[OSList] Questions on continuous Open Space

Birgitt Williams birgitt at dalarinternational.com
Tue Jun 9 11:09:26 PDT 2020


Hi Jake,

That short article is about 25 years old and was written near the start of
my almost 30 year investigation and application of organizational
transformation. Our process is inclusive of the enormous value of using a
single multi-day OST meeting as the catalyst for leaders choosing a path
that had a more liberating structure, participatory architecture, a culture
of leadership, a platform that is life nurturing.

Tomorrow June 10th we begin a nine day online learning journey focused on
what I originally called the Conscious Open Space Organization and then,
after additional learning, called the Genuine Contact Organization.

A single OST meeting surprises leaders by the quantity and quality of
results.
Multiple OST meetings in an intact organization, carried out with short
intervals in between, such as monthly, has an enormous impact and then
results in people feeling overwhelmed, not from the notifications or number
of meetings, but the volume of emergent activities is too much. In early
days, in accordance with a tip from Harrison, my reports included three
categories for the results of an OST meeting: 1. Do it--for those items
easily moved into action; 2. Clarify it--for those items that required
discernment through discussion before deciding what would shift into the Do
It category, if at all; and 3. Open Space it--for those complex items that
surfaced in the OST meeting that needed an OST of its own.

It is worth considering if you are better served with a regular series of
OST meetings instead of an ongoing Open Space.

If you proceed with an ongoing Open Space, you have the opportunity to
figure out what works in your unique organization and what doesn't, with
all nine of you monitoring and adjusting. You are right...people are likely
to get overwhelmed with the number of topics posted, the constant
notifications. However, they are more likely to get overwhelmed by the
volume of activities that are likely to emerge, with so many good ideas
that it feels impossible to work through them all. I feel that you need to
spend some attention considering this aspect.

And if you feel inspired to be a participant in our nine day deep dive
learning, the link for registration is below my signature. The sessions are
on qiqochat, from 9am to 1pm EDST daily. There is also a Self Study
platform with about 12 hours of guided learning.

in genuine contact,
Birgitt





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*Birgitt Williams*
*Senior consultant, author focused on personal,  organizational and
systemic transformation*

*Supporting You in Developing Your Leadership **Through Training,
Mentoring, Services*
www.dalarinternational.com

*Learn with us for your skill and capacity development for the leadership
paradigm "Leading So People Will Lead" *

 *Genuine Contact Organization/Summer Academy 2020 *| online June 10-18,
2020 and/or onsite July 3-10, 2020 | Waterloo, Canada

>> Learn More & Register
<http://www.dalarinternational.com/upcoming-workshops/> for any of our
upcoming workshops here.

<https://genuinecontact.net/user/rachel-bolton/>
PO Box 19373, Raleigh, NC, USA 27613
Phone: 01-919-522-7750



On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 6:30 PM Jake Yeager via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone!
>
> I am drafting a proposal for a continuous Open Space operating process for
> the OD team that I am on. The team is nine people.
>
> I reference Birgitt's article on Wesley Urban Ministries:
> https://www.openspaceworld.org/files/tmnfiles/social.htm
>
> I also reference these notes I took on the Youth for Europe case study by
> Hans-Georg Wicke:
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ft1HL4k3G-zlFOkI8ZQCIKComSXe1eV47iv0yJ8OySU/edit?usp=sharing
> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ft1HL4k3G-zlFOkI8ZQCIKComSXe1eV47iv0yJ8OySU/edit?usp=sharing>
>
> Some questions I'd love to hear your thoughts on:
>
>    - Within a continuous Open Space container, do you think that all
>    meetings among the group should be announced to everyone? That is, should
>    everyone be invited to every meeting? What happens if two people just want
>    to have coffee and catch-up? In the Youth for Europe case study, the
>    convener of the meeting determined whom to invite, which might not be
>    everyone. It's like a mini-Open Space, rather than a meeting within an Open
>    Space. But it can also get cliquish that way, and it seems less transparent.
>    - Is it beneficial to have a theme? It doesn't seem like either
>    organization had a theme in the case studies for the overall Open Space.
>    Perhaps their purpose was their theme... In Youth for Europe, there was a
>    theme for individual meetings, i.e., the mini-Open Spaces.
>    - Any suggestions on how to handle push notification overload? So many
>    meetings might start getting called that people's inboxes are stuffed, and
>    they tone out.
>
> I am pretty sure I'll have more questions later. :D
>
> Thanks ahead of time!
>
> All the best,
> Jake
> ________________
>
> When the mind is quiet, the sun of your heart will shine once again, and
> you will be free of problems.
>  - Robert Adams <http://www.robert-adams.info/>
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