[OSList] OS Phrases for Poets

[Brendan McKeague]

G'day folks

Yesterday I opened space for a very nervous first-time sponsor in a 'combo' event. By that I mean the sponsor had a predetermined (conventional-style) agenda for the first 90mins followed by Open Space for the rest of the day.

There was a ten minute 'big boss' welcome and 'rally call', followed by next biggest boss fifteen minute welcome and rally call, followed by two 30min 'power-point stories from the trenches'...so we had 53 managers and operations technicians sitting facing the front, theatre style for 90 mins with nary a word spoken between them...

Then they broke out for morning break and we reconfigured the room into circles for OS....

While I was visiting the 'dunny' (bathroom) prior to them returning, I thought of a phrase that described what I noticed happening - and used it in the opening circle.

We are now moving from 'listening to selective wisdom to sharing collective wisdom'...

Any other neat little phrases out there that folks use in their opening scripts?

Oh, and as you might guess, they loved it - 25 topics (some of which were later combined) posted by 53 people during three highly engaged sessions and four very energised Action Plans created - and a wonderfully affirming closing circle!   

Magical moments and movements indeed...

Cheers
Brendan
from a warming Perth