<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">I don't talk a lot about "givens," though I do ask some questions about what will happen, post OS, to ideas and recommendations.<BR>
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I've had a couple of projects where givens seemed important to address explicitly. My current client is building a new building that will bring many changes to the organization. The whole organization met in Open Space soon after the groundbreaking for the building, to talk about the issues and opportunities involved in moving staffs from two separate offices into a new facility in a new location.<BR>
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By this time, the architect's plan (with much input from the staff) was finished, the contractors and suppliers had been hired, an open-office concept was central to the design--there were a lot of things about the new building and its operation that had already been decided and would not be changed. And it seemed useful to review those. The director opened with a brief summary of the decisions that had already been made, and encouraged the group to discuss everything else, and they did. <BR>
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In another instance, a nonprofit group was facing restructuring, mandated by their funding agency. The director insisted that she did not want to talk about possible courses of action, or the magnitude of the proposed change, for fear of limiting people's creativity. She had gone to each group earlier, stating the need for restructuring and offering some possible scenarios. No one had heard or remembered anything but the worst-case scenario, and the possible loss of jobs was the Dead Moose under the table. The first day of OS was tense, and not as open as everyone had hoped. And on the morning of Day 2, a young man in the group convened a session (which included more than 3/4 of the participants) "to get answers to his questions, from the management team." Forty-five minutes later, the givens were laid out, the trust level shifted noticeably, and groups went to work with new energy and creativity.<BR>
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You never step in the same river twice . . . and sometimes givens, by whatever name, are important.<BR>
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Joelle </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT></HTML>
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