmail.com>
>Date: Sun, June 10, 2012 3:48 pm
>To: 
><mailto:c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch>c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch, 
>World wide Open Space Technology email list
><<mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
>
>My Open Spaces are usually a day (though we have 
>meet & greets & sunday brunches to provide some 
>wiggle room). They seem to work well. I was 
>recently asked to do a 6-hour open space for 
>about 350 people in Chicago. It went well - very 
>well - but we had a LOT of time beforehand to 
>prep the people through online forums, etc, as 
>well as a lot of participants who had been to other open spaces.
>
>That being said, with one or two exceptions, 
>everyone there loved it. My only frustration was 
>with people who said "No, I didn't go, it just 
>sounded too disorganized." For some reason, the 
>idea of something being self-organizing is just anathema.
>
>I think shorter OS's can work...but I would 
>never want to do one shorter than the 6 hours. 
>Even that felt way too short. Good, but like a 
>book that you really wish didn't end...
>
>Gray
>
>On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 4:29 PM, Catherine 
>Pfaehler <<mailto:c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch>c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch> wrote:
>I can only add that the only time I did such a 
>short OST in order to demonstrate the methode 
>did NOT lead to a client relationship. I’ve 
>come to notice that even a 5.5 hr OS-event is 
>too short. We deprive people of the experience 
>of what it is like to have ENOUGH time for their 
>thoughts and ideas and actions and projects to 
>actually emerge if we agree to such short periods of time.
>
>Thank you for asking, Catherine C., and thank you for your answer, Harrison!
>
>Love, Catherine P.
>
>Catherine Pfaehler
>Burckhardtstrasse 2
>CH - 3008 Bern
>+41-(0)31-536 05 31
>
>
>----------
>Von: Catherine Corbaz [mailto:cat.corbaz at gmail.com]
>Gesendet: Sonntag, 10. Juni 2012 19:20
>An: World wide Open Space Technology email list
>Betreff: Re: [OSList] Any experience with short OST
>
>Dear Harrison
>of course I'll trust you. You put the right 
>words on my inner feelings and gave me strong 
>arguments to tell the sponsor, if needed. Your 
>point to do do it after and let emerge an opened discussion, is a perfect idea.
>
>Thanks a lot,
>
>Catherine
>
>Le 10 juin 12 à 18:07, Harrison Owen a écrit :
>
>
>Catherine – I know you have maade your plans. 
>And Plans can change. Here are some thoughts 
>that might move the changes along
 First – The 
>best Presentation on Open Sn Space is “Do 
>it!” Nothing else comes even close. Second – 
>Doing a Presentation about Open Space before an 
>Open Space creates all sorts of difficulties, 
>none of which you want. No matter what you say, 
>no matter how good you are – whatever you say 
>will just confuse people. If they have never 
>experienced Open Space, they simply won’t 
>believe you. And if they have had the 
>experience, they don’t need the explanation. 
>Even worse, a Presentation up front will 
>inevitably put the people in a “head” mode, 
>thinking about the process. They will be 
>wondering about other processes, potential 
>modifications, what “they” say in the 
>literature. All good thoughts, but definitely 
>not needed at the onset of an Open Space. Just 
>get on with the business, do what comes 
>naturally, and forget about the process. After 
>all it works all by itself. No help needed. And 
>don’t try doing “just a little bit of Open 
>Space” It is always frustrating, because just 
>about the time you get rolling, it is time to 
>stop. If these people really want to Celebrate – 
>Go for iit and make sure they have plenty of time/space for the occasion!
>
>And then if they really want a Presentation, do 
>it at the end. I assume you will have a closing 
>circle and after the people have shared their 
>comments, ask them by way of summary “What did 
>you notice particularly about our time together 
>that was strange, new, surprising, different? I 
>think you will find that the People as a whole 
>will create a marvelous presentation, and of 
>course you can comment if you care to.
>
>Trust me. You won’t be disappointed.
>
>Harrison
>
>Harrison Owen
>7808 River Falls Dr.
>Potomac, MD 20854
>USA
>
>189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
>Camden, Maine 20854
>
>Phone <tel:301-365-2093>301-365-2093
>(summer)  <tel:207-763-3261>207-763-3261
>
><http://www.openspaceworld.com%20>www.openspaceworld.com
>www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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>From: 
><mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org 
>[<mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] 
>On Behalf Of Catherine Corbaz
>Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2012 11:31 AM
>To: World email list wide Open Space Technology
>Subject: [OSList] Any experience with short OST
>
>Dear OS-friends,
>I’ve been invited to moderate an OST for the 
>10th birthday of a studying program of a high 
>Engineering and business school. It is called Human System engineering.
>The purpose is to celebrate the anniversary and 
>to make an OST in order to collect ideas, 
>projects of the students to allow this program 
>to live further. The purpose is also to present 
>OST as a method to work with collective 
>intelligence , etc. Inviter people will be 
>students and old students, the professorship will also be invited.
>
>At the beginning we spoke of a one day OST. 
>After a first meeting with the preparation 
>group, they proposed me to do something shorter, 
>with a presentation about OST. I agreed with 
>their suggestion. But i'll make my presentation 
>as short as possible, with the message: the best 
>presentation is to experiment it.  So I might have 1/2 more, who knows?
>
>But i've never do such a short OST. So presently 
>the agenda (in may head) look like:
>
>- a short introduction (sponsor + OST introduction : 15’),
>- Market place&agenda (15’).
>- Two break-out sessions of 35 min.
>- closing circle (20')
>
>We expect 30-50 people.
>
>Anyone with a similar experience. I remender 
>reading something about a 1.5 hours OST?
>Any comment, remark, welcome.
>
>NB: this OST is a short of follow-up of the 
>french publication of Christine Kohler.
>
>Regards
>
>Catherine Corbaz
>Roseaux 20
>CH-2503 Bienne
><tel:%2B41%2032%20323%2038%2043>+41 32 323 38 43
><tel:%2B41%2079%20794%2038%2055>+41 79 794 38 55
><https://sites.google.com/site/catherinecorbaz/>https://sites.google.com/site/catherinecorbaz/
>
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