[OSList] Peggy plus OST Linkedin Comment

Sat Oct 20 21:42:59 PDT 2012

i skimmed paul's pieces.  i agreed with much of the substance and was glad
somebody was saying it.  chris read and commented much more carefully, so i
wouldn't try to add to his notes about that.  i'm only jumping in now
because of the questions phelim raises.

first, about bringing clients to osonos... i think osonos used to be a
place for clients, if you didn't mind learning in front of your client and
introducing him/her to a bunch of competitors. <grin> that said, i wonder
why you say it's not for clients.  i participated in osonos4, 5, 7, 9, 10,
plus a couple regional osonos... and those were all pretty standard events,
the simplest version that could possibly work.  though i think in that time
we started to put more and more effort into hosting them.

as for what osonos is or is for, i guess it's always been a celebration of
sorts, but i remember the events i was part of as working places, meeting
people who do it and learning like crazy from them.  it was pure open space
and the theme was open space.  it was OT, the organization transformation
symposium, that had lots of sessions about various transformation methods
and things like going canoeing or walking in the woods, more just playing
IN open space rather than working ON how we are doing it. if anyone's
interested, many years of osonos proceedings are archived at
openspaceworld.org/osonos.

i think the big change that happened in my experience with osonos is that
my first one was the last one harrison hosted at dulles airport hilton in
virginia.  one room, hotel restaurant, breakouts sprinkled around in public
spaces, clean and simple.  then, as it started to move around, it got
farther and farther away from home for many of the folks who'd been there
at the beginning.  i think as the travel got greater, hosts probably
figured the hosts had to do more and more so that people would make the
trip.  maybe they were glad to do more out of appreciation.  so the hosting
became a bigger and bigger task, each year building upon what the hosts had
seen in previous one or two events.  sometimes osonos has also been hosted
with an additional goal of trying to help grow a community of practitioners.

when sheila isakson and i hosted osonos7, we really did nothing more than
get a single meeting room, in a downtown chicago economy hotel.  we got a
block of rooms reserved without a deposit, same at a cheaper hostel type
place nearby.  we ordered no food, but located our meeting in a place where
food -- and participant choice -- was plentiful.  i made a single webpage,
not a whole site, but just a page for the invite, and emailed it around a
bit.  we had people come from 12 countries.

i always wish we could return to those really simple events, where the open
space and the people were the attraction -- and the celebration -- where
you could bring a client and know that they were going to see textbook open
space, clean and simple.  an annual showcase of best practice.

the other thing i have wanted to see, and tried ten years ago to organize,
was an osonos that happens in multiple (handful of) locations
simultaneously, so more people could get there.  and now we have skype so
there could be open video connections between sites.  old timers would be
outnumbered by newbies.  maybe 2013 will succeed in this virtual sort of
direction.

the last thing i'd toss out about osonos is that i think the work that's
most amazing to me is that of john engle, who came to chicago and maybe
earlier osonos gatherings, but then showed up in vancouver with some
haitian colleagues.  a bit later they started annual haitian osonos events
that are still running.  i have always wished we as a community might honor
that work and all of us focus on getting to the haitian gathering one year,
and call it wosonos.  someday i want to get there for myself.

in the meantime, i hope we'll hear from others about what osonos is and has
been and might/should become.

michael

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)

http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Phelim McDermott <phelim at mac.com> wrote:

> Chris
>
> I agree with you. I'm fine with the critique. Different strokes for
> different folks.
>
> I think the difficulty is what you pinpoint. It's hard to reply and have a
> constructive conversation when it's not directly addressed to myself and
> the hosting team and seems like a veiled passive aggressive attack
> especially considering how it is being disseminated with provocative
> headlines of the "can you handle criticism" kind.
>
> I wonder what the intention behind the communication is?
>
> I also think this raises the issue of what WOSonOS is....
>
> Is it a celebration and a meeting of a community who share? Not just an
> open space event but the creation of a welcoming gathering space in which
> people work on being a community and honour the history of the event. Or on
> the other end of the scale is it where we come and check out how other
> people "do or facilitate open space" and critique and score it?
>
> I know that WOSonOS is not an open space event for a client And Personally
> I'm in for celebrating diversity of style in event and facilitation. It was
> one of the reasons we were encouraged to invite by the international OS
> community we are a theatre company and our event had small touch of that
> style...  if only a touch.
>
> And Paul if you're on the list I would love to engage in a conversation
> about this.
>
> Love
> Phelim
>
> ________________________________
>
> I generally pick up emails only at the beginning and end of the working
> day. I am currently aiming to respond the following day. If it is urgent
> please call me on 07956 187298.
> _____________________________________
>
> www.improbable.co.uk
> @openspacer
>
>
> On 20 Oct 2012, at 21:23, Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The critique in the article is fine. And the subsequent link Phelim sent
> along is fine too. Paul's tone is a bit jarring and his argument isn't
> helped by making a lot of generalized statements. Also he critiques WOSonOS
> in a way that makes it hard to separate his critique if the event from a
> critique of the team, even though he later clarifies that he wasn't
> critiquing the facilitator. It's tricky to make a forceful and powerful
> critique without it seeming personal.
>
> My response to these posts is that Paul is right in substance. In general
> my take in things is that the Law of Two Feet applies. If you are not
> learning or contributing find some way or some where that you can. That's
> what makes things better. Obviously expecting others to change the way the
> way a process seems too dependant on them is rational madness.
>
> Chris
> --
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Harvest Moon Consultants
> www.chriscorrigan.com
>
>
> *Art of Hosting - Participatory Leadership and Social Collaboration*,
> Bowen Island, BC <http://aohrivendell.withtank.com/>
> November 12-15 2012
>
> *Art of Hosting in Faith Based Communities*, Salt Lake City, Utah<http://aoh-fbc.withtank.com/what-we-study/>
> November 28th - December 1, 2012
>
> On 2012-10-20, at 5:09 AM, "alan at alanhalford.com.au" <
> alan at alanhalford.com.au> wrote:
>
> Just spent a delicious  three days co-learning with Peggy Holman here in
> Perth then I read this -
> So, what's possible now?
>
> http://rationalmadness.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/the-tragic-re-imprisonment-of-open-space/
>
> take care out there
> alan
>
> *
> www.alanhalford.com.au
> 0421 475 252
> skype: alanhalford*
> *
> *
> * *
>
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