[OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?

Sun Jul 5 19:29:05 PDT 2015

Christine.... You rock. Thanks for posting! Thanks for sharing!
Suzanne
On Jul 5, 2015 9:11 AM, "christine koehler via OSList" <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Dear Martin, Harrison, Lisa
>
> Thank you very much for your answers. It helped !
>
> I had the call with the guy, and we had a long conversation together. We
> talk about the range of outcomes he wished for. Having Harrison's voice in
> mind I told him that to my knowledge, there was no other way to have 90
> people engage in 3 hours with the ability to act together soon and keep
> connected on the long run in spite of divergent interests.  he insisted on
> having 2  guys presenting briefly before I explained how it worked. We
> ended up with the agreement of  5 people supposed to speak 5 mn  each,
> including himself.
>
> Of course they spoke 10 mn each, so I shortened the opening keeping it to
> a minimum.
> It was obvious that the sponsor was doubtful and his glances at me - and
> his team- were  quite cold. But he played the game.
> And guess what... of course it worked !
>
> There were 30 sessions and about 20 action plans.
> In spite of heat wave (and no chairs for breakout sessions , because of
>  no chairs allowed in the huge hall...), people didn't leave during breaks,
> and obviously were not in a hurry to leave after the closing... Everybody
> was very happy.
> During closing circle, all standing,  the sponsor admitted he was very
> doubtful, then added quietly" today I learned a lesson about participative
> democracy". Another guy said he was used to open space, and that this one
> was very convivial.
>
> :)
>
> I'm glad I know how to breathe.
>
> Lisa, you asked me why I am asking when I know the answers. Precisely for
> these reasons. Knowing that there are other people somewhere that are as
> crazy as I am and do believe the same,  help me breathe and open the space
> the best I can.
>
> Christine
>
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 6:51 PM, Lisa Heft - <lisaheft at openingspace.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi, Christine -
>>
>> Several things come to mind. And I know you already had your phone
>> appointment. And I am wondering what you sensed and did and what happened.
>> But still I will share reflections if it helps in general or as you reflect.
>>
>> 1) What does your intuition / gut / sensing say? I imagine you know your
>> own answer. Is there a reason you hesitate when you can feel inside exactly
>> what to do and say?
>>
>> 2) I agree that it sounds like OST is a good approach if the issue is
>> complex such as this. However there are huge power dynamics operating as
>> well, right? So these next things come to mind:
>>
>> - if the sponsor
>>
>> fear that there it will not enough reflect the diversity of actions and
>> timeframe  and the possibility to create a kind of frame to support long
>> term action on the territory.
>>
>>  — then her/his intuition may be speaking loudly, not just her/his fear,
>> no? If this all is so, does that not tell you both that it is more
>> important to take more time to plan (rather than the rushed planning) and
>> find a longer meeting time on another date? if it is so important?
>>
>> And SO many things support long-term action. Not a single short event by
>> itself. Instead, relationships, infrastructure, time, ability, resources,
>> partners, champions, desks and computers, ability to step outside one’s
>> daily tasks to add in these tasks, SO many things. Are these in place
>> before the event to support the actions that are being invited? If not, is
>> asking for action appropriate for this particular event? Or is this for
>> part of that strength, such as in ideas, relationships, and so on ? Does
>> all that have to be accomplished by one short event? And if it is complex,
>> why so short?
>>
>> 3) I always go with what is realistically achievable, given the
>> circumstances which I may or may not be able to inform.
>>
>> - Without knowing more details, dynamics, ideas and emotions brought up
>> during your pre-work conversations, I can only say that as an outsider to
>> this my own intuition / gut / body says to take advantage of what a short
>> OS meeting can =realistically= deliver - which is a highlighting of
>> emergent issues, ability for people to notice who else cares about these
>> things, ideas generated for opportunities and for describing challenges,
>> and that’s about it.  With a documentation design that really captures,
>> with another event scheduled after people can rest and reflect on their
>> documentation (data), then going into the next step of mapping out (or even
>> a small group having a conversation about) what are resources /
>> relationships / realities for what in their systems can support actions,
>> then inviting people who are really the people who have
>> power-mobility-ability-relationship to identify and work on some actions,
>> and so on and so on in a chain of meetings and conversations. Not just a
>> quickie because (do I understand you correctly?) there was some meeting
>> time within a COP21 event.
>>
>> - Also with these power dynamics I would pay attention to other things
>> that can help as in: no introductions, no speeches, name tags only saying
>> names (not organizations or titles), and maybe even more of an emphasis in
>> the theme question on “I” to bring it into peoples’ bodies (mixed dynamics
>> here can often bring in tension and words of ‘somebody should’) - things
>> like that.
>>
>> Lastly, you asked what we did in a similar situation. I spoke to truth.
>> Always. “This will not work if you do x.” “If you want to do x, I can
>> support that by changing the process to do y but the Open Space process
>> will not work if you do that.” “Are you worried about x.” “You know that
>> will not fix x” “Then we need more time for inviting diverse people.” “Then
>> we need more hours in the meeting to embrace that tension and possibility.”
>> “That deliverable cannot be delivered in that short a time frame.” “Then we
>> must change the objective / theme / goal.” “Then we must schedule
>> additional meetings to accomplish each of these tasks over time.” “You know
>> that that does not support sustainability - you have seen it before, I am
>> sure.” And so on.
>>
>> He is such a busy man, you say. If so, it is essential to help him use
>> his (and others’) time wisely and productively. Right? That is what you do,
>> when you do your best, Christine…
>>
>> No doubt some of us may be sharing thoughts and experiences about these
>> sorts of things when we gather for the Open Space Learning Workshop in
>> Krakow September 8-10, and also during the WOSonOS on September 10-13.  I
>> SO look forward to that...
>>
>> Lisa
>>
>> On Jun 29, 2015, at 11:32 AM, christine koehler via OSList <
>> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>>
>> of course, the way I put it sounds rather comic..
>>
>> I am supposed to facilitated a 3h 1/2 OST next wednesday with 90
>> participants from a very diverse background (impact of local actions on
>> climate change and COP21  -in Paris next fall- and they are all local
>> actors : politics, technicians, companies, non-profit etc.. Host is the
>> territorial entity via a  statesman with a territoral mandate.
>> All has been organized in a few days, we have considered many different
>> design to come back to OST because of simplicity and efficiency .
>> But now the sponsor fear that there it will not enough reflect the
>> diversity of actions and timeframe  and the possibility to create a kind of
>> frame to support long term action on the territory.
>> Diificulty lies in the goal : for the planning team, immediate need is
>> the use of the space that the entity is willing to rent (and pay for)
>> during COP21 BUT that has to be run collectively (and not as usual here
>> « we do it for you ») , for the politics, the goal is « long" term with
>> something that will be created and will last even after the COP21 event.
>>
>> I believe that OST s the only way that may reach all those goals in such
>> a short time frame (at least set the first step) but obviously there is no
>> control enough for him and now he want a few discourses speeches from a
>> variety of actors before opening the space so that everyone knows about all
>> this and that…
>>
>> What would help me is what you did in similar situation.. because I don’t
>> know what to tell him (« trust the process obviously does not work…) My
>> appointment (by phone of course, such a busy man) with him is in a few hours
>>
>>
>>
>> Christine
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> [image: Christine Koehler, créatrice d'espace de Dialogue et de
> Coopération]
>  Executive Coach, Médiateur
>  www.christine-koehler.fr
>  Tel :  06 13 28 71 38
>   Fax :    09  72  32 36  65
>
> <http://christine-koehler.fr/2013/formation-de-levenement-au-processus-avril-2013/>
>
>
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