[OSList] Sharing stories of open space

paul levy paul at cats3000.net
Mon Jun 16 14:30:52 PDT 2014


As requested by a few listers I'm sharing a few stories of open space here.

These show different ways to play with open space.

You can find all of the stories here:
http://rationalmadness.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/stories-of-open-space/

Comments and reflections most welcome.

warm regards

Paul Levy



___________________________
Story 1: Flash Mob Open Space

This is an account of a recent 3-hour gathering of Conscious Business UK in
London, UK.

I was the facilitator of the event though aspects of the design of the
session were not entirely in my hands. A speaker over-ran by nearly thirty
minutes and participants looked tired. It was very interesting content and
a very able speaker on “The Future of Technology”. Even so, all of my
instincts told me to hand control of the evening to the participants to
self-organise.

So, I went for a flash mob open space.

I opened an empty document on my laptop and projected it onto the screen.
We quickly made six meeting areas in the large meeting space. We then
invited people to offer sessions in an open space format. I skipped over
all of the principles except for using two feet to flow between groups in
freedom.

Six sessions appeared within five minutes and we took a further ten to
allow for clarification.



Then off we went!

The energy rocketed and the six open space sessions ran for forty-five
minutes. We then had a twenty-minute closing circle. The closing circle
over-ran and felt a bit laboured and some people made “speeches”. There was
a bit of “hurrying” people at the end. But the sessions themselves were
great and later shared online.


Reflection...

The people coming to the event had been invited to explore conscious
business as a theme. They had all volunteered to be there. The agenda had
been sent out but it was kept deliberately flexible. There was a high level
of permission for the facilitators to change the format on the evening.
When we turned the agenda on its head and opened some space,l “flash mob”
style, there was a readiness and willingness to go with the flow. It all
happened within an hour – opening circle, one set of parallel sessions and
a closing circle.

We then went on to a final story sharing session, in a circle, not in open
space – back into our original plan. Open space ignited the event. gave the
power of self-organisation to the community, and the circle worked a treat.
It was all about minimal intervention, not over-elaborating the process,
and for the facilitators to get out of the way as quickly as possible.

I love flash mob open space. It’s about spontaneity. It’s about the moment
for self-organising emerging as “the obvious thing to do” out of structure
that is stuck and stuffed up. It’s about gentleness, suddenness, minimal
intervention, and a willingness to not be precious about “open space
technology”. Most of all it is about serving needs in the moment and being
prepared to let go of fixed plans. Oh, and it’s about having faith in
self-organisation. It always works!




__________________________

Story 2 - Open Space in a Cafe

This is a story of very informal, almost “pop-up” Open Space.

A community who are interested in the topic of “innovation” are invited to
an Innovation Conversation (View the invite here). They aren’t told they
are coming to an event that includes Open Space. It’s just a conversation
in a cafe. The format is simple – a very short, provocative talk, followed
by a chance to have conversations on the chosen topic.

So, the invite is to come to a conversation, that includes a talk they are
interested in. So, all attendees are volunteers, drawn to the event by the
topic.

The talk is about ten minutes long. It’s informal, no slides, and raises
plenty of questions.

The people arrive and gather in a circle (around a big table). Coffee and
tea flow, the croissants smell and taste wonderful.

There are brief informal introductions in the circle.

The speaker talks for ten minutes, there’s a bit of discussion and Q&A on
the fly. Then the participants are invited to offer to convene
conversations, discussion, or whatever else they want to do, by hosting
sessions at other tables in the cafe. Three sessions are offered. Two
happen (There are 16 people in attendance).

There is no time set for how long they take. They both last for about
another 45 minutes.


There is a huge buzz of conversation. One or two people leave for work. (It
was a 9-10am advertised event). One session runs on longer.

Feedback is very positive.

Two people use the law of two feet without knowing what that is. One
person, whose session had no one attend, sits with his notebook and does
some writing before joining one of the other groups.

So…

An invite to a talk and conversation. Informal open space in a cafe.
Useful, powerful, fun, and the cafe owner was delighted! No formal
introduction to open space, minimal fuss and even less facilitation! It
felt important to begin together in a circle. The “Marketplace” happened
easily and seamlessly. It could have gone on longer and there could have
been more sessions. We set the event as an “on your way to work” happening.

They are going to happen monthly.

A few reflections…

- Cafes seem to lend themselves to pop-up open space and emergent
conversation but choose a time when there are some empty tables, and a time
when the cafe owner needs some footfall!

- informality works here in these spaces: minimal fuss, the “technology” of
open space can disappear into the informal process

- no need to mention open space technology at all, the principles or even
have a timetable (unless it runs for a lot longer)

- trust people to self-organise

- open space can be done in so many different ways, so play!





____________________________________________________-


Story 3 - Dotted Open Space

Traditionalist open spacers (yes, there are many) will probably recoil from
this tale. Each year in Brighton The Critical Incident is a one day
“retreat” in the heart of the city of Brighton and Hove in the UK.

Over 30 sessions are spread across the day and all are experimental for the
sessions leaders – workshops, discussions, debates, performances, talks and
so on, all exploring a common theme which forms the basis of the invitation
to the event.

Critical Incident usually attracts about 150 people across the day and
evening activities which tend to centre on a large venue such as an art
gallery with breakout spaces, and a nearby cafe.

Participants come to experiment  with their personal and professional
development. Many come for the whole day, some come for specific
pre-advertised sessions.

I created the event back in 2006 and, since then, in Brighton and also in
Edinburgh, there have been nine “Incidents”. The idea is that people coming
might seek and find a significant realisation and step in their
professional and/or personal life. And that happens quite a lot at The
Critical Incident.

In recent years we have tried an experiment with Open Space.

The event has an opening circle where, at the start of the day,
participants are invited to come together, sitting in a circle. We
introduce each other and session leaders introduce their sessions. So, in a
way , this is a market place for a pre-existing programme. Why do I say
that? Because, although there is a programme sent out in advance, many
participants hear about the sessions for the first time on arrival, having
decided to “surf” the day.

We also leave a significant number of room and time slots empty at the
start of the day. I, someone else involved in the event, introduces the
notion of open space and the market place and then the circle is invited,
in classic open space style to “fill the spaces” in the programme. As in
other open spaces, those sessions soon fill up, some room and time slot
swapping also takes place at the same time. So, about a third of the
programme is created from an opening circle market place on the day.


One thing I love about the process is that some people don’t register that
open space is taking place in their minds until it is mentioned at the
start of the day. Then out of the silence come spontaneous offerings. Some
of these offerings are definitely creative reactions to the already set and
published programme. Some offer sessions that enhance, build upon,enrich
and add to what is already there. Others offer wonderful tangents. And some
sessions, as in a lot of open spaces, are not clearly articulated or don’t
tap into the “mood” of the event and no one goes.

Does Open Space work  when it is woven into an already existing programme.
And why not do the whole thing as Open Space in the first place? This is a
question we are considering as a steering group for the event. Yet there is
something in the alchemy of the event that is specific to the dynamic
between open space and pre-programmed sessions. I think it “works”
particularly well in an event that is already based on an invite to flow
and experiment.

We got strongly positive feedback that people value knowing in advance what
is on offer but equally valuing the flexibility and self-organising aspect
of the open space part of the day. The open space” spirit” seems to soften
the harder aspects of a fixed programme, especially where open space
sessions arise out of the fixed programme’s content and outcomes.

On the downside, the fixed element of the programme still tends to have a
kind of “status” over the open space for many who are hard wired to know in
advance what is going to happen. So, sometimes a sub group tends to form
around open space part of the process and this has, at times, created a
sense of two parallel and not always interacting communities at the same
event.

We are continuing to experiment with Open Space at Critical Incident 2013
which is taking over a new theatre venue!

Reflection 1: Space can open anywhere

Reflection 2: Open Space can positively influence a fixed programme

Reflection 3: It’s okay to experiment with “traditional” open space.

Reflection 4: Even with a fixed programme, people often come ready to
self-organise.





___________________________________________________________________

Story 4 - Open Space Boats

This was one of the first Open Space events I facilitated. We had a grant
of  a decent size from NATO to bring together academics and industrial
practitioners from all over the world to explore the present and future of
technological collaboration. People from fifteen different countries and
five continents responded to the invitation to this three day conference at
Lake Bled in Slovenia.

I’d managed to persuade the organising committee to devote one of those
three days to Open Space.

A beautiful venue – A hotel beside a fairytale lake in the Julian Alps. A
published set of conference proceedings was part of the deal and is
published under the title “Technosophy”.

This was a unique, multi-disciplinary convergence of a lot of very
different people who usually wouldn’t meet in the same life, let alone the
same place! Day One ended – the welcoming speeches of ministers and
professors, the keynotes and the formal papers. Then we came to day 2 and
the Open Space. Chairs were rearranged and a big circle was formed.

I remember several academics standing up, waving their slides or printed
papers and simply offering to present their formal papers as part of the
open space! Many had brought extra papers with and were determined to
lecture further. A rather large academic stood up and waved his new book
about the collapse of the iron curtain and the new opportunities for his
country and offered to read extracts of it out.

And there were also some much more emergent sessions as people stood up,
enjoying the permission open space gives and offered “conversations”,
“question generation sessions”, “dialogues” and “discussions”. Within a few
minutes of the market place opening, the programme was full and off we went.

Now, here’s a sweet and neat thing. Half of our breakout groups were on
boats! Yes, gondola type boats big enough for a dozen, with their own chap
with a long pole to take them wherever they wanted on the lake. Each boat
had its own flip chart as well.


The Open Space was a big success. I remember one profssor who had waved his
sheet of vital statistical papers at the opening circle finding that no one
had come to his session. He sulked a bit, recovered, and then became an
active participant at another session, proving himself to be one of the
“right people”!

I remember the very large academic, followed by an entourage of smaller
research assistants, wandering into the bar to sit with his colleagues,
proudly announcing to me that “I em budderfly”.

Oh, and I remember that one of the academics who had threatened (offered?)
to read his engineering paper word for word with no time for questions
getting a full house and a round of applause.

And, best of all, I remember the boats that didn’t return for hours and
hours, having paid off their navigator to keep on rowing! Self-organisation
took place mostly on the water.

Day 2, of course, produced the best bits of the book.

Day 2, of course, was the most vibrant and popular.

Reflection 1: An open space event can happily be part of a longer event
that isn’t all open space. It might be best as the one day filling in a
three day sandwich!

Reflection 2: Water seems to encourage self-organisation and flow

Reflection 3: Sometimes the pre-organised offerings are perfectly fine in a
self-organising event





_______________________________________
The end!
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