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At 04:14 AM 9/5/00 +0700, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite><font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">Hi
Harrison,</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">I'm back with my
questions,</font><br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">and they are very close to the
point you are discussing now.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">If the whole process as we
discovered with you - just 20 minutes of saying rules, then
self-organizing, so how it came to the process of action planning?
</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">that is just people intentions
and movings. right?</font></blockquote><br>
Action planning usually needs to get specific. So you certainly start
with people's "intentions and movings" -- but I would get them
to write it down, and best of all make a public commitment to take the
necessary action. Typically this comes from the conveners of the groups,
and then other people can sign on as well to help. <br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite> <br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">so how facilitator should start
the second day or finish the first one? is there any special
"pushing" or the closing evening session is just a discussion
of what people want to discuss?</font></blockquote><br>
sometimes it helps to review what happened the previous day -- but I
wouldn't spend much time on that. What I would do is to ask the
people to dig deeper and make sure that EVERYTHING that they really care
about has been put on the wall. If they were a little timid the day
before, just remind them -- this is the last call. And if they don't put
it up -- they can't go home saying, "But they never talked about
what I was interested in."<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite><font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">What
is real opening space? - that is the question of Birgitt to me. I like to
learn it as well... if possible, what is it just for
YOU.</font></blockquote><br>
Goodness --- you certainly ask the hard ones!!!! I guess for me, real
open space is safe enough so that people can really talk about what they
care about, and start on the process of taking useful action. Safe Space
requires that they have the time too -- for a complex, conflicted issue,
there has to be time to work. But it can't be too safe -- there is a
risk, life is a risk. And here is where passion is important. I guess a
useful criteria is that the space is safe enough for passion to show up.
How''s that?<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite> <br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">best wishes</font><br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">Elena Marchuk,
Novosibirsk</font>
<dl><font face="tahoma" size=2>
<dd>-----Original Message-----
<dd>From:</b> OSLIST
[<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU%5DOn" eudora="autourl">mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]</a><a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU%5DOn" eudora="autourl">On</a>
Behalf Of </b>Harrison Owen
<dd>Sent:</b> Sunday, September 03, 2000 8:24 PM
<dd>To:</b> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
<dd>Subject:</b> Re: when a client hires Open Space Technology, is this
what she gets?<br>
<br>
</font>
<dd>At 10:28 PM 9/2/00 -0400, Birgitt wrote:<br>
<br>
<font face="arial" size=2>
<dd> This caused the manager to go onto the internet to find out a
little more, came upon my website, and wanted to know if she had hired a
consultant who would do a good job and deliver Open Space Technology as
she now understood it to
be.</font><blockquote type=cite cite><font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>The name of the consultant was unfamiliar to me. I have no idea what
the consultant does that he calls Open Space Technology. I do know he
charged a lot. I said I did not know the consultant, couldn't speak for
his work, and then I e-mailed the manager a list of what key ingredients
would be in an Open Space Technology meeting and suggested questions that
she ask of the consultant. She phoned me back and wanted to know about
standards of performance. She said that she had hired Open Space
Technology, in good faith, because she was convinced it was the right
thing to do. She assumed that this is what she would get from someone who
provided Open Space Technology.</font>
<dd> <font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>I believe strongly that situations such as this are going to cause a
backlash against Open Space Technology. I stand even more firmly in my
belief that each facilitator of Open Space Technology will facilitate in
accordance with his/her uniqueness as well as with his/her interpretation
and perception of what Open Space Technology is AND that certain key
ingredients must be attended to.</font>
<dd> <font face="arial" size=2>
<dd>Years ago, when I worked in social services, the various agencies
were working hard, doing good works, and were filled with pride but not
necessarily focused on meeting the needs of the clients, working with the
clients on what the clients wanted. I feel the same at this moment about
the way we are offering Open Space Technology. Are we the ones
interpreting the needs of the clients in the same way social services
did? Or are we listening to what the clients want and meeting their
needs? What if one of their needs is assurance that if they hire Open
Space Technology, that this is what they will actually get? To date, in
my experience, we do not offer this. The client gets whatever the
consultant chooses to deliver and calls Open Space or Open Space
Technology.</font></blockquote>
<dd>**********************************<br>
<br>
<dd>No doubt about it. There are consultants out there who haven't got
the whole picture -- and/or fail to present it for whatever reason. There
are also clients out there who fail to do their homework and end up with
an inferior product. There are even clients out there who
intentionally purchase something that they know won't work -- just
so they can say, ""It didn't work -- I tried" -- and then
go back to doing just what they were doing before. All sorts of folks,
indeed. <br>
<br>
<dd>And when Open Space is involved in these situations, it is
problematic, sad, and angry-making. All true. But I am not sure that any
potential "cure" would not be worse than the disease -- or
something like that. Certainly, those who write about Open Space should
make best effort to provide the "whole" picture. And those who
offer training programs in Open Space (and Birgitt does some wonderful
work here) should do the same. But at the end of the day there will be
consultants who play with less than a full deck, and clients who fail to
do their "due diligence" search. So what about poor old Open
Space?<br>
<br>
<dd>I think it will survive. <br>
<br>
<dd>First off, there are also clients that do their due diligence -- and
Birgitt's conversation is a case in point. Secondly, even when Open Space
is done "poorly" it is usually better than what might have been
done. And if it is done wretchedly, doubtless there are disappointed
folks, but in my experience, there are more than a few participants who
say to themselves -- This can't be all there is -- and make the effort to
find the Real McCoy. Personally, I love to run into there sorts of
people. They are really receptive, quickly get the picture, and more to
the point, usually turn out to be great advocates. And the
"nasty" side of me also indulges in a in a few chuckles, 'cause
I know THAT consultant has just blown their credibility...to say nothing
of future employment.<br>
<br>
<dd>Then we get to the interesting question of What is REAL Open
Space????? Having devoted more than a few pages to the subject, to
say nothing of some hours and years, I can honestly say -- I am still
finding out. To be sure, there are certain fundamentals, but how about
the details? Like "convergence." Certainly useful, and
sometimes close to mandatory -- but not always. For example, for 19 years
we have been convening The International Symposium on Organization
Transformation. And never once have we had a convergence session. And to
the best of my knowledge nobody missed it. Certainly not me. The several
thousand folks who have gathered over the years were not there to move to
"concerted action" -- they came to participate in an ongoing,
always evolving, conversation about transformation in organization.
Certainly there have been definite outcomes, including what might now be
termed the field or practice of Organization Transformation, a whole mess
of books and articles -- and even Open Space Technology. And never once
did we do "convergence" -- a closing circle for sure which was
at once an ending and also a beginning for next year's conversation --
but no convergence. Looking back, I rather suspect that the power and
accomplishments of the many "OTs" have not be compromised by
this lack, indeed the "lack" may well have been contributory to
what I have felt to be some very positive and useful outcomes. <br>
<br>
<dd>So am I anti-convergence? Absolutely not -- but I find that the
useful criteria are "context and need." And both change with
circumstances. So what's right? It all depends. <br>
<br>
<dd>Of course, one solution to the whole dilemma is that "we"
(whoever "we" is) offer some sort of formal certification in
OST. But then we would have to enforce it -- and spend a lot of time
bringing the perpetrators of malignant Open Space to the bar of justice.
Actually, I would choose to spend my time opening good space, and let the
folks make their choice. At the end of the day I suspect that Open Space
(Technology) needs lots of Open Space -- and it will survive -- or
not.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<dd>Harrison <br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<dd>Harrison Owen
<dd>7808 River Falls Drive
<dd>Potomac, MD 20854 USA
<dd>phone 301-469-9269
<dd>fax 301-983-9314
<dd>Summer Phone 207-763-3261
<dd>Summer Address
<dd>189 Beaucaire Ave.
<dd>Camden, ME 04843
<dd>website
<a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</a>
<dd>Open Space Institute website
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a></div>
</dl></blockquote><br>
<div align="center">
Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854 USA<br>
phone 301-469-9269<br>
fax 301-983-9314<br>
Summer Phone 207-763-3261<br>
Summer Address<br>
189 Beaucaire Ave.<br>
Camden, ME 04843<br>
website
<a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</a><br>
Open Space Institute website
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
</div>
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