[OSList] OST Training

[Michael Wood]

My sense of OST training is that a min of 2 days, and preferably three is best. It's not so much about tranferring knowledge about the 'technicalities' but giving people an embodied experience of slowing down. Because Open Space is such a paradigm shift from business as usual, we can have people nodding vigously that they understant the mechanics of the process but have not had sufficient time to absorb the Spirit of it. 

What this means is that at the first sign of group stress the new facilitator is very likely going to become so anxious that they try to take control. This is usually disastrous for the group and gives Open Space a very bad name (whenever someone says that they've had a bad experience of being in an OST meeting I ask what happened, and invariably it was a well meaning 'consultant' trying to do a bit of Open Space but botching it up by taking control of the group. So it wan't Open Space at all.

So I would resists short 'trainings' unless you can develop a split design. i.e. say, 2 days followed by a further day in three months time, when people come back to share stories about what they've tried and what they're learning. I think this kind of 'action-learning' is the best design for OST

Michael Wood
Perth, Western Australia