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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Artur: A gentleman of courage and perspicacity! Asking
precisely my question which I feared to pose. . .leading to a wonderment
which I share.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>"I would say that to have TWC before OST has
no added value and may help create (or maximize) the freedom shock; and the
intimacy created by the "intimate groups" can be good, as you have explained,
but it can also be bad in some cases, where the previous small groups (with a
fixed number of 4 and a square table) will made more difficult the
process of creating the feeling of belonging to a circle of the "large
overall community" (all the people assembled) needed for OST to work
properly."<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I have no question that TWC creates a comfort level (or
perception of comfort) for certain people who are used to the controlled
environments of highly facilitated sorts of gatherings. I also have no question
that the level of Freedom Shock may well be less for these people than would
have been experienced in OST -- after all there is a lot less freedom, and a lot
more predefined structures and processes. But I am not at all sure that TWC will
actually ease the nervous ones into the wild open spaces -- and with Artur -- I
suspect it may actually make the situation worse, if only because there is
an immediate comparison between approaches. Having experienced the friendly
control of TWC -- suddenly to be thrown into the radical state of taking
personal responsibility for what you personally care about!
Frightful!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Now I understand that the conventional wisdom tells us
that taking a large group of people (say a thousand or two) into a situation of
radical freedom with nothing to prepare them save for a 15 minute recitation of
Theme, Principles and The Law -- is guaranteed to produce disaster, or worse.
Yet as we all know, millions of people in tens of thousands of situations all
over the world have had such an experience and survived. Undoubtedly there
are people who found the experience to be quite unpleasant. It is also
probably true that these people made their level of discomfort very clear. Yet
after 20 years living with folks in Open Space, my experience has been that the
vast majority of participants find the whole affair quite useful. At the very
least they find it to be productive (work gets done), and for a lesser number
their time in Open Space is remembered as a fantastic high. At a personal level,
I particularly enjoy those individuals who say at the start (verbally or by
their body language), "This can never work!" And then sometime down the road,
often before the gathering is over -- they change their tune quite radically.
Truth to tell, I find the most resistant group to be potential sponsors and
fellow consultants (who have usually never been in Open Space).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>For me the truly interesting question is why/how do so
many survive? Certainly the majority do -- maybe even the overwhelming majority.
I think that part of the answer is the speed with which space opens. >From a
standing start -- just sitting in a circle -- to active engagement in something
like 15-20 minutes. People rushing to the center of the circle to announce their
issues, and everybody else listening hard and figuring out what additional
issues need to be raised in order to meet their own needs. That burst of
activity might last 30-40 minutes, followed by another 20 minutes of total
ordered chaos in the Market place -- and it is off to work -- usually with
sufficient time for a cup of coffee, restroom break, or phone call. Fast! The
point is that before even the most concerned and nervous participants have a
chance to "freak out" because it is "not working" -- it already is
working!!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>What this tells me is that the faster you are able to move
from the opening "Welcome" to the actual engagement of working groups -- the
better. And for this reason alone, I would never front end Open Space with any
sort of "preliminary activity" -- whether that be some form of "community
building," ice breaking, or TWC. It is not needed, can be counter-productive,
and even under the best of circumstances when the "preliminary" was a most
pleasant experience a common reaction from participants (at least in my
experience) is something like, "Well that was nice, but why did we waste the
time?" </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Having said all of this -- we are still left with that
small (I think) group of folks for whom the Open Space experience remains
anathama, unpleasant, or worse. It may sound hard hearted, uncaring, and
professionally irresponsible, but my approach over the years has been to respect
their feelings and move on. If given the opportunity I am delighted to try and
talk them through it and/or give them a hug, but at the end of the day I
suspect they will just have to make their own way. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I understand that this approach could be viewed as my
effort to uphold the purity of OST. Perhaps, but I would like to think that
it goes deeper than that. From where I sit -- freedom and the necessity of
accepting the responsibility of freedom is not the peculiar gift
or requirement of OST, it is just a fact of life. From this point of view,
OST is only an opportunity to practice what we all have to do anyhow. Some will
do all that better than others, some will enjoy it more, and others less -- but
it remains a task of our common humanity. The sooner we get on with it, the
better.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Harrison</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Dr.<BR>Potomac, MD
20854<BR>USA<BR>301-365-2093<BR>207-763-3261 (summer)<BR>website <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com">www.openspaceworld.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=arturfsilva@yahoo.com href="mailto:arturfsilva@yahoo.com">Artur
Silva</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 13, 2005 9:51 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Fw: The World Cafe meets
Open Space</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Peggy:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Please
see below what I am commenting.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I wonder
if the "freedom shock" was created by OST or by the fact that OST
was preceded by TWC. Interestingly, I made a misreading of your words
“had a felt sense of community very quickly" that I first red "had a false
sense of community very quickly" ;-(<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I would
agree with you that maybe there are conditions that are suitable for
TWC (for instance, the client is not prepared to OST, or the problem doesn't
need a solution for yesterday). But if those conditions don't existI
would say that to have TWC before OST has no added value and may
help create (or maximize) the freedom shock; and the intimacy created by
the "intimate groups" can be good, as you have explained, but it can also be
bad in some cases, where the previous small groups (with a fixed number of
4 and a square table) will made more difficult the process of
creating the feeling of belonging to a circle of the "large overall
community" (all the people assembled) needed for OST to work
properly.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">But I
agree with you that beginning in small groups the evening session may be
something worth trying in some situations.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">My two cents<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Artur<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><B><I>Peggy Holman <peggy@opencirclecompany.com></I></B>
wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">
<P>Here's a bit more on World Cafe and OS from Tom Atlee, who just
returned<BR>from a conference "downunder". (...):<BR><BR>> A couple of
points on the OS/WC experiment:<BR>><BR>> It was explicitly noted that
the groups could become more or less than 4<BR>> (the ideal WC size);
this is not significant to OSers, but is definitely<BR>> significant to
WCers.</P>
<P>Perviously Peggy wrote:</P>
<P>(...)</P>
<P>>>A reflection on how TWC affected the dynamic.<BR>>>It was
clear that people had a felt sense of community very
quickly<BR>>>through TWC. I think that the move into OS created that
condition that<BR>>>Harrison calls "freedom shock". It's possible that
the contrast<BR>>>heightened the shock. That said, I believe the sense
of connection<BR>>>created during TWC enabled those who were
distressed to seek out the<BR>>>friends they had made rather than
completely check out (of course, being<BR>>>in a remote location would
have made it difficult to leave!). I wonder if<BR>>>that is a benefit
of a cafe prior to OS --<BR>>>to create relationships that might
support people to stay engaged if they<BR>>>have a tendency towards
freedom shock? (...)</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
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