[OSList] A 3hr OST slot at Conference

[Koos de Heer]

Wow Sandy, thanks for sharing! This is encouraging and very valuable. 
I love your creativity and how you managed to bring so much Open 
Space into that constricted space. Great job!

Koos

At 19:41 18-11-2012, Sandy Gee wrote:
>Hello again lovely OS community,
>I posted a question asking for advice on here a few months ago. It 
>was about organising a 3 hour OS slot in the afternoon of an 
>Existential Psychotherapy Conference in a non-ideal setting - A very 
>formal and smart space with an auditorium in fixed tiered rows.
>
>I benefitted hugely from all the input I got here as well as at 
>Lisa's workshop in London and at WOSONOS.
>
>It happened on Saturday and I'd like to report that it was a great success!
>
>Though the organisers had been very nervous about it and the setting 
>was pretty challenging I was well prepared and had found ways to 
>address all the difficulties...
>
>For the OS introduction and marketplace I followed Harrison's idea 
>of making an approximate circle by putting 2 rows of chairs in an 
>arc across the front of the auditorium facing the tiered rows (the 
>chairs just going right across where there was a raised platform). 
>It took a number of devices to get them to co-operate with sitting 
>there - a 'welcome to Open Space' PP slide projected onto the 
>screen, with the request to 'please sit in the chairs across the 
>front and the first 3 rows of the auditorium'. I reinforced it with 
>'DO NOT SIT IN THIS ROW' signs on all the upper rows (and string 
>blocking off the rows on the other side). And then when I saw that 
>they were nervous and reluctant - strong personal appeals to "please 
>come forward and sit across the front - nothing special or 
>spotlighting will be asked of you, we're just trying to create a 
>sort-of circle". The reluctance was very understandable as they had 
>been in that space earlier with 3 big name speakers just presenting 
>and them all as passive audience. And indeed this is the style 
>previous conferences have all been.
>
>I used humour about the awkward and uneven circle - telling them 
>that the varied height circle was intending to communicate our 
>equality! And I was able to easily link it all to the conference 
>theme which was 'Challenging Contexts and Uncertain Landscapes'! 
>Indeed this seemed to help break the initial ice.
>
>I followed your idea Lisa of 'implying the circle' by placing the 
>principles around the perimeter of the circle (having to invent some 
>creative ways of doing that using string and pegs in places to avoid 
>anything attached to the walls) and by circling around the space as 
>I gave my introduction and explanation of the process. Thank you too 
>Lisa for your advice in your 'thoughts and Ideas' PDF, in which you 
>suggested setting up my living room with the themes on the wall and 
>practicing circling the space and speaking aloud whilst imagining 
>being there. That helped me to get more clear and concise. It helped 
>me to notice where I had a tendency to get repetitive or 
>long-winded/unclear and discipline myself to keep it simple and 
>brief enough for the short time I had. I also typed out pretty much 
>what I would say with coloured sub-headings to orientate me if I 
>should get a bit lost in the nerves of it all. I only looked at it 
>once, but the process of writing that and then just having it there 
>helped. This was a much more formal, bigger and more time 
>constrained situation than I've done OS in before and all this 
>helped me cope with that.
>
>Actually the awkwardness and obvious inconvenience of using the 
>auditorium in that way in some ways helped make the transition to 
>the informality and 'mucking in' quality OS needs. Following their 
>initial reluctance to sit in the awkward circle - I was pleased and 
>surprised that they got stuck in quite easily with the paper and 
>pens for writing up their topics - some handing paper back for 
>people to write in their rows before coming forward and others even 
>speaking first with a just blank paper in their hand and then 
>writing up what they'd said more concisely afterwards.
>
>We started a bit late but easily got through the marketplace in the 
>45mins and off they went to their 1st sessions (11 topics in each of 
>the 2 sessions). (I managed to wangle an extra 15 minutes on 
>initially proposed 30 minutes by encouraging the organisers to let 
>me take more of the time for the OS closure out of the whole 
>conference closure - thanks for that idea Lisa).
>
>For session topic zones I used laminated orange A4 sheets with 
>letters on bamboo poles cable-tied to the chair legs (like at 
>WOSONOS 2012). I attached velcro re-usable cable ties to the top of 
>the poles which i could then thread through slots in the laminated 
>A4 sheets to create 'zone flags' (easier to dismantle and transport) 
>for each of the circles of chairs. These were set up in other rooms 
>than the auditorium (according to a layout plan I'd drawn up) and 
>this worked well.
>
>We had a challenge with the agenda wall being created in the 
>auditorium but the topic zone areas being in a separate part of the 
>venue. That made it impractical for people to refer to the 
>auditorium agenda board when bumblebeeing between sessions. So we 
>simply got moveable boards and, after the marketplace, we moved them 
>to the hall outside where the OS topic sessions were taking place. 
>We used light A2 foam boards, used 'dual tack double-sided tape' to 
>'post-it' them to the auditorium wall, then were able to remove and 
>reposition them, after the marketplace, onto doors in the hall.
>
>The closing session was back in the auditorium in the awkward circle 
>at the front and by then people had got comfortable with 
>participating, so freely offered snippets of their experience of 
>both the process and the content. Many were energised, enjoyed it, 
>felt excited and had started conversations they'd wanted to have but 
>didn't know how. One said that this now felt like a community in a 
>way that it never had before. A few expressed discomfort with 
>aspects of the process - feeling conflicted in having to decide 
>whether to stay or move, being much more aware of the encounter with 
>the people rather than just the material for discussion, feeling 
>grumpy and rebellious about notetaking and how they felt it 
>interrupted the process. But even those who had found it 
>uncomfortable also expressed that they'd got something from it. And 
>the content that they fed back about was expressed with interest, 
>excitement and edginess. A couple expressed surprise that it worked 
>when they had felt sure it couldn't!
>
>Interestingly one of them expressed a sense of slight stiltedness 
>and flattening of the energy to be back in the formality of the 
>auditorium for the closure after the freedom of the Open Space 
>sessions and suggested that if we'd just got people to re-position 
>the chairs in the larger room where the sessions had taken place it 
>would have retained more of the energy of OS. I hadn't imagined that 
>this could be possible due to the numbers, but by that point we were 
>down to about half the participants so it actually could have 
>worked. (About a third left at lunchtime and another third before 
>the OS closure - apparently very usual at this conference and partly 
>a result of an overly long and packed agenda). Interestingly - 
>another case of that 'once they've had a taste, they resist any 
>going back into a more constricted space' phenomena!
>
>I personally received a lot of great feedback both directly and in 
>how people interacted with me - many people seemed to find me easily 
>approachable and came and talked to me or just dropped in a comment 
>in passing. A lot were very appreciative, two gave me very specific 
>feedback on how I had been a great facilitator (unflustered when 
>things went wrong, informal, warm, clear). A couple expressed 
>dilemmas - what they wanted to do, but felt too shy (I encouraged 
>them to dare to do it anyway and they did), another felt a bit bad 
>about not having taken notes (I encouraged him to consider - was 
>there anything now they were finished that they'd like to share with 
>the rest of the conference? and just write that - which he did).
>
>All in all there was a real energetic buzz, people were excited and 
>appreciative, several things had been started that there were plans 
>to carry forward further and it looks very likely that Open Space 
>will be part of next years conference.
>
>Thank you everyone who helped me with your great ideas and generous 
>encouragement. I'm thrilled and look forward to more...
>
>Sandy Gee
><mailto:wildbalance at gmail.com>wildbalance at gmail.com
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