[OSList] No-Go erea's

Thu Feb 28 20:47:59 PST 2013

Dear Kari, Jeff, Chris, Gail and Harrison

I apologize for this late response to your replies. Let's say my reply had
to travel far from Shanghai to Iceland and USA :-)

Kari's experience of "taking" space instead of "holding it", is of course
also mine. And like Kari, I also regretted it.
Sharing such experiences is indeed the power of this unique group of people.

During a session with some 40 globally working officers, there was one
break-away session with only 2 participants. While cleaning coffee cups, I
felt their energy of their exchange was going down, so I stopped and
listened-in. Indeed the conversation picked up and when others joined, I
continued cleaning.
Even by listening-in I felt like disturbing the self-organization of this
group (when it is over, it is over even if it hardly started) .
Trying "to fix" things is probably the trap that I needed to learn to
avoid. It happens less now, yet I must confess it seems like a long
journey....

Best wishes,
Gijs

On 2 February 2013 04:09, Gijs Mega <gijs at megainternational.com.hk> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> The first time I saw you was in the circle in San Francisco 2008. Your
kids
> took part as well and "lived" the law of 2 feet, and shifted from
> butterflying to bumble being. Observing this was great : open space life.
>
> Your comments on the list are often a real contribution. So was your last
> one:

*"never try to Open Space for other people bigger than the space you are
willing to open for yourself."
*

> This is key for those of us who are Open Space facilitators.  Please never
> try to Open Space for other people bigger than the space you are willing
to
> open for yourself.
> In the context of our society your point is clear.
> When you generalize it for facilitators, I read it as an advice for being
> authentic and sincere to the principals, the topic, the invitation and the
> sponsors intention.
> However, I hope to challenge people to elaborate more in detail about
> no-go-area's for ourselves as a facilitator or as a parent.
>
> Gijs van Wezel
> Shanghai
***************************

Dear Gijs and others on the list

I like to explore this topic theme a bit more closely.  I have been
learning so much for the past few years that I have been practicing
the open space. I like to know your examples, your thoughts and
experiences?

An introductory questions on No-Go-area's:

At one time I was hosting an open space and I happened to join a group
discussion on the topic witch was close to my hart and I shared some
of my hopes and experiences for I was there with the passion to to
that and the small group had a interesting topic. Now I feel like this
is something I should not have done, that I took some space instead of
holding it or others that where there to do something about the issues
at hand. What are your thoughts and experiences?

With love from Iceland
Kári
*******************
...a local consultant (during an OS training I was
conducting) told us that he participates in breakouts all the time,
even as the OS facilitator for a client, including devoting breakouts
to coaching his client's leadership team and so on. We did not go into
depth about the experiences of his clients, but it was a shock to me.
He still seems to be in business, so maybe he knows something that I
don't know...

I think there is a sacrifice that we agree to make when we hold space
for a gathering where there are topics that are close to our heart.
Being the facilitator and holder of the space is the contribution that
we agree to make in that gathering, rather than participate in the
conversations. It's a fascinating practice of discipline to continue
learning from.
Jeff
***************
I think it's sort of dangerous to imagine that there is a list of
definitive do's and don'ts for Open Space.  For sure if you are learning
the process, I would DO the following three step process:

1. Read the User's Guide
2. If you still have questions about your design, ask the OSLIST for help.
3. Run your even and report back to us.

Everything else comes with practice, and the longer you go, the better you
get at knowing when to do or don't do certain things.  Join a group, go for
a nap, skip over the principles, have tables, do it in 75 minutes…all of
these are design choices in which the context matters a lot.  Above all I
think the biggest DO is this:

*Be of service to the group.*
*
*
And the biggest don't would be:

*Don't let your own needs trump the needs of the group.*
*
*
Chris
*******************
 Dear Kari, Chris, Micheal, Jeff and others on the list

Being of service to the group during an event, is relative easy to do
because the role is so clearly defined. However serving the group during
the meetings with the client is harder. In some cases I feel myself selling
OST, just because of sharing passionate stories or nice events. No-go area
for me could be when bosses decide when a team needs to do OST, where the
participants are forced to show up and there is no openness to outcome.
Recently I was in such a situation. At first I regretted my commitment than
reflected and proposed an alternative program, which actually served the
team much better and was a good practice for me in "not too much adding
value"

The Taiwan-group list is also very supportive. Thanks
Gijs
******************
I always explain to people that whether or not their staffs are compelled
to be there, we still need to invite them.  You can have 100 bodies in the
room without a single one of them being present.  I have.  I have been in
meetings where people were so bitter that they showed up and rebelled by
not participating at all.
If people want to do an Open Space, the most important work is in inviting
the participants to be there.  You might be forced to attend, but a boss
making a personal request to someone not come and share their particular
expertise or question goes a long way to helping open the space.
Chris
************************
Gijs – Between the rock and the hard place! Ouch! But, for my money, if it
ain’t voluntary (self selection responding to a real invitation) it ain’t
Open Space. Maybe more to the point, it is not something that I have either
the competence or the interest to be involved with. Let’s say that the
issue at hand is the implementation of some new corporate procedure. The
plans are made, the research is done, and the marching orders are printed.
And for some reason the idea surfaced that a great way to launch all this
was an “Open Space.” Which we all know is the sexiest, new thing – to
provide a little sizzle and pop. Bad idea! Just issue the orders, explain
if necessary, and tell the folks to get to work. And if you think you can
actually can achieve high levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and
profitability proceeding like that, Please be my guest! I really can’t help
(and I don’t want to either J).

But, let’s say the scenario is different. There is a real, important issue
and nobody knows the way forward. Sounds like “meat and potatoes” for Open
Space – BUT the sponsor thinks it is so important that “everybody MUST
attend.” What to do? Same principles, so far as I can see. Open Space runs
on passion and responsibility – which is only another way of saying that
the ticket for admission is that people really CARE to come, meaning a real
invitation to voluntary, self selected participants. Sounds like
ideological purity, but I don’t think that is true. It is just a matter of
stating the facts, at least the facts as I have come to know them.
Assembling a group of people who don’t really care is a great way to fail.
And why would you want to do that?

Now what? Would you sell Open Space? No. I would “sell” the people. It
might go something like this. Mr/Ms CEO – you presumably have a great group
of competent people, and given the issue you face you will need all the
best thinking and commitment all around. So the question is: How to create
the best supportive environment to achieve the greatest possible results?
There are no guarantees of course, but given good people and a supportive
environment, it is more than likely that you can achieve outstanding
results. Will it be done in the way you expect? Probably not, but if it
were, and you already knew the answers and procedures, there really was no
need to go through any elaborate process. Just tell them to Do it! But if
you believe in your people and hope to exceed your expectations (Be REALLY
surprised) you must have people who genuinely care. And only the voluntary
will likely meet the test. Your choice.

Of course, if you don’t have a group of “great, competent people” you do
have a problem, but it is not one that Open Space (or any other approach)
can solve. You probably need to talk to your HR folks about their
recruitment practices. If they (the Employees) are really so bad that you
can’t trust them, the best thing is just fire the bunch and see if you can
do better. Good Luck.

A little out on the edge? Maybe, and for sure I have achieved a certain
insulation from the “day to day” having been elevated to the Grandfatherly
Status (thank you Paul). I can and do “fire” clients at will. But then
again, I’ve always been this way. If it ain’t voluntary, self selection, it
ain’t Open Space.

Harrison

*Gail West, ICA*
*3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou W Rd
Taipei, Taiwan 111
Ph) 8862) 2871-3150*
email) icataiw at gmail.com
Skype) gwestica
www.icatw.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20130301/56a371ad/attachment-0007.htm>