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At 11:18 PM 6/7/00 -0400, Romy wrote:<br>
<br>
>A VERY LITTLE CASE STUDY: using Open Space in a ONE hour meeting
-<br>
>(Harrison you might be horrified.! - I hope not)<br>
**********************************<br>
Absolutely NOT horrified. My personal practice of going for longer Open
Spaces relates to 2 factors. First is the complexity/conflict of the
issues. Given a lot of both, a "mini-Open Space" ends up being
frustrating at best and may be counter-productive. The second factor is
the experience level of the group. When Open Space becomes a common
experience, I have seen the space effectively opened in 20 min -- from
start to finish. There seems to be a natural progresssion from <i>Open
Space Event</i> to <i>OS mentality</i> -- to <i>OS organization</i>. When
a group of folks start to move along this progression it is as if (as you
suggest) they never leave Open Space. So the short versions come as
"intnentional focusing of the space already open" as opposed to
something brand new. <br>
<br>
In short Open Spaces with an experieinced group, the words of the opening
become infinitely less important than the "ritual" -- and the
most powerful element here, I think, is the circle. I have seen groups
simply sit in the circle and go imediately from silence to posting of
issues to the market place and on to the discussion groups in 5 min
flat.<br>
<br>
Harrison<br>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854<br>
USA<br>
phone 301-469-9269<br>
fax 301-983-9314<br>
website <br>
<a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</a><br>
Open Space Institute websites<br>
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
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