[OSList] a fresh look at the meeting "agenda"

Lisa Heft lisaheft at openingspace.net
Thu Feb 21 07:34:27 PST 2013 

What if when participants co-created the Agenda in the morning you  
said 'and now we are about to start our sessions - if you have a topic  
that comes up for you, you can certainly post it - but realize it will  
not get this same kind of focus as it will at this moment.' (same  
thought as Harrison) - then to me, all is solved. Occasionally someone  
will put up a new topic sign for later in the day (so more people can  
see it) and otherwise they carry these sudden new ideas into their  
conversations later in the day without making a specific topic on the  
wall. In addition it is to me essential not to squish or rush the time  
for Agenda creation / opening, so that the reflective thinkers get to  
come forward with topics - not just the quick-responders.

Consider if your wanting to bring the focus back to full group after  
lunch - to have them do an afternoon Agenda or ask them if they want  
to add anything to the Agenda - everyone listening at once - is...
- an intervention (intervening ... why?)
- an interruption into the layering of their thinking across the day
- your 'helping' when no help is needed - when they are perfectly  
capable of doing what they need to do / posting some sessions,  
carrying the idea for new thoughts inside them throughout other sessions
- a projection of your or your client's anxiety that they won't do  
'enough'
- taking the responsibility for their productivity away from them

Just some thoughts. I am not saying 'don't do it!' - I am saying for  
any single thing you do in a participant-driven dialogue environment -  
Open Space or any other method - think not just of what something you  
are thinking of doing / changing / adapting / adding will bring. Think  
about what it will shift, move, offset. It is a living system so the  
things we do or do not do have seen and unseen affects.  In some cases  
increasing productivity, thought, and communication, in some cases  
impacting / decreasing productivity, thought and communication.

The best part: if you feel clearly that something would help, and you  
have asked yourself why you are adding this, and thinking it through,  
and you still feel strongly that you should do it - try it! And share  
the story with us of what you saw / noticed / felt / observed. And  
through your passion and through your exploration, we all learn.

Lisa


Register now for the Fabulous Facilitation Conference!
March 6-8, 2013 - San Francisco

On Feb 21, 2013, at 7:04 AM, Kári Gunnarsson wrote:

> I was talking with a client one time, and he suggested that we open
> the marketplace in the morning for discussion that were to happen only
> the first half of that morning, then after lunch we open the
> marketplace again and then only for the discussion that were to happen
> for the rest of that day, this repeated for the following day as well.
>
> I talked him out of it, and we did one marketplace
> event at the start of day one for all the time we ad and little to
> none new material was added in the morning of the second day.
> Now in retrospect I would like to experience the energy of having a
> new marketplace after lunch, opening the time after lunch for that
> market only.
>
> with love from Iceland,
> Kári
>
> On 21 February 2013 11:51, paul levy <paul at cats3000.net> wrote:
>> This also brings to mind one aspect of Open Space that might be worth
>> reflecting on.
>>
>> Open Space Events begin with a marketplace - a wonderful rush of
>> self-organising energy that results in a "programme" - often a  
>> packed one,
>> set up for the whole day ahead (if it is a one-dayer). Often this  
>> programme
>> remains fairly fixed and little if any new sessions are added to it  
>> over the
>> day(even when there is a coming back together, say after lunch to  
>> re-open
>> the market place).
>>
>> Yet what happens over the day is that the sessions evolve. The day  
>> emerges.
>> The process develops. The content morphs.
>>
>> So, why not keep the market place open all day? (It often kind of  
>> is at some
>> of the OS events I have participated in though often there is a  
>> feeling in
>> the room that the programme bit was done at the start and there it  
>> is ). Why
>> not allow that flow to flow wherever it does? Why Open and Close the
>> marketplace at all? One less thing to do? - keep it open! I'm sure  
>> the
>> self-organising spirit will find good ways to announce new and  
>> emerging
>> sessions throughout the day without too much tinkering from the  
>> facilitator.
>> Many of these new sessions will evolve out of earlier ones, many  
>> may start
>> to focus on action, and some may be magically tangential.
>>
>> I've seen it done well and facilitated it a few times.
>>
>> Then we get to this magical place called END where we find out what  
>> the
>> agenda WAS! That agenda then tends to feel more alive, still  
>> living, and can
>> often have a "what next" feel about it.
>>
>> That, for me, is the perfect Open Space agenda - the one that only  
>> reveals
>> itself at the end - as the thing that happened out of opening the  
>> space for
>> self-organisation.
>>
>> warm wishes
>>
>> Paul Levy
>>
>>
>> On 21 February 2013 05:12, Raffi Aftandelian <raffi_1970 at yahoo.com>  
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dearest Open Space and Genuine Contact friends-
>>>
>>> I wanted to share a blog post written by Rosa Zubizarreta. It is a  
>>> fresh
>>> take- to me, at least- at the idea of a meeting agenda. I believe  
>>> the post
>>> has interesting implications and sparks new questions whatever our  
>>> practice
>>> is as a facilitator.
>>>
>>> I really enjoy Rosa's take on process arts. As a longtime  
>>> practitioner of
>>> Focusing and Dynamic Facilitation (along with being a  
>>> psychotherapist), she
>>> has brought together both theory and practice in her writing on  
>>> group
>>
>>
>>>
>>> dynamics. I also admire that she explores the intersections- the  
>>> space
>>> between- the different process arts communities of practice.
>>>
>>> (interestingly her last name means "House on a Bridge")
>>>
>>> here is the post:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://rosaz.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/easing-shifts-in-group-dynamics-with-a-new-twist-on-the-conventional-agenda
>>>
>>> much warmth,
>>> raffi
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Kári Gunnarsson
> kari.gunnarsson at simnet.is
> gsm: +354 8645189
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