[OSList] Any experience with short OST

Mon Jun 11 05:44:37 PDT 2012

Joaquim – Marvelous question: “Is it better to open a little space, or to open no space at all? :-)” And I think the answer is pretty obvious but for reasons having little to do with Open Space Technology as a process. Life (at least my life) requires the opening of time/space. When all of that closes, so does life. Some people feel that they are protecting life when they put it in a box. I find just the reverse. The greatest gift I have to offer is respectful time/space. Of course I don’t own it, so speaking of it as a “gift” to others is a stretch, but I think we all recognize the wonder and power of being the presence of one who is graciously spacious. You know the sort I am talking about – somehow they call forth the very best in us, but not in the manner of a prescription (we must, should, ought). We are invited to be everything we can be, and we find in the warm presence of that person the essential time/space for that “everything” to manifest. I suspect this may be the ultimate expression of Love: the challenge to reach our fullness, and the acceptance of whatever that form our fullness may take. Not just challenge, not just acceptance – but both together, simultaneously, paradoxically, dialectically. That creates radical space/time, I think – the essential conditions for life.

We do this all the time. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. And some people seem to be able to do it more often and easily. A few manage to do it all the time. The clock doesn’t seem to have much to do with the situation, for Gracious Spaciousness apparently operates outside of time. It might even create human time/space?

So opening space/time first last and always – whenever, however, wherever, with whomever…

YES!

And then we come to that curious thing we call Open Space Technology, which as far as I am concerned is nothing but a special application of “Gracious Spaciousness.” Over the years we seem to have developed a pretty clear sense about useful time periods. Nothing cast in concrete, but less than 4 hours feels pretty cramped and more than 2 ½ days is too much of a good thing. But the Goldilocks (just right) time always depends… on the group, the issues, the environment, etc. And finding that Goldilocks moment is in part a function of our (as facilitators) Gracious Spaciousness, I think. We need to challenge the group to be everything they could be, which is almost inevitably several steps beyond their comfort zone. Sometimes we even have to ask some pointed questions such as – “Do they really have such a low opinion of themselves that the future of their organization (life and work) is only worth a few hours?” They alone can decide, and we of course, will have to accept their decision – even if we also have to say that given their decision, we really don’t think Open Space is the way to go.

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 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Joaquim Baptista
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 6:57 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Cc: c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch
Subject: Re: [OSList] Any experience with short OST

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

-------- 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 <mailto: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. Iâ€™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 <tel:%2B41-%280%2931-536%2005%2031> 

  _____  

Von: Catherine Corbaz [ mailto:cat.corbaz at gmail.com <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 Ã  18:07, Harrison Owen a Ã©crit :

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 â€œDo it!â€ Nothing else comes even close. Second â€“ 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 â€“ whatever you say will just confuse people. If they have never experienced Open Space, they simply wonâ€™t believe you. And if they have had the experience, they donâ€™t need the explanation. Even worse, a Presentation up front will inevitably put the people in a â€œheadâ€ mode, thinking about the process. They will be wondering about other processes, potential modifications, what â€œtheyâ€ 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 donâ€™t try doing â€œjust 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 â€œWhat 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 wonâ€™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)

To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org>  

From: 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,

Iâ€™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 : 15â€™), 

- Market place&agenda (15â€™). 

- 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 <tel:%2B41%2032%20323%2038%2043> 

+41 79 794 38 55 <tel:%2B41%2079%20794%2038%2055> 

https://sites.google.com/site/catherinecorbaz/

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