[OSList] Any experience with short OST

[Joaquim Baptista]

Greetings,

All I've done were 5 short OST meetings plus a longer but biased OST track
at a conference.

I understand that these short meetings were not ideal, they did not lead to
strong conclusions. On the other hand, it would have been impossible to ask
parents that were strange to each other to commit more time to meet.

These meetings lasted between 2h and 4h. They were still quite effective in
opening space between people, having them find out that there are others
like them, and identifying shared concerns that deserve further attention.

While people usually complain that there was not enough time to talk,
everyone loves it. And I strongly believe that, if I invited them to talk
for 1.5 days, they would just refuse.

When the meeting ends, its their responsibility to continue talking
elsewhere, if they wish to do so. Sometimes, they do.

Is it better to open a little space, or to open no space at all? :-)


On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 6:42 AM, Koos de Heer <koos at auryn.nl> wrote:

>  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
>
> [image: []]
>
>
>  -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Any experience with short OST
> From: Graydancer <graydancer at gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, June 10, 2012 3:48 pm
> To: c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch, World wide Open Space Technology email list
> < 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 <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<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 “theyâ€
> 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 Spaceâ€
> 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 301-365-2093
> (summer)  207-763-3261
>
> www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20>
>  www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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>  From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org<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
> +41 32 323 38 43
> +41 79 794 38 55
>  https://sites.google.com/site/catherinecorbaz/
>
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