[OSList] Ten Weeks in Open Space

Tue Apr 16 13:49:39 PDT 2019

I absolutely love this story.
Thank you
X

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 17:57, Harrison Owen via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

>                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 J 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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