[OSList] Ending a one day OST with 775?

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Pernilla,
here is something I tried several times. Its borrowed from the 
"Differentiation/Integration" approach and allows the "whole system 
present" to get a deeper understanding of its parts and of itself as a 
"whole" which is helpful especially if you have a "municipality" with 
many different players to go into action over a longer period:

---You/the Planning Group identify "subgroups". From your note I see 
there will be teachers, politicians and students. The students might be 
differentiated in subgroups by what grade they are in, the school 
administration might be a seperate group, the politicians ... your 
customer will know best
---You/the Planning Group identify ONE question for the subgroups, 
something like: The most important thing we learned today or The most 
urgent thing we should do in our municipality or ....
---When everyone returns to the circle, according to your schedule at 
14:45, you ask people to group (perhaps at predetermined places in the 
large room)themselves, have an exchange on the question and formulate 
"The most..." and come back to the circle at 15:20
---Each group has 2 Minutes to report (if there are lets say 8 groups 
this will go on until 15:45)
---Now there are about 20 minutes for last things to say (not everyone 
will be able to speak, so I dont let the talking stick go around but 
people have to come to a mike and say their piece)
---finish off the way you indicated but if you have a very large group 
(too big for one circle) you might also have people stand up and do the 
raindrop ceremony, takes three minutes.

What I have also done a few times when the os itself was just for one 
day, is to convene a couple of weeks after the event for action 
planning. This works well when you have an "organisation" such as a 
school, a church parish, a company, a policy body in a municipality... 
One advantage is that in this way new people turn up (they heard about 
it after the event, they wanted to come to the event but could not make 
it, they were "recruited" by participants of the event because those 
participant felt they are needed for the action part) and another that 
the exuberant "high" which os events tend to create has been mellowed by 
a couple of weeks of being back in "regular" life.

Have a great day
mmp

On 21.09.2012 20:13, Pernilla Luttropp wrote:
> Dear collegues!
> I very much enjoy the conversations on this list. But I haven¹t used it for
> getting input myself until now. I'm looking forward to your wise thoughts on
> my question.
>
> I¹ve been doing Open Space for over 10 years, some big and some small but
> most of them for only one day. Right now I¹m planning a one day Open Space
> at a school with 775 students, 16-18 years, teachers and politicians. The
> pre-group, with mostly students, decided on the theme ³What do you want to
> change in our municipality?² (I tried to argue for develop/expand instead of
> change, but they didn¹t want to develop all the bad things...).
> I might add that the politicians are really excited about this and they have
> decided to return to the school within 2 months with feedback on the issues
> that involves their work.
>
> My question is how to end this Open Space the best way. I haven¹t done a big
> group like this for a few years and since then I¹ve changed some things -
> ³one less thing to do². I used to do prioritizing with dots in big groups
> but lately I just give space for reflections or invite for action planning,
> depending on the group.
>
> The pre-group was worried that the 1st-graders would be too shy to announce
> their issue in the microphone. I¹m not too worried about that, but I¹m not
> sure that inviting for action planning is a good idea. It might just be the
> ³known voices² of the school that steps up (that would probably change if
> the Open Space went on for two days).
>
> My gut feeling now is to do prioritizing, call out the top 5 issues, let
> everybody say one word each in the microphone and then end it with the
> turn-around-and-take-the­next-step. That will probably only take one hour
> (young people are usually fast). What do you think?
>
> This is the schedule for now:
> 8:30 Introduction and creating the wall
> 9:30 Session 1
> 10.40 Session 2
> 11:45-13.15 Lunch (not negotiable time)
> 13:15 Session 3
> 14:20 Coffee break, time for finishing report and getting back in the circle
> 14:45  ???
> 16.15 Ending time
>
> Rainy greetings from Sweden and Stockholm!
> Pernilla Luttropp
>
>
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-- 
Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49 - 30-772 8000



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