<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hello, my friends.<div><br></div><div>I've just finished an interesting couple of days.</div><div><br></div><div>As you may or may not know, Microsoft has a highly tarnished reputation when it comes to Open Space. They've tried, and pretty much botched it a couple of highly visible times.</div><div><br></div><div>This week was their Strategic Architect Forum, put on by the same fellow who had me do their Open Space in Redmond in April.</div><div><br></div><div>284 software architects and managers from 34 countries and 190 different organizations/companies.</div><div><br></div><div>Roughly 260 of them had no idea what Open Space was about, many of them being skeptical (as usual :-)).</div><div><br></div><div>I had faith, as always, that it would all come together, and it did. I'm learning, each time, the importance of what I refer to as the set-up. Walking the circle, explaining why they're there and what they have a chance to do and then how they're going to do it - that's the "set-up", combined with the process of crafting the invitation (thanks, Michael!).</div><div><br></div><div>This was my largest event to date. Three concentric circles of chairs in the opening and closing circles. Some reluctance on the part of many of them to propose topics. A microphone as the talking stick/token in the closing circle, passed as often as used to speak.</div><div><br></div><div>And afterward, the energy and excitement.</div><div><br></div><div>But between the beginning of the closing circle and the "afterward", I achieved something important for the first time.</div><div><br></div><div>I recall Harrison saying something along the lines of "if they thank you at the end, you haven't done the job of facilitation right."</div><div><br></div><div>Always before, someone - or several someones - has thanked me in the closing circle, praising me, recognizing me. I admit that I was skeptical about the whole idea of not being thanked, since it has always seemed that they're all so aware of me, even as I have worked to be invisibly present.</div><div><br></div><div>Today, at the end of the closing circle, I realized that no one had mentioned my name, thanked me, recognized me in any way.</div><div><br></div><div>And I realized that my contribution was in enabling them to have a unique and meaningful experience, and that by doing so effectively, I had achieved something new. I had finally become only a part of the overall experience, contributing and enabling, but taking a back seat to the community and its experience.</div><div><br></div><div>And along the way, I helped to introduce a wider group to the pleasures of Open Space Technology, and might get to do so again with some of them.</div><div><br></div><div>Wow.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks, Harrison.</div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>..Doc<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10px; "></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10px; ">--</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Geneva; ">Steven "Doc" List, Principal Consultant, ThoughtWorks NA<br>Mobile: +1 (512) 924-9248 | Skype: steven.list | Yahoo: dadjester<br>email: <a href="mailto:doc@thoughtworks.com">doc@thoughtworks.com</a> | <a href="mailto:doc@anotherthought.com">doc@anotherthought.com</a> | web: <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com">www.thoughtworks.com</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Geneva; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10px/normal Geneva; ">Watch me being interviewed about Open Space Technology: <a href="http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Open-Spaces-Steven-List">http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Open-Spaces-Steven-List</a><br><br>Everyone should know it's the month of Movember! Please donate to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10px; ">cause of men's health at <a href="http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1794841">http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1794841</a></span></div></div></span></div></span> </div><br></div></body></html>*
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