[OSList] A 3hr OST slot at Conference

Luc Bizeul lbizeul at gmail.com
Sun Nov 25 10:41:38 PST 2012


Hello,

you can find here a movie of how I open the space in a conference meeting, I create a new facilitation tool for that you can see it in action during this movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUEcan5V2u0&feature=plcp

I hope it can help you

This movies is the firt use of this tool during a on hour session during a conference, I plan to finalise the capitalization for the end of december (I planed to be speacker for 4 intervention with this tool before make a publication).

If you feel like using it, I can take time to brief on that facilitation style.

cheers

Luc Bizeul

Le 18 nov. 2012 à 19:41, Sandy Gee a écrit :

> 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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