[OSList] Ten Weeks in Open Space

[Royle, Karl]

Dear Harrison

Sounds great. We have used open space at our university and I use it on my module but have never used it for a sequence of sessions. I think perhaps it may work better in this format for adult education although I could see it working for all sorts of other topics now I thing about it. I was recently reading a book by Valoufakis the Greek ex minister and economist. He distinguishes between goods and commodities. As most universities are busy commodifying education when they are met with a ‘good’ such as OST it is hard for them to measure, quantify and grasp its significance. They might see it as some sort of subversion… which is all good.

Best

Karl

From: OSList <oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org> on behalf of Harrison Owen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Reply-To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2019 at 16:40
To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list' <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Cc: Harrison Owen <hhowensr at gmail.com>
Subject: [OSList] Ten Weeks in Open Space

               For some odd reasons, I  committed to “teaching” a course which met once a week for 10 weeks. I think my hosts assumed I would do the standard “Lecture/Discussion,”  but I had a different plan. Do it all in Open Space. It has become an interesting experiment.
               I have been involved in multiple, multi-day events, but the days were always contiguous. What would happen, I wondered, if you did 10 Open Spaces, each an hour and a half, and separated by a week? I had little question that something useful (rich learning, community, etc) might occur in the first session – but would it continue, build, attenuate? The question is neither idle or purely academic, and could point in the direction of enhancing extended, formal learning environments.
               My host was a university and my experience to date has been that no matter how fiercely universities pursue “advanced learning environments/approaches,” they are terrified of Open Space.  Those may not be the words the academics of my acquaintance would be comfortable with – but those words do seem to fairly describe the behavior. Open Space is occasionally allowed as an “experiment” – with the full and certain knowledge that it could not possibly “work.” I have also witnessed massive and sustained efforts devoted to the eradication of Open Space in those rare instances when it seemed to have taken root.
               Why these attitudes exist, I do not know (but I do have some suspicions) – however the opportunity to test the academic environment was irresistible. Certainly the statistical significance of my experiment is negligible. There is an effective N of 1… all the way around. One class, one university, one time. The participants are all senior citizens, and the course content perhaps bizarre: Death, Dying and Life.
               We are now three quarters of the way through. Prudence would dictate waiting for the end and a follow up with post-tests. However the trends are pretty clear and academic purity was never my strong point. Besides if the definitive word is not written others (that could be you!) might do a replication, and that would be wonderful! For the record, I did everything “by the book” – including post-its, masking tape, Issues of concern stuck to the wall. In the first session we posted issues to be addressed over the next 10 weeks, with the clear understanding that additions and changes could be made at any point along the way.
               The first session happened just like usual – no surprise. We took about half an hour to create the agenda leaving one hour for the first groups, of which there were four. Reports were generated over the next week, emailed back to me – and then combined and resent.
               One week later everybody returned (16) and the next round of groups occurred (I forget how many) without prodding or assistance. In fact I left to get some coffee. When an hour had expired, all returned for a brief Closing Circle, actually sort of square, as it seems that circles are a step too far for the university ☺ I thought we might be getting somewhere when one of the participants said the whole thing was really odd. “We were talking about Death and Grief… and people were laughing.”
               This past week I received an email from the university official saying that she wished to “visit the class, possibly for 15 minutes.” I responded that she was certainly welcome, but that I was unsure what, if anything, she might see or hear. The room we had been assigned was rather small and definitely noisy with multiple groups conversing. It took the participants virtually no time at all to discover a number of small “conversation nooks,” furnished and private, located all over the building. Of course, during class hours everybody else was in class – except for our participants. They were everywhere and kept moving. I suggested that the official might do better to come for the whole time (1 ½ hours) so she would at least know where to start. I also told her that she would be treated just like all participants – no special handling or introduction.  I knew she would make her way and the people would take care of her – as they did for everybody else.
               When the session was over, everybody came back to the “home room.” We never did have a “sit down” closing circle because the place was just buzzing and people had busses to catch. Our official visitor had this bemused smile and was now totally enveloped by the group. I never did formally meet her, actually I’m not even sure exactly what she looks like. But I did receive an email from her when I got home saying that something quite strange must be happening. Apparently all of the other classes in her program area were losing participants, sometimes by half. She was so impressed that our full compliment arrived promptly at the appointed hour, and everybody was there at the end. I confess I smiled too, always believing the Law of Two Feet is the most powerful test for, and indicator of, Customer/participant Satisfaction. One might suspect we were hitting pretty close to 100%. 24 hours later I got another email asking if I could do mini-courses in the summer and a full repeat in the Fall. I thanked her for the honor and declined – saying that I only did it once for any group. However there were now 16 people who could do as well or better. We’ll see. In any event it is an experiment you can try, and I wish you as much fun as I have had.
               The points of significance for me were several. First, the  topic (Death, dying and Life) which is taboo in many circles and difficult in most – was freely and openly explored by people for whom it was all pretty much virgin territory. Of course as senior citizens, that territory was getting smaller and smaller (bigger and bigger?). Secondly, I was struck by the evolving feeling of warmth and connection. I can’t imagine how you would measure that, but even my faculty visitor couldn’t escape. Lastly, and certainly least provable, was a sense expressed by several and certainly me … that 10 discreet weeks evolved into one connected open space. Sometime of greater intensity, sometimes less … but always connected.
               For our last gathering I have invited everybody to my house to enjoy a rich performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis done by the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, followed by lunch at a small country restaurant down the road. I call it my Office. Gathering for a requiem mass might seem rather ghoulish, but as I said when making the invitation, “No dead person has ever listened to a requiem.” They are all written for the living and in their own way are a celebration of life. This was explicitly true of the Brahms German Requiem – and frankly the 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy) has nothing on the mass – I think. Try it. It’s amazing.

Harrison



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