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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2>Joelle and Chris, and all the other
openspaceniks,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2>I can confirm your experience with
small groups. I made an OS for 13 some months ago for 1 and a half day.
There were 4 working sessions, 11 topics and a couple of hours for
conversion and deepening the found solution. It was a lot like an
OS for 113, but indeed it is much harder to get out of the way. I
tried to keep me busy all the time and not to join the people except for morning
news, evening news and the conversion. It was a great experience and I found out
once again that the important criteria of success is, that all the
conditions for successful open spaces (different views, important business
issue, complexity, urgency etc.) are fullfilled. And in </FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=#800080 size=2>my opinion the fully coverage of this conditions
is much more important in a small</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2>group.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2>Erich</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2>from lovely Vienna</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #800080 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=chris@chriscorrigan.com href="mailto:chris@chriscorrigan.com">Chris
Corrigan</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> Friday, August 11, 2006 8:07
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [OSLIST] Open Space for
small groups</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Justin: <BR><BR>The hardest thingto do is get out of the
way. It is much harder for a facilitator with a group of five to just
leave the room and let them work. So I usually volunteer to type notes
for them while they work, which lets me be with them but stay out of the
way. If I was doing my first again, I would take the 175 I was with and
not the 8. It's a lot easier with a crowd, ironically.
<BR><BR>Chris<BR><BR>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 8/10/06, <B class=gmail_sendername>Joelle
Lyons Everett</B> <<A
href="mailto:JLEShelton@aol.com">JLEShelton@aol.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
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<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT face=Geneva color=#000000
size=2>Justin--<BR><BR>I've used Open Space a few times with groups of
5-15--no question that it works. I often find that the group is
reluctant to divide, and may cover all the topics sequentially, though
sometimes even a small group will break out into groups of 2 or 3.
<BR><BR>After a large Open Space conference of around 100 people, I
continued meeting with a Transition Team that was working with logistics and
emotional concerns for a move of two work groups into one new
building. This team was 8 or 9, and we used a slightly modified Open
Space format for our monthly 3-4 hour meetings. This group chose to
work together, topics were posted by tem members at the start of every
meeting, and the talking piece created for the large Open Space usually came
to the table. We met in a circle around a large conference table, for
the reason that there was no possibility, in their overcrowded office space,
to move out the tables. <BR><BR>Because there was a lot of complicated
project management to track, I generally kept a list of items that would
need to be followed up at a later meeting. But it was very rare for an
ongoing item to be overlooked when the topics were posted. I also
loved that for every action item identified in a meeting, someone
volunteered to take responsibility for it before the meeting ended.
<BR><BR>I think there are some parallels with the organization you
mentioned. I find that after a group has met a few times in Open
Space, the principles and law become "business as usual" for the group,
sometimes quite a different working climate. <BR><BR>Joelle Everett<BR>Sound
Resources<BR>Shelton, Washington, USA </FONT><FONT face=Geneva color=#000000
size=2></FONT>* * ==========================================================
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</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>CHRIS
CORRIGAN<BR>Consultation - Facilitation<BR>Open Space
Technology<BR><BR>Weblog: <A
href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot">http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
</A><BR>Site: <A
href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com">http://www.chriscorrigan.com</A><BR>Open
Space Resources: <A
href="http://tinyurl.com/r94tj">http://tinyurl.com/r94tj</A> * *
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