[OSList] entrepreneurs in open space

Sat Apr 27 17:43:02 PDT 2013

When an Open Space really flies time periods are irrelevant, and the length
is a matter of perception and convenience. Under the best of circumstances,
nobody notices, nobody cares -- they just fly! And that is where/when/how we
should all be, I think. It is not a "process," "tool," "method." It is
simply us be fully what we are...human! Love it!!

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
Camden, Maine 04843

Phone 301-365-2093
(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com 
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST
Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-----Original Message-----
From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Michael M
Pannwitz
Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2013 7:03 PM
To: 76066.515 at compuserve.com; World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] entrepreneurs in open space

Dear Doug,
I love your report.
Actually its reports like yours that make my day, or night.
And bringing good food seems a perfect sign of great management, supportive
community, shared leadership and, of course, Vision. The eagle, bear, mouse
and deer all in place.
While they had a productive time and observed "when its over, its over", I
suspect that things would even get better if "faculty and advisors" 
would not stay out but get in... and some more of the "community people
bankers and business leaders" joined (were invited?).
I have experienced groups that seemed not to need the time available in the
groups but spent the time not in the groups in amazing ways (started a new
venture)... afterwards I was glad I did not intervene and thinking on this I
decided not to interpret all this stuff, much too complex and maybe none of
my business, and instead let selforganisation do its stuff... and stick to
the announced schedule.
I wonder why you say its "another one for the books".
To me it appears to be unprecedented, unique, probably not exactly
reproducable, a wonder.
Lets have more of them.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

On 27.04.2013 23:59, doug wrote:
> Friends--
>
> Report on a half-day OST in Northern Indiana, held today:
>
> A local women's college has a program to help low-income women become 
> entrepreneurs. It runs 6 weeks and has as faculty many community 
> people, bankers and business leaders. I convinced them from the start 
> that OST should be an integral part of the curriculum. This spring was 
> the 4th class. This spring we had two classes running concurrently, 
> one meets in the evening, one during the day. Today was the first time 
> both classes had met each other.
>
> We gathered at 8:30, scheduled the opening for 9:00 and actually 
> started at about 9:10. Village marketplace was done by 9:40. There was 
> so much good food they brought to share that it was 8:57 before they 
> gathered for their first groups! We scheduled to run to 1:00. So we 
> did 3 sessions of 1 hour each, with the closing circle at 12:40.
>
> There were 21 of the 23 students there, and there were 4 faculty and 
> advisor folks too, a total of 25. The faculty and advisor people 
> stayed out of the sessions for the most part.
>
> There was a healthy amount of bumble-beeing and butterflying, lots of 
> banter and laughter.
>
> 14 topics were posted, and they elected to combine 3 into one session.
> Theme: "Issues and Opportunities in Our Businesses, Our Lives." Topics
> included:
> Managing business risk
> How do we sell our products?
> A name for my business
> Juggling home, family & business
> How do I connect with people
> Finding a business location
> The three that were combined: Funding for the future; How do we invest 
> in our business?; Connecting with business/financial partners Ideas? 
> Marketing...outside the box!
> Stepping out
> Having a business at home, or opening a store?
>
> What I have learned from these folks is the shorter sessions (1 hour) 
> work better for them. Perhaps their needs and questions are more 
> discrete at this stage in their entrepreneurial adventure (many have 
> not actually started their businesses, they are just learning about 
> business plans and payroll taxes and the like). Maybe they are still 
> unsure about themselves and not sure even what questions to ask-maybe 
> the questions (or the answers) get deeper and have more permutations 
> after they have actually been doing their businesses for awhile (I 
> have also been doing retreats for graduates of this course with longer 
> sessions and a day-long format, and they sustain the conversations for
longer times).
> Not sure why shorter sessions would serve them better, but I saw 
> groups breaking up before the 60 minutes was up at least twice, maybe 
> three times, and at the end, the conversations seemed to be running 
> down so I went up to them after about 50 minutes and asked if they 
> were done and wanted to move into closing early, and they said yes.
>
> A lot of emotion in the closing circle--even passing of tissues!
>
> Another one for the books. Of course it worked.
>
>              :- Doug. Germann
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe 
> send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

--
Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49 - 30-772 8000

Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 409 resident Open 
Space Workers in 72 countries working in a total of 143 countries 
worldwide: www.openspaceworldmap.org
_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org