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<FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE">Dear Birgitt, dear Harrison,<BR>
my feeling and stance on this matter is to my mind, quite simple:<BR>
if the client wants an open space event and sticks to this notion after I have talked to him, thats what will happen I either take it or leave it....nobody knowing what will happen beyond;<BR>
if the client wants an intervention to transform his organisation and I am crazy enough to believe that this is actually possible, so be it .... nobody knowing what will happen beyond;<BR>
I definetely do not want to worry about what will happen to an organisation that has chosen to let open space technology come into its life...all I do is to make sure that the client knows that there could be some surprises in store for him and his organisation with no assurance that neither I nor he has an inkling of what that might actually mean.<BR>
This is to me another way of thinking in the direction of not being attached to outcome and not attempting to exercise control.<BR>
Right, an ost meeting is an event that is about change. Change in my experience is a fickle thing, not planable, not influenceable (if there is such a word) and certainly beyond control. To what degree there will be loss or conflict and how the organisation will handle it is unpredictable, fact is some of that might happen or will happen. Whether I as facilitator have influence on these developments is unclear to me....what I suspect is that my worry about it has primarily to do with my own anxieties...letting go of them is perhaps one of the kinder things I can offer my clients.<BR>
One thing I know for sure is that this discussion will continue...in the meantime I will continue to work with open space technology humbly recognizing its potential.<BR>
Hugs and love<BR>
michael<BR>
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--Original Message Text---<BR>
<B>From:</B> Birgitt Williams<BR>
<B>Date:</B> Sat, 9 Mar 2002 11:00:32 -0500<BR>
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<FONT COLOR=ff0000><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">Harrison wrote:<FONT COLOR=000000 DEFAULT="COLOR"><FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"> <BR>
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<FONT COLOR=ff0000><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12"> I'm not quite clear what you are asking here, but to the extent that I understand, my thought would be that the real thing is to be clear who the client is, and further that the client can change in time. For example, when i start conversation with a group -- my contact person (the CEO-- whatever) is my client, but should we do an Open Space, my client becomes the whole group. My mission quite simply is to create the space in which that group can experience and realize its full potential. Should it turn out that my "original client" (the CEO) is the major road block, and he/she acts that out by becoming a Nasty Space Invader, I see no alternative but to protect the space in whatever way I can. After all I have indicated to the group that the space will be open, and should it close down suddenly through the actions of a single person, my integrity is at stake. <FONT COLOR=000000 DEFAULT="COLOR"><FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"> <BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">Harrison, <FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"><BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">For me, the sponsor (senior staff person involved) is the one who opens space in the organization for the facilitator to come in and lead in an Open Space Technology meeting . I have infinite respect for this senior staff person, for the risk they take in allowing us as facilitators to come in to their organizations. They are the ones who have to deal with all of the pieces, however good they may be, once the facilitator has packed his or her bag and gone home. I agree that my job as the facilitator of the Open Space Technology meeting is to get the space open and to keep it open no matter who the space invader is at the time. <FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"><BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">I also carry out my work so that I am not setting the organization up to have space closed down by the client on Monday morning back at work. I cannot prevent the space being closed down come Monday morning, but because I am aware that Open Space Technology is a very powerful intervention in an organization and I see it as my job to do my best to create with the client a nutrient terrain within which the Open Space Technology meeting has its best chance of creating and then sustaining a more life nurturing, open and participative work environment.<FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"> <BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">I have experienced too often, a wonderful closing circle for the meeting, and then deep grief work setting in Monday morning not because the meeting was a failure, but because it was such a wonderful success. It reminds me often of how afraid humans still are of the great inner light in them, afraid that they can be so successful. <FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"><BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12"> Going back to the work from the early eighties on second order change/transformative change&there is a decline crisis (grief work) before the new is reframed. I believe that many facilitators of OST see the grief work/decline crisis taking place leading up to the OST meeting and that the OST meeting is about reframing for the new followed by moving steadily along a path with the new. It has been my experience that decline crisis/grief work is often high leading up to an OST meeting and immediately following an OST meeting. <FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"><BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">The OST meeting itself is an event that is about change. With change, however wonderful, there is always loss. And the companion of change is also conflict. I don t see this arising so much during the OST meeting as I do after the OST meeting. Prior to the meeting, the participants and CEO often believe this is just another meeting. When the results unfold, if the space is truly kept open in the ongoing organization, it turns out that just about everything is open for change including detailed items like how performance reviews are done. Prior to the meeting, the CEO often had no idea that this is what he/she was opening the space for. <FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"><BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">I have wrestled with this all long and hard in terms of ethical considerations. If I know that something has this power and long term results whether there is follow up from the meeting or not, nothing stays the same----I make every endeavor to assist the client to understand that he/she is really the one opening space in the organization and what this could mean.<FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"> <BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">Again for me, this comes down to whether we work with OST as an event that has a start and finish and no ongoing responsibility or as an intervention that has with it the responsibility of enabling a more informed consent by the client that this is more than simply a meeting. As you yourself say, the good news is that OST works and the bad news is that OST works.<FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"> <BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12">Birgitt<FONT FACE="Arial" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE"> <BR>
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Michael M Pannwitz<br>
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