[OSList] A 3hr OST slot at Conference

Lisa Heft lisaheft at openingspace.net
Tue Nov 20 19:11:23 PST 2012


Sandy, Sandy, Sandy.

You are a gift to us, and to the communities and organizations you  
work with.

You used all you knew, all you intuited, all you observed and all you  
felt inside - all in service to this group of participants and its  
work together.
Thank you so much for sharing what you noticed and learned and did...

Lisa


>
> ---------------
> From: Sandy Gee <wildbalance at gmail.com>
> To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 6:41 PM
> Subject: [OSList] A 3hr OST slot at Conference
>
> 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
> wildbalance at gmail.com

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