[OSList] My first OS as a facilitator
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com
Sun Mar 23 06:51:04 PDT 2014
A fellow agilist! Welcome Stefano. Glad to be reading your questions and
remembering the tension and the joys of the first time opening the circle.
Many from within a company have facilitated an open space for that
company. I've done it myself at SAP back in 2008. But this is a lot like
the recommended division of roles between the scrum master and the
product owner. They don't mix well, because in many ways the Scrum
Master is supposed to be a facilitator, whereas the Product Owner is
more like a boss.
Also, the traditional team manager is definitely *not* a good candidate
as the scrum master. If you are the manager of the team or group, being
the facilitator is extremely challenging. If someone owns the decision
making - it is very hard to give up that decision making to the team.
And even worse if you are determining their salaries and whether or not
they get fired or promoted. But if you are seen as being on the same
level as the rest of the team or group, it's much easier for you to be
considered neutral and capable of keeping the space safe and open for
new ideas and challenging opinions. I don't see a problem with a good
agile coach being a facilitator for an open space. Though I think Daniel
Mezick has an interesting view on that. More about Daniel later.
As an agile coach - you might be interested in two pieces of history.
Diana Larsen is on this list, and has been at the core of the Agile Open
program, http://www.agilealliance.org/programs/agile-open-program/ ,
which has used open space on the agile theme starting in Portland but
now is happening in several places in the country. My annual Montana
Open Space conference just joined that program this year - our MACH One
@Missoula. Shameless plug. http://machmissoula.org. They are fantastic
conferences if you get a chance. You might even consider starting one in
Italy.
A second newer piece, Daniel Mezick is promoting a framework that makes
Open Space the center piece of an organizational adoption of agile and
has some great experience and ideas on how to make that successful. The
Open Agile Adoption framework.
http://newtechusa.net/open-agile-adoption/. He's been active on this
list as well. He has said it's better for the facilitator to be external
so they are not considered as part of the team, and I think if you were
doing a formal OAA process, you're supposed to find an external facilitator.
Cheers,
Harold
On 3/22/14 12:25 PM, Stefano Lucantoni wrote:
> Well, I think there was a little misunderstanding and for sure it's my
> fault.
> I'm not the CEO but one of the three agile coaches of our company.
>
> Our work is focused on helping our company to upgrade its culture (we
> started as Scrum Masters and now we work at all the company levels)
> and Open Space is the most powerful tool to support us with this big
> challenge.
>
> Since the beginning I thought that as company coach and facilitator it
> could be ok to facilitate this meeting too, even tough I'm a company
> employee. Am I wrong?
>
> Anyway now I know that you Gerardo are very close to me and it would
> be great to establish a direct contact during the next days.
>
> Please, let me all know what you think.
>
> Tks everybody
> Stefano
>
> Il giorno 21/mar/2014, alle ore 21:51, Suzanne Daigle
> <sdaigle4 at gmail.com <mailto:sdaigle4 at gmail.com>> ha scritto:
>
>> What a treat to have a CEO immersed in Open Space and an Agile Scrum
>> guy to boot! I agree with Harrison; it will lead to amazing things
>> for your company if you jump in the ring with everyone. So inspired.
>> Wish we had met in Paris. I was there then. Keep us posted!
>>
>> Suzanne
>>
>> P.S. Gerardo translated Harrison's user guide in Italian. I have my
>> very own copy which Gerardo signed dedicating it to my dad who read
>> the book from cover to cover years ago in Italian. He was a medical
>> doctor. He loved it!
>>
>> On Mar 21, 2014 4:24 PM, "Harrison Owen" <hhowen at verizon.net
>> <mailto:hhowen at verizon.net>> wrote:
>>
>> Stefano -- If Milano can talk to Roma, good things might happen!
>>
>> I was going to add in my previous note that while it is certainly
>> possible for the CEO to facilitate an Open Space as you propose,
>> that would not be my first choice for several reasons. First --
>> no matter what you say you will STILL be the Boss (or whatever)
>> -- which makes it harder to believe that it really is Open Space,
>> and that you are not setting the agenda. As you probably know by
>> now, it is virtually impossible to "control" an Open Space.
>> Certainly you can shut it down, but you and everybody else will
>> be out of control, simply because everybody is "in control." You
>> know that, but your people don't, at least for their first Open
>> Space. So I would not put unneeded barriers in the way, even if
>> they will be cast aside. The second reason that doing it yourself
>> is problematical is that as facilitator, you really need to keep
>> your hands out of things (present and invisible, so to speak).
>> But then everybody loses, assuming that you have some value to
>> add. Which I am sure you do.
>>
>> So do yourself and everybody else a favor. Invite my good friend
>> Gerardo (Milano) to do the honors. And if he can't, there are
>> many other good folks, all speaking Italian. If he/they can take
>> care of the space, you can have the marvelous fun of playing in
>> it with all your comrades. At least that is what I would do.
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>> Harrison Owen
>>
>> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>>
>> Potomac, MD 20854
>>
>> USA
>>
>> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
>>
>> Camden, Maine 04843
>>
>> Phone 301-365-2093 <tel:301-365-2093>
>>
>> (summer) 207-763-3261 <tel:207-763-3261>
>>
>> www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20>
>>
>> www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website)
>>
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
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>>
>> *From:*oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
>> <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>
>> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
>> <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>] *On Behalf Of
>> *Stefano Lucantoni
>> *Sent:* Friday, March 21, 2014 9:46 AM
>> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list
>> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] My first OS as a facilitator
>>
>> Hege, tks for your words.
>> I'm very lucky because I'm part of a team (agile coaches team)
>> who shared strong values and maybe our passion was capable to
>> 'infect' our management.
>>
>> We hope OS will be a first step toward a new way to live
>> collaboration in our company.
>>
>> We're going to do a one day Open Space.
>>
>> And to answer to a previous Suzanne question: we're located in Rome.
>>
>> Stefano
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 1:30 PM, Hege Steinsland
>> <steinslandhege at gmail.com <mailto:steinslandhege at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Stefano, I wish you all the best and congratulate you with your
>> courage and the trust your company shows in you and the method! A
>> great opportunity! I looke forward to listen to your experience.
>> Are you doing a one ore two days Open space?
>>
>> All the best from
>>
>> Hege
>>
>> Norway.
>>
>> 21. mars 2014 kl. 13:16 skrev Stefano Lucantoni
>> <stefano.lucantoni at gmail.com <mailto:stefano.lucantoni at gmail.com>>:
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks a lot Suzanne.
>> I'm reading Harrison's guide again and again and I admit that the
>> more I read it the more the stress drops down because it really
>> seems to me that the Open Space is self sufficient or anyway
>> needs a very small help.
>>
>> Thanks again for your support.
>>
>> Ciao
>>
>> Stefano
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 1:58 AM, Suzanne Daigle
>> <sdaigle4 at gmail.com <mailto:sdaigle4 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Stefano...bravo! Love the theme, love that you will have 100
>> people and most especially that you have invited your
>> organization into Open Space. Besides telling you to enjoy the
>> experience, I would refer you to Harrison's guide. After 5 years
>> I still go back to it to do the basic preparations and to also
>> sink into my invisible role opening and holding the space. Where
>> are you located?
>>
>> Thank you for sharing and making us part of your first
>> experience. Remember you can do no wrong. It will happen with you
>> and in spite of you.
>> Keep us posted.
>> Suzanne
>>
>> On Mar 20, 2014 6:49 PM, "Stefano Lucantoni"
>> <stefano.lucantoni at gmail.com
>> <mailto:stefano.lucantoni at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear all,
>> I'm new to this OS world. After my first, and unique, OS
>> experience in Paris during last September (The Global Scrum
>> Gathering) I came back home with the idea to adopt this kind
>> of meeting in my company too.
>> On next March 31st my company's first Open Space meeting will
>> take place and I'm going to be the facilitator. wow!
>> We'll be around 100 people and the theme is "how could we
>> make our company a better place to work?"
>> If any of you have a suggestion to share with me, something
>> that you would have been happy to receive before your first
>> time as an OS facilitator, I think it would be really a gift
>> for me.
>>
>> thanks all
>> Stefano
>>
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--
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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