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At 10:40 PM 5/8/2003 +0200,
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">Hans-Georg Wicke</font>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite> <br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">Firstly: In Würzburg I have learned that we need nothing more than the circle, the market place, bulletin board... to get an OS working. No chairs, no pinboards, no flipcharts, no report forms, no signs, no break out rooms, no fineliner, no copies, no pillows etc. 2108 people have proofed that they are perfectly able to organise themselves. Everything was reduced to the max in Würzburg, we needed only 45 minutes to put all our material for this giant OS in a normal car. And after that I would say that it could have been less or even nothing. The crowd would have been able to cope with that without any problems. Thats for me as an OS facilitator very relieving and reassuring, especially for the preparation of an OS and in the case the resources (in terms of finances, staff, facilities, space, time, material) are limited. </font></blockquote><br>
YES YES YES!!! It really is that simple. Definitely a man after my own heart. One more thing(s) not to do.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite> <br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">Secondly: But, but, but I see my role as OS facilitators to create working conditions which enable the group to concentrate on their issues as much as possible - and not to distract people. chairs instead of pillows to sit comfortably, enough chairs to have a seat and not to search for, break out rooms to work in immediately, pinboards to work with and to get more silence in the break out rooms, signs to find the rooms easily, fineliners, markers and paper to notice things in the moment they come into my mind, report forms as a help to write down the most important results of the work, copies to be able to follow what happens or has happend, flipchart paper to enable participants visualise group discussions, to get something to eat all the time in order not to be hungry but also not tired and so on, and so on. As a participant in a lot of OS I have always enjoyed (and still do) very much this easiness - for the duration of the OS I have the chance to take care for nothing else than my passion.</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080"></font></blockquote><br>
There is never a point to making people uncomfortable. And for sure if the resources (chairs, flip charts etc) are available, certainly they should be used. But as you noted above -- very little of all that is <i>essential</i>. My questions are always -- What is possible? and What is appropriate ? And I know from long experience (sorry for the "elder" statement) that the people will not only survive -- but thrive. There is another consideration: The more you do for somebody, the less they have to do for themselves. I am by no means advocating being hard-nosed and nasty, but I have often noted that adversity is often the mother of invention. Adversity can even heighten and sharpen the experience. For example in Wuerzberg, we had many, many groups meeting in a single space. Sometimes the noise level got pretty high (too high???) BUT -- When people really cared about what they were doing, they drew closer together and really focused. Intense listening can go a long way towards productive discussion. And when it got too bad -- they moved. Taking responsibility for themselves and observing the Law of Two Feet (Mobility)!<br><br>
Harrison<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<div align="center">Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854 USA<br>
phone 301-365-2093<br>
Open Space Training <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</a> <br>
Open Space Institute <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
Personal website <a href="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm" eudora="autourl"><font color="#0000FF">http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</a><br><br>
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