[OSList] Open Space classrooms

Barry Owen barryo at comcast.net
Thu Jan 30 10:39:15 PST 2014


Tricia,

I have done exactly this with a local MBA program
It worked so well that they didn't invite me back after the 3rd time
because the School Administration was not keen on the turmoil caused by the
students expressions of freedom and demands for change.

My "Way" was simply to Open Space as if it were a 3 Full Day Event.
This Time/Place Post-it matrix reflected what any 3 day event would have
(Opening - Sessions - Lunch - Sessions - Evening News - Party . . . ending
with Closing)
The opening was normal - No difference than if it were the full 3 days
Each time I did it, the groups of 30ish students posted @ 30 Issues
We had time for 1 session (45 minutes) and had 4 Break-out spaces
Then we had Evening News.

At the end of evening news, I simply made the suggestion that they could
complete the remaining 26 sessions at other times. What happened was
unfathomable to me and the sponsoring Professor . . . The students
self-organized and DID arrange times and places (Coffee Shops) and
"completed" the sessions on the wall in a period of about 3 weeks.

The topic all three times was centered around "Rankings of MBA programs and
how their MBA program could improve their standings"

The School Administrators were always invited but never showed up, and they
had all the power and squashed all efforts by the students to effect change
. . . I think the professor was ultimately forced to describe Open Space
Technology rather than demonstrating.

DO-IT

You'll have a blast.

Best,

b


On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 1:30 PM, Tricia Chirumbole <
tricia at mojocollaborative.com> wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> I am writing to request your advice and experiences with open space in
> classrooms - this is for a one time MBA class.
>
> *the upcoming engagement:*
> I have been invited to hold an Open Space style class for
> MBA/International Affairs students in a Global Perspectives class on Feb
> 24th at George Washington University (my former MBA program). The standing
> theme of this class in the prof's curriculum is, "Putting it all together"
>
> *background: *
> This invite was born from discussions I have been having with the
> professor of the aforementioned class, about the opportunities of
> introducing some Open Space and Scrum practices into their MBA program -
> she is also the Associate Dean and involved in program development.
>
> My real interest was to explore opportunities not just for actual
> classroom time, but also for other components, such as: The kick-off
> orientation week for FT MBAs, Curriculum/program planning, and for
> executing projects. My pet titles include: Hacking my MBA, and the Agile
> Classroom.
>
> *the conundrum: *So, this is cool, BUT, I am concerned about the short
> time frame (2.5 hours) and the isolated nature of the engagement.
>
> I would very much like anyone's direct experience or insight on holding
> classes OS style or holding similarly short, one-off Open Space
> engagements. I know they are done, I can envision how I would do it, but I
> still feel concerned that I may have jumped on low hanging fruit that may
> not be the best format for sharing these practices.
>
> For me, I can definitely see open space style classes and "agile"
> classrooms w/out multi-day OS summits, but I see them flourishing more as
> part of an ecosystem of principles and cultures being practiced, rather
> than as a one-off classroom brouhaha!
>
> All thoughts welcome - thank you in advance! :)))))
>
> Tricia Chirumbole
> Open Space Facilitator, Certified Scrum Master
> Mojo Collaborative
> www.mojocollaborative.com
>
> 571-232-0942
> skype: tricia.chirumbole
> twitter: @themojozone
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20140130/0064bc57/attachment-0008.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list