[OSList] OST: Public vs Private events: apples and oranges?

Wed Apr 29 06:03:38 PDT 2015

Dan Wrote: “Once in a while a real/burning/business issue can show up in
public events; these to me are exceptions that prove what appears to be a
more general rule.”

Seems like there might be something of a “burning issue” in Baltimore.

ho 

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From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of
Daniel Mezick via OSList
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 6:04 AM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: Re: [OSList] OST: Public vs Private events: apples and oranges?

Yes, I think Christine's reference to a real/burning/business issue is an
important one. At issue is, on balance, which setting provides a greater
probability that the real/burning/business issue can be clearly identified
before the gathering. 

My current belief is that, on balance, all else being equal.....these
real/burning/business issues are much more likely to be found "inside
organizations" rather than "inside conferences."

Once in a while a real/burning/business issue can show up in public events;
these to me are exceptions that prove what appears to be a more general
rule. 

Daniel
www.OpenAgileAdoption.com

On 4/28/15 3:57 PM, Michael Herman via OSList wrote:

i like this example, christine. 

and daniel, your latest reminds me that i've seen some very-lite agile
incarnations of opening space.  it might be that the hyper focus on process
makes the agile folks prone to go deep with it on the one hand and to play
fast and loose with outer trappings on the other.  

as christine's highlighting, the conversation about noticing these
conditions is valuable, separately from the classifying of events.  

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)

http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 12:44 PM, christine koehler via OSList
<oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

hi Dan 

Maybe the difference does not lie in the difference between public and
private events, but as Harrison says, whether there is a real « business »
issue.

Let me give you an example : I facilitated a public OST event, sponsored by
an ad-hoc collective of non-profit, to discuss the issue of the role and
place, today and in the future,of non-for-profit organizations. The
invitation was quite long, very strong , and reminded the context  to
everyone : the lowering of public funding for more than one third within a
few years, and also the number of jobs that the non-profit sector was
providing and the danger they are now facing. Public authorities were duly
invited (and came). Urgency was stated in the invitation.

Event was public : invitation had been widely sent, via flyers given hand to
hand in the street or put into public places , but also via email of
relevant networks.

And yes, the sponsor had taken a great risk in organizing the event, but
it’s intention was clear and reaffirmed in the opening. And the follow-up
(date and place) of the event was clear also even before the event started
and announced at the event. 

The event was a success : very very deep conversations,very few butterflies,
people being really caught in their subjects. 

One of the result was that they collective changed its name and form to
represent more clearly the spirit of the discussions that took place during
those 2 days : open, frank, direct and affirming. New energy was found to
organize more discussions and meetings and they  did a few months later
another OST, to keep that open spirit. 8 months after, they are still
engaged in conversations.

It was a much better OST than a private one I had facilitated before where
the sponsor had not committed itself to anything and felt personally
offended when his managers did not dare propose topics. No real change was
expected from the group, only minor ones, although the group had some real
issues.  That was obvious . 

Very good lesson for me, I learned a lot although it has been very painful.
So now I do take the preconditions very seriously no matter who the sponsor
is, whether the event is public or private etc... And , as Harrison
suggests, I also avoid transforming a regular seminar (like a managers
annual meeting) into an open space meeting, unless the intention is clearly
to change the way they work every day.

Christine 

Le 28 avr. 2015 à 16:12, Daniel Mezick via OSList
<oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> a écrit :

Hi Jeff, Chris, Michael and All,

First of all thanks for your engagement in the thread's topic; and adding to
the discussion.

And, I feel that I have to explain myself here. 

After sleeping on this, I have come to realize that part of what is
motivating me to post about "public vs private" events is.... 

.....my limited experience in Open Space. 

*	I've attended dozens of public Agile-conference or
software-conference events with segments that included OST. 
*	I've arranged and helped to execute and participated in less than 20
OST gathering held inside organizations. 
*	I've also attended a few Open-Space-community events that were all
OST over several days.

That's not a huge amount of experience data and almost all of is
Agile-related. Agile being one kind of process change...

...And so here is my "aha", and related confession: almost all of my OST
experience has been part of the Agile community (public conference events)
or using OST with Agile adoptions (private OST events.)

And the differences are very striking. And that's where I am starting from
when I discuss the divergences between public vs private events. My entire
experience is around Agile stuff. In in this space, the differences are,
well, striking.

The role of the Sponsor being an obvious example...

...Chris contributes:
"My experience is that sponsors of any event who are unwilling to do the
pre-work to shape an intention and invitation and to design the architecture
for implementation of the results (whatever those results are expected to
be) will miss the mark on transformation."

And with respect to private corporate events: you can say that again! 

Now if we look at the role of the Sponsor in a public event, say, an annual
confab, like in a community of practice, like the Agile community for
example, we can see some striking differences there. 

In a public event, almost anyone can stand up and welcome the group and
discuss the context, introduce the Facilitator, etc. So for example if the
conference Chair wanted to delegate this temporary Sponsor role to someone
else, they could, and the OST will not likely suffer from that. Because the
cohesion is low. The folks are only there for 1,2,3 days, that is the risk
or the investment or commitment to it. 

But if this Sponsor-delegation stuff happened in org, and someone with
little authority sent the invite, did the Sponsor role stand-up, welcoming
etc, the signal is clear: this event is not authorized and therefore has no
oomph. 

The Sponsor role:
----------------
With Agile-adoption clients, I've seen this Sponsor-delegation stuff
suggested and have strongly guided against doing it, based on the hypothesis
that for process-change and other kinds of triggering transitions in
organizations, the OST event must be clearly and highly authorized. 

The Invite:
----------------
Plus: n most Agile-conference OST events, there IS NO INVITE WHATSOVER. The
invite is implied via the conference offer, and attending the event
constitutes acceptance of that "invite." Add to this the fact that the theme
is often emergent in nature, defined not weeks in advance but instead days
or hours in advance. 

The Proceedings:
----------------
Finally, the proceedings. In public events, they are often nonexistent or an
afterthought. In private events...WOW they are all over it. 

Regarding Agile-related OST events: Not a whole bunch of people have
experience observing public vs private OST events in the Agile space. If
they do, they are not documenting or publishing them. Harold Shinsato has
some experience here and I think Tricia Chirumbole also has a bit of this
experience with both. As I say previously, most all my experience with OST
is inside Agile-related situations, both public and private events....

...In the end what I am saying is:  the way the Sponsor plays, the Invite,
and the Proceedings are all very different in my experience when comparing
public vs private (all Agile-related!) events.

I think what I am calling "low cohesion" is a real factor in typical public
Agile events. Does this pattern carry to non-Agile spaces? Circumstantial
evidence includes the fact that BarCamp and Unconference formats have
proliferated via public events; I view these formats as "OST Lite"
derivatives of OST. 

I wonder of this creation of more bare-bones OST-related gathering formats
like Barcamp and Unconference for conference events tends to support what I
am saying? 

...so there you go. I wonder what y'all think about this...

Daniel

On 4/27/15 11:35 PM, Chris Corrigan wrote:

Daniel

I think what you are proposing is interesting, measuring the conditions and
how much of each there are.  I say generally, that the more of each you
have, the better OST works.  But I’d never be able to really put a number on
it.

And my experience is that there seems to be no difference between the
likelihood of public or private events being anymore or less likely to
exhibit these conditions. There is nothing inherent tin the ontology of
these two kinds of events that would predict that.  The five pre-conditions
do seem to point at specific factors in the ontology of an event that would
make for a potentially richer OST event.  Radical transformation is rare and
is never guaranteed.  But we can work with conditions to create potential.

in fact for me it comes down to the pre-work.  My experience is that
sponsors of any event who are unwilling to do the pre-work to shape an
intention and invitation and to design the architecture for implementation
of the results (whatever those results are expected to be) will miss the
mark on transformation.  (and this pre-work includes being clear about what
they are NOT doing as well)

Like any event, the quality of the container matters.  Paying attention to
the constraints and the attractors builds a container where a real need is
allowed to produce real conversations which can create real action and
ultimately change.  If you don’t break people’s patterns and expectations of
a meeting or conference beforehand, it’s unlikely they will come prepared
for transformation.  And that is the biggest predictor of “flat feeling” OST
events for me.  

I think your text tagged <HERESY> below is actually <HYPOTHESIS> and needs
to be tested in some way.  But the test will apply to your practice, your
context and the particular events that you are drawn or invited to.  The
practice of working with clients in Open Space is impossible to standardize.
It is an artisanal practice.  There are a few basic skills and talents one
needs to have developed in order to assure quality, but nothing can take the
place of experience and the path of mastery that is individual and practice
based.   

Chris

On Apr 26, 2015, at 11:30 AM, Jeff Aitken via OSList
<oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

<HERESY>
And that is why I think OST is for "development and transformation in
organizations" (that actual subtitle of the SPIRIT book) and that it is not
at all as effective, in terms of impact, when implemented in a public
conference. 
</HERESY>

I am guessing the scores for the 4 dimensions are almost always be lower in
a public vs. private event. 

Certainly that is my general subjective observation, based on a small sample
of direct experience (less than 20 experiences doing OST inside
corporations...)

-- 

Daniel Mezick, President

New Technology Solutions Inc.

(203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248>  (cell)

Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/> . Blog <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>
. Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/> . 

Examine my new book:  The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>  : Tools for the Agile
Manager.

Explore Agile Team  <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>
Training and  <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
Coaching.

Explore the  <http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/> Agile Boston Community.

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Daniel Mezick, President

New Technology Solutions Inc.

(203) 915 7248 (cell)

Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/> .  <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>
Blog.  <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/> Twitter. 

Examine my new book:   <http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>
The Culture Game : Tools for the Agile Manager.

Explore Agile Team  <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/>
Training and  <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
Coaching.

Explore the  <http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/> Agile Boston Community.

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