[OSList] OST evaluation and medecine wheel

Sat Dec 7 15:59:43 PST 2013

Dear Christine and all you other writers, readers, lurkers,

neither the process nor the system/organisation/group I am with nor, 
finally, least of all, the forces of selforganisation notice or are 
interested or care about me having "faith" in them or "trusting" them... 
and I dont have to have neither faith nor trust in them for them to be 
this or that way or reach this or that whatever...

Busying myself with these thoughts diminishes my already meek and 
utterly underdeveloped capacity for getting into the mode of "completely 
present and utterly invisible". I KNOW that this mode is  needed for 
time and space to expand just a tiny bit more for selforganisation to do 
just a bit more of whatever baffling, unfathomable, impenetrable, 
awesome stuff I observe/feel/have a presentiment about. But can not 
measure in any of the categories I have access to.

I know that I am just at the very beginning of getting a glimpse of what 
a frightening  trip it is for me to do without control, not getting 
involved in scheming my next intervention... and how I feel a smile 
creeping all over me when I "see" selforganisation...

Being this way, I also have lost all sense of meaning about 
"evaluation", having talked about it and worked with it in thousands of 
situations in my consulting/facilitating/counseling/training/etc. 
career. It does feel good to have a closing circle with a talking stick 
and me asking  no questions... it seems that leaves "remembering" (as in 
contrast to "learning" or "teaching") to surface well. Come to think of 
it, "Open Space on Open Space" is closer to what I am thinking of than 
"Open Space Learning Exchange".

Greetings from Berlin where the days are getting longer again.

mmp

On 07.12.2013 22:36, Christine wrote:
> Thank you all for your comments.
> Yes, i have faith in the process, and I know also that in a choppy ride,
> it´s safer for everyone to stand still and confident.
> Thomas, this is indeed how I proceded, except that it was not at the end
> of the OST.
> Spark, it´s very nice to read your words, yet I don't think i helped
> them find their true self , i think they helped themselves already by
> choosing to open space. I just tried to "keep the space open", which is
> this case meant  that I trusted them they will have subjects they were
> willing to explore together.
> During the evaluation meeting , one learning that came out is that they
> are lost about their purpose.. They are not sure about the "we".
> That´s quite painful for a group i think, and i guess this is the reason
> why there were so few topics.
>
> I would love to hear your opinion on this and if you had similar
> experiences what came out of the open space
>
>
> Christine
>
>
>
> Le 7 déc. 2013 à 10:33, Thomas Herrmann <thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
> <mailto:thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>> a écrit :
>
>> Thanks for sharing Christine
>> Sounds like a great OST although I would have loved to have some space
>> for stories before opening up space. But I guess it would have been
>> tricky in one day, especially as they went to action planning too!
>>
>> Inspires me to share a bit about one way I use the medicine wheel to
>> invite for reflections/evaluations at the end of an Open Space
>> meeting. I introduce the wheel in the center of the circle, then
>> invite people to speak in pairs about what they experienced and what
>> they learnt (level 1 and 2 of Kirkpatricks 4 levels that I use for my
>> evaluations) in relation to one or several of the quadrants. I then
>> ask them to put what they wrote on the respective quadrant. Quite
>> interesting information to process further in the follow up meeting
>> (usually within 2 weeks).
>>
>> Wishing you all a nice weekend
>>
>> Thomas Herrmann
>> Open Space Consulting AB - naturlig företagsutveckling
>> Tel +46 (0)709 98 97 81
>> Email thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
>> <mailto:thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
>> www.openspaceconsulting.com <http://www.openspaceconsulting.com>
>>
>> …bistår er, att släppa loss de naturliga krafterna i er organisation.
>> Ta tillvara hela potentialen och skapa en långsiktigt hållbar och
>> framgångsrik verksamhet! Vi erbjuder stöd till ledarskapet,
>> facilitering av kreativa processer och överföring av kompetens när ni
>> vill skaffa er intern kapacitet att navigera i förändring.
>>
>> Vi är del i Konsultgruppen Beyond Performance Group.
>> Medägare i Genuine Contact Co-Owners Group Inc
>>
>> LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thomasherrmannopenspaceconsult
>> <http://linkedin.com/in/thomasherrmannopenspaceconsult>
>> Företagssida på Facebook: www.facebook.com/OpenSpaceConsulting
>> <http://www.facebook.com/OpenSpaceConsulting>
>>
>> 7 dec 2013 kl. 01:36 skrev facilit8 - Amanda Bucklow
>> <amanda at facilit8.com <mailto:amanda at facilit8.com>>:
>>
>>> Well done Christine! It sounds like you held a very steady course in
>>> something of a choppy ride! I loved your story of faith in the
>>> process and at the same time a willingness to try something else in
>>> the interests of your client.
>>>
>>> Kind regards
>>> Amanda
>>>
>>> Commercial Mediator
>>> www.AmandaBucklow.co.uk <http://www.amandabucklow.co.uk/>
>>> www.blog.AmandaBucklow.co.uk <http://www.blog.amandabucklow.co.uk/>
>>>
>>> +44 207 121 8772
>>>
>>> PSave a tree ... please do not print this e-mail//unless you really
>>> need to
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6 Dec 2013, at 12:57, christine koehler
>>> <chris.alice.koehler at gmail.com
>>> <mailto:chris.alice.koehler at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear all
>>>>
>>>> After reading several posts here discussing the medecine wheel, I
>>>> decided to use it as an evaluation tool for an open space I did
>>>> recently with 100 managers. As it was really helpful and productive,
>>>> I would like to thank you and to tell you the story
>>>>
>>>> The open space itself had not been so easy to do, as it followed the
>>>> report of a diagnosis that showed the many problems faced by the
>>>> management in this organization. And it was tough to hear, for all
>>>> of them. So after listening to the diagnosis,  the open space
>>>> started with a loooong silence. And inbetween each topic there was
>>>> again a looong silence. I could see the director and members of the
>>>> planning commitee turning white or sweating. Yet we ended up with 12
>>>> topics. 2 slots of discussions, very intense. They discussed the
>>>> real problems.
>>>> Then I opened space again for action planning. To tell the truth, I
>>>> was scared that they would not dare support actions. But they did :
>>>> 10 topics, for which, except one, several people jumped in, and that
>>>> covered 90% of the diagnosis. (probably the 10% left dealt with a
>>>> category of people who were not there for quite complicate and
>>>> administrative reasons).
>>>>
>>>> Yesterday, when I did the evaluation with the planning team, I
>>>> explained quicly the medecine wheel and have them reflect about what
>>>> they learned for each quadrant. What surprised me is that they did
>>>> not answer about the process they experienced the day of the event,
>>>> but about the organization. In a very short time they pictured a
>>>> very clear, realistic yet optimistic image of their organization. It
>>>> was great.
>>>> The result is that they all commited to continue working together to
>>>> support the action plans for the coming months, although they had
>>>> accepted the "job" only because it was a one-time commitment.
>>>> And for the fun part, one of them told me "it looks like you guided
>>>> us through this like a shaman" ;)
>>>>
>>>> Christine
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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