[OSList] Follow-Up and Flow in Open Space

Sun Mar 24 06:44:25 PDT 2013

Ditto for me too!   Suzanne

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 9:49 PM, Lourdes Adriana Diaz-Berrio Doring <
adriana at diazberrio.com> wrote:

> Yes I agree with Nici I was going to say the same thing!
> Adriana Diaz-Berrio, Montreal, Quebec
>
>
> 2013/3/23 Nici Richter <nici.richter at gmail.com>
>
>> What a wonderful conversation!
>> Oh - I am loving it!
>> Thank you!
>> Nici Richter
>> Johannesburg, South Africa
>>
>>
>> On 23 March 2013 14:56, paul levy <paul at cats3000.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear colleagues
>>>
>>> Someone suggested I post this and I'd be delighted with some reflections
>>> on it...
>>>
>>> warm wishes
>>>
>>> Paul Levy
>>>
>>> Follow-Up and Flow in Open Space...
>>>
>>> *"Time runs backwards in the spiritual world."*
>>>
>>> No, don't stop reading. Not yet.
>>>
>>> There's a lot of debate in the field of emergence focused on "when
>>> things open up, how do you close them down?".
>>>
>>> In the realm of Open Space, often the textbook reply is not to close
>>> down at all but simply to open some more space for closing down...
>>>
>>> In other words, if we are worried about outcomes from an open space -
>>> what will happen back at base, the actions, the commitments in practice,
>>> then all we need to do is to follow up with an invitation to another Open
>>> Space that focuses on the question of action. So you need at least two open
>>> spaces to get stuff done.
>>>
>>> Another view is that one should trust the open space itself - whatever
>>> happens of course is the only thing that could have. And many open spaces
>>> do self-organise sessions about action so... just trust the process. It
>>> always works.
>>>
>>> A third view is that these are paying clients we are usually talking
>>> about. As facilitators we can't just leave the organisation "up in the
>>> air", walk away and let them do what they will with the space we've opened
>>> up! Many facilitators then reach for the post-it notes, often in the last
>>> hour, and start to draw out (or bleed?) actions from the meeting. All kinds
>>> of clever prioritising and voting ensues. Elsewhere I've suggested this
>>> might be a counter-productive way of going about things.
>>>
>>> Now, here's an alternative view and its based on the idea that time runs
>>> backwards in the spiritual world. No! Stay with me. Just for a bit longer.
>>> Imagine you put what went "before" you (past), before you (in front of you.
>>>
>>> For those of you still here, read on...
>>>
>>> I am going to suggest that follow up is often best at the start, not
>>> after the event. I've tried it. It works. If the client is very concerned,
>>> even at the planning stage, that action must result, then, of course,
>>> include the invite to decide and commit to actions in the invitation to the
>>> open space. Make that call to action explicit and that will help to set the
>>> path for the right people to come. Some open space invitations are very
>>> "theme" focused and it is easy when we immerse in self-organising
>>> conversation, to forget the element of our will that sometimes sleeps a bit
>>> when we go into the head space of sitting in circles, self-organising the
>>> content of what is often talk, talk, talk.
>>>
>>> So, build the reminder of action in the invitation before the event. Put
>>> action before the event, not after it.
>>>
>>> Yet even then it is easy to forget when the space opens. Not always, but
>>> often.
>>>
>>> Now, stop reading if you don't like apparent craziness.
>>>
>>> Try this. Before the event, invite those coming to share what they think
>>> the actions should be arising from the Open Space. Ask them to come up with
>>> actions before the event has started. This can be done online or at a
>>> pre-meeting. Get the actions out. When an open space is commissioned, it is
>>> often because a critical issue or challenge in the organisation or
>>> community has given rise to it. It is born out of restlessness. And
>>> restlessness is often takes the form of blocked flow. People often know (or
>>> think they know) what the actions and priorities are. Not everyone, but
>>> some. They may not be correct, but they sit there, bubbling behind the damn
>>> of "not yet" or "no".
>>>
>>> If certain actions have already been fixed and decided by leaders, be
>>> open and transparent and build them into the invitation. If the actions are
>>> to be arrived through community and organisational input then use a method
>>> to surface them - but not after the open space - BEFORE it. The reason is
>>> because a lot of the future already sits as potential in the word, hidden,
>>> waiting to emerge. Human beings often tap into this and know what needs to
>>> be done, before they explore how, and verify why, sometimes deciding
>>> against anyway. The bubbling potential underneath is the potential for
>>> "realisation" and it is mostly about action. The release of potential is
>>> often exhilarating. Often at open space events, that potential for action
>>> gets lost in the self-organising gorgeous chaos of of emergent head-talk.
>>> Especially in the West.
>>>
>>> Get them out on the table BEFORE the event. Put them up on the wall.
>>> THEN open the market place. The suggested "follow-up" actions will then be
>>> "incomes" not "outcomes" of the event. They will be there, not bubbling
>>> underneath, but instead shared consciously, and they will irritate and
>>> inspire. And often sessions well self-organise around them. By the end of
>>> the day, what we put "before" us, before the event started, now stand
>>> "Before" us as commitments after the event.
>>>
>>> Trust the self-organising nature of open space and also trust the
>>> inherent knowingness of the human collective and individual will. There's
>>> often no need to worry about actions not arising from an event, if we
>>> accept that those actions were largely already there in the collective
>>> story and flow AND genius of the community.
>>>
>>> Some of those actions going in will be thrown out, others re-affirmed,
>>> others changed and played with, and new actions will also come into being.
>>>
>>> I'm not suggesting this for all Open Spaces. Actually it works best
>>> where action forms the main part of the invitation, is vital to the sponsor
>>> and the community and also where there's an intuition that many of the
>>> actions are already known and the open space overall theme is really more
>>> about the who, when, where, why and how.
>>>
>>> Put the ending at the beginning, the imagined actions as the inspiration
>>> and input. Then space will open around what we already think and feel needs
>>> to happen. It might not. But then, again, it just might.
>>>
>>> But please, ditch the post-its and the after-event prioritising. It has
>>> nothing to do with opening space.
>>>
>>> I believe that when we start an emergent conversation we may well have a
>>> blank page. But usually organisations and communities travel along
>>> timelines of past into present into future that are more like tapestries
>>> than lines. Linear is but one way we experience life. Yet past is always
>>> playing into the present, the future in the form of the unrealised and the
>>> potential inspires us in the know. Often something in the future will be a
>>> direct transformation or culmination of something that began in the past.
>>> We are also past, present, AND future, which is more of a picture rather
>>> than something linear. In open space, the action often precedes the word.
>>> Allowing those actions to speak in the past of the open space often creates
>>> a marvelous alchemy of flow where past and future meet in open space in the
>>> present.
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Nici Richter
>> Strategist
>> Sustainable Strategic Insight
>> http://www.sustainablestrategicinsight.co.za/
>>
>> Mobile +27727406181
>> nici.richter at gmail.com
>>
>> Skype: nici.richter
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>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
>
> Adriana Díaz-Berrio Ph.D. CRHA
> (514) 739 2268
> www.diazberrio.com
>
>
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-- 
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
twitter @suzannedaigle
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