[OSList] Smallest group OS

[Lisa Heft]

Yes Paul - our mutual learning on this list is similar:
Open Space is not Open Space without all the elements - whether online  
or in person:

Opening Circle
Co-created agenda (without the facilitator helping or clustering,  
synthesizing or rushing)
Multiple discussions around the big room (whatever that is for online)  
- ideally, without the breakout areas isolated or hidden from one  
another - so people notice 'across the room' what is going on
Ideally, several session times
Closing Circle for comments and reflection

And ideally, documentation design that helps all participants share  
knowledge across the groups, rather than just get their own knowledge  
from whatever group they happened to attend.

The interesting thing, I have found, is that - because so many people  
do not have the model - in face-to-face or online meetings - of the  
power of *sharing* notes, often people take notes only for themselves,  
and then take those notes 'home.'

So I find that the power of shared participant-driven documentation is  
also an opportunity for new learning for groups - no matter what is  
the process we find is best-fit for a meeting, retreat or conference.

What do others think?

Thank you for sharing your reflections and your experiences, Paul,
Lisa

Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
President Emerita, Open Space Institute US
Fellow, Columbia University Center for International Conflict Resolution
Opening Space



On Jun 22, 2013, at 5:43 AM, Paul Nunesdea wrote:

> Stéphane, withy pleasure!
>
> Google hangouts is brilliant but we need to pay attention to a few  
> context variables for optimal design in a hybrid meeting (majority  
> face to face) and a few remote participants, like this one I had the  
> honor to serve.
>
> I was lucky because the meeting had an expected start in a small  
> groups OS (thank you List) everybody wanted to stay in the same  
> topic 'so the group sticked together' ... But after a couple rounds  
> a parallel track emerged and in the closing circle the great  
> learning emerged about meeting effectiveness and Law of two feet  
> become clearer.
>
> The parallel group e-mailed me there report so I added manually to  
> the Hangouts report.
>
> If it was not like this I had to have each group member with a  
> Hangout session log in instead of sharing one session with the 9  
> people in the same room.
>
> Hangouts is designed for remote meetings where each participant has  
> an individual login to the same shared space.
>
> The surprise element in Hangouts is that Agile folks seem to be  
> using it a lot so there is a free tool there that can be  adopted  
> for OS Marketplace, provided each user as an individual login access  
> or (in my case) if you use an interactive display where the group  
> can touch and move themes directly from the shared screen with the  
> same login.
>
> My learning was:
> - I underestimated the importance of the Opening Circle as an  
> instrumental step to instill OS principles and the group behavioral  
> norms they convey which are counter-cultural to participants in  
> small groups and this is much more important than in large ones  
> (specially as meeting format expectations are different)
> - Opening Circle in hybrid meetings is even more critical when  
> participants have never experienced a OS meeting the burden of  
> explaining technology needs to be added. I would think about having  
> a pre-OS with all remote participants have a sandbox session to play  
> with the tools so when opening the circle everybody is already in  
> the same page.
>
> Hope this answers your question,
> Best
> Paul
>

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