[OSList] How to assess the effectiveness of an OS Meeting.

[Lisa Heft]

... and then I return to Keith's original framing of the question.

On the one hand we can talk about what we feel others should see and  
feel success. And what we know to be true about 'success' /  
productivity / relationships / seeds of action / impact / efficacy in  
this work we do.

On the other hand we might also imagine how to work within an existing  
culture to name and show back to them things in ways that they - with  
their existing cultural filter - will get and understand.

So: Another way I would answer this question Keith, is...

- I completely agree with Suzanne your observation about how - not  
just for Open Space, but for any dialogue-based process - clients and  
conference organizers tend to expect a measurement, or an action, at  
the end - when they do not apply that same expectation to traditional  
meetings and conferences. So: sometimes when I say this to a client  
they get it. They go 'Oh - funny that's true.' And in our exploration  
of 'measurables' is rich nutrition for understanding together if what  
they really wanted was a sense of achievement, which can be shown in  
many ways (including a Book of Proceedings. How many meetings have the  
output of a full, participant-generated report of all the discussions  
and working groups that happened over the course of the meeting? How  
many processes offer such a rich amount of narrative data to pore  
through in many different ways, to integrate the learning, review for  
patterns, note who are the emergent leaders, see what the next  
meetings should be about, make resources or need for further resources  
or training visible, and so on?

- Narrative data is incredibly useful. So one way of 'measuring' is to  
scribe - word-for-word - the Closing Circle comments and reflections.  
Some folks talk about what they've learned from one another or  
discovered with each other. Others talk about how the process has been  
helpful. These quotes are useful for showing current and future  
clients (including in-house clients) about efficacy, productivity, and  
more.

- Human behavior is something that a human behavior scientist will  
tell you - it is incredibly difficult (sometimes impossible, always  
expensive) to measure - for example attributing human behavior to a  
particular meeting. There is so much in the constellation of things  
that affect and inform behavior that are not about the meeting, from  
nutrition to world news to home life to whether you have a good boss  
or a lousy one. So for example measuring what actions directly came  
from a conversation are not a realistic thing to ask to be measured.  
However, *intention* is something that could be measured, such as  
'what is one thing I would like to do differently because of what I've  
explored here today'. Before going into Closing Circle everyone fills  
out a card to respond to this (in silence), puts their name under it,  
and leaves it under their chair. Then you go into Closing Circle.
You collect those, transcribe them (to show the client), then send  
them back to the individuals a week or a month after the event. So  
they speak in their own voices to themselves post-event. And so your  
client sees what folks are thinking of as a result of the meeting.  
Hard to ask for measurement at the end of an overstimulating day but  
if they want something within a 'now' timeframe.

So above, ways to think about your documentation design, in your pre- 
work phase, before each event.
Based on how it might best be useful.

- The best thing? Having the folks who've seen the impact - describe  
it to others who respect them.
So perhaps a bit of documentation about how your past and existing  
clients have described the productivity / impact / 'success'.
And keeping that documentation to forward to others when they have  
similar questions.

Seems like assessment of effectiveness to me...

And you know the best thing is not to 'sell' Open Space. Whenever they  
ask questions you simply keep focused on analyzing what are the  
meeting objectives, what are the desired outcomes, who are the  
participants and why, what happened before and what comes after the  
meeting, what will be done with the information / relationships /  
ideas generated at this event, and so on.

Because people may not have a model of why Open Space works until they  
experience it. So they'll ask for guarantees and that shifts focus  
from what they wish to achieve and articulating even more what the  
meeting is about and what it is not about, what is realistically  
achievable during that amount of meeting time, and so on.

Keith - I'm interested to hear how you would answer your own  
question....

Lisa


On Apr 18, 2013, at 3:17 AM, Blundell, Keith wrote:

> Dear OS practitioners
>
> As some of you already know I have been trying to pioneer the use of  
> OS in our agenda driven, action outcome orientated organisation.  I  
> have had the opportunity to run several meetings, but they have been  
> short sessions and restricted participants (in terms of  
> organisational functional structure).
>
> This has created a bit of a buzz and I am delighted that I have been  
> approached to run a meeting with a larger diverse group of  
> participants (cross functional) for at least a whole day!  Brilliant  
> and I have no concerns that it wont be successful.
>
> But...unfortunately it is viewed as an "experiment" and so I am  
> being pushed by the sponsors as how will we assess its success.  I  
> know that there will be some good discussions, that participants  
> "heads" will be in a different place after the meeting, and it will  
> be a great sharing and learning experience.  I also know that any  
> change and actions may come long after the discussions so that the  
> link between the event and outcome will be more tenuous.
>
> Has anyone experience and ideas for explaining the effectiveness of  
> OS within an organisation?
>
> I look forward to hearing from you.
>
> Best Wishes,
>
> Keith.
>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20130507/6cb64472/attachment-0008.htm>