[OSList] 1st OS tomorrow! - last minute advice re: client resistance?

[Jeff Aitken]

breathe. go slow. you'll be fine! it will work great.

jeff

On 2/11/13, Jeff Aitken <r.jeff.aitken at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Tricia,
>
> you have a relatively small group (you have 14 right?) and a long os
> meeting (you have three days right?)
>
> with that length of space, i'd be confident that all the issues raised
> will be covered well, and by the last day there easily can be
> prioritizing and action planning and next steps.
>
> i'd be confident that the agenda wall and marketplace process will do
> what it does, allow them to organize themselves for the tasks at hand.
>
> any participant can suggest that a posted topic be moved to a
> different time, including the principal who wants to form them into a
> priority list; but it's up to the convenor of each topic to agree to
> move it. i explain this after the agenda wall is filled and they are
> ready to approach the wall as a group.
>
> I also explain that combining topics is ok, but again it's the
> convenor who decides to do that or not, and sometimes it's best if two
> similar topics are not combined but dealt with separately in more
> depth. but it's up to them.
>
> In my experience the length of time that a topic requires is handled
> by the four/five principles of os. 'when it's over it's over' and the
> corollary (which I always mention in the intro) 'when it's not over
> it's not over.' sounds like you have an idea about handling the
> situation already.
>
> jeff
> san francisco
>
> by the way, one interesting thing i've encountered is when a
> relatively small gathering looks at the agenda wall and someone
> suggests 'let's stay together and address these topics one by one' and
> people agree to do it that way. because I have let go at that point, i
> don't want to intervene in their plan, but I now remind them that the
> amount of time available for each topic has now shrunk because they
> can't be done concurrently (and I suggest they write the new times on
> the topics to make that visible.) not to add another thing for you to
> think about, but i wanted to mention it.
>
>
> On 2/11/13, Tricia Chirumbole <tricia at investorswithoutborders.net> wrote:
>> Hello all!
>>
>> I am facilitating my 1st OPen Space tomorrow and lookingly heartily upon
>> the challenges being presented as good learning opportunities, BUT....a
>> few
>> things are worrying me a bit about this particular circumstance....last
>> minute advice or good juju welcome!
>>
>>
>>    1. The focus is on "hands on skill transfer/learning among company
>>    members" - I was comfortable with this, but it was revealed this
>> afternoon,
>>    in addition to having a number of things that people want to learn
>> about
>>    overall, the group has a number of urgent projects that need work done
>> that
>>    can't wait until we're done - so part of the idea was to make this a
>> part
>>    of the learning experience, which is great and I also felt confident
>> with
>>       1. BUT.....one of the principles is having a hard time letting go
>> of
>>       his top down mgmt and wants to include priority rankings for some
>> of
>> the
>>       projects and is suggesting we need different lengths of time slots
>> since
>>       some items will require a deep dive - so I am worried about this
>> added
>>       complexity, former more than latter - I have ideas about how to
>> work
>> with
>>       this, but am interested in ideas from those with experience.
>>       2. Also, they have what I think is an exceptional amount of issues
>> -
>>       We all work in different cities, so today was a beginner's session
>> to
>> our
>>       meeting, and they tricked/pressured me into allowing a
>> brainstorming
>>       session on the topic - which was great but revealed a HUGE list of
>> r5
>>       flipchart pages of items across only 13 people! In addition to
>> the 3 pages
>>       of project tasks.
>>    2. I was even getting some push back on the removing of the table and
>>    continued confusion...which is why I kept trying to tell them that it
>> will
>>    be explained in detail tomorrow and will become clear and
>> simple....this
>>    was all hastily decided upon with minimum discussion between me and
>> the
>>    principles...
>>
>> any advice welcome! Want to add that the one principle is very open and
>> very deferential to me and the process, whereas the other one wants to be
>> open, but keeps putting up roadblocks in almost every breath - they are
>> great people and I think I can address these issues, but still a little
>> concerned!thank you :_))))
>>
>> --
>> Tricia Chirumbole
>> US: +1-571-232-0942
>> Skype: tricia.chirumbole
>>
>