[OSList] 1,000 participants in 4 hours

[Harrison Owen]

Sharon Joy -- What a joy (excuse the pun) to see you here! You do have a
hand full, but it will be fun. With large groups, my biggest concern is
always to have enough space. And 1000 people do need some major room to
maneuver, particularly when the time is short. Two spaces are critical: in
the center of the circle, and at the wall. With that many people I would
look for a center open space of 100 feet across. It is more than likely that
you will have 100-150 people all rushing to the center, and that will become
quite confusing if they don’t have any room. And at the wall – remember that
there will be a time when you have 1000 people all trying to read what is up
there (issues) and make their session selections. If the wall is too short,
the people will bunch up, and when people are standing 5-6 deep, it will get
frustrating and things will move slowly. My rule of thumb is 6 inches of
wall per participant. That way people will never be more than 2-3 deep. You
can get away with less wall, but, but you do pay a price. In terms of time
periods I would suggest 1 ½ hours for the opening, 2 -- 1 hour Sessions, and
a half hour for the close, maybe even less. It is all “doable” but I do have
to ask: Why just 4 hours?

 

I suspicion the answer is something like – there will be speeches and
presentations in the morning, which presumably will provide the people with
the necessary inspiration and information to do the job. However, every time
I have been in a situation like that, the information provided was never
enough, and the inspiration imparted simply didn’t do the job. More to the
point, there is an implicit statement made which I find most troubling. It
would seem that the wisdom of the several “presenters” somehow was equal to
and/or took precedence over the collective wisdom and experience of 1000
people. Of course this could be true, but if it is, I seriously doubt that
Opening Space will do all that much good. Probably better to just fire
(terminate) the lot. On the other hand, if that 1000 person collective
wisdom is of the sort and depth I suspect it to be – the allocation of time
is, if nothing else, short sighted and disrespectful. It might seem that the
“idiots and children” will be allowed a little play time after the experts
and adults have set the stage. Am I suggesting that you and your colleagues
thought this way? Definitely not. But that is a possible conclusion based on
the facts on the ground. And I have definitely experienced situations where
the “thought” not only occurred, but was totally conscious. Worst case was a
CEO of a large American corporation who was heard to say, “Never turn the
asylum over to the inmates.” The Asylum, of course was the company, and the
“inmates” were all the employees. Is it any wonder that creativity and
innovation at that company were virtually non-existent, and that employee
morale was dismal? Thankfully the company is now out of business. 

 

Doubtless I have gone way too far here, and knowing you Sharon Joy, I know
that such thoughts would never enter your mind. That said, I find that
sometimes what we do speaks so much louder than what we think or say. And
even worse when our actions are the direct antithesis of our real
intentions. 

 

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)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Sharon Joy Chao
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 8:39 PM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] 1,000 participants in 4 hours

 

Need to figure a way of convening a thousand government people to go through
an exploratory discussion on high performance system, all under 4 hours.

This happens next week down south in the city of Cebu. The focus is on the
Philippine government service, its performance management system and how it
can be truly essential, responsive and life-giving.

Gail West, my OS mentor friend, has provided me with some incredible
suggestions on how to proceed and she also advised me to post on OSList.

Any thoughts on how best to proceed with a cast of thousand in 4 hours time?


Maraming Salamat. 

========================================
Sharon Joy Berlin Chao
SEAMEO INNOTECH
Commonwealth Avenue, U.P. Diliman, Quezon City
Metro Manila 1101 Philippines
Phone (632) 924-7681, 9267900
Fax (632) 928-7692

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