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Hi Robyn and all,<div>I had a situation with some similarities to and some differences from yours a while ago, soon after I first moved into a small town.</div><div><br></div><div>A community group asked me to facilitate a meeting, and their 2 main organisers met me a couple of times to make arrangements, at quite short notice.</div><div>I was happy to be involved.</div><div><br></div><div>My only concern was the length of time for the meeting, which I couldn't seem to establish, since the organisers would not say clearly.</div><div>They said something about 30 minutes, which I said was rather short, but then they thought 60 to 90 minutes would be possible.</div><div>I said people could go when they needed to.</div><div><br></div><div>The organisers and I set up a pre-meeting with the leader of another local group, which had similar interests and prospective members attending, but she didn't come to our pre-meeting.</div><div><br></div><div>On the day of the event, lots of people gathered, the 2 organisers summarised the situation to them, then I was introduced and got up to open the space.</div><div>I briefly described the principles and law etc in 5 or so minutes, and a woman I had not met stood up in the circle.</div><div><div>She turned out to be the leader of the other group.</div><div><br></div></div><div>She said the group needed to learn more about what had been happening about the topic for the gathering, and she didn't think Open Space would be appropriate.</div><div>Instead, the group needed someone to talk to them, she stated firmly.</div><div><br></div><div>I said I was willing to step aside, if that is what the group wanted, but asked if everyone was in accord with the one who had stood up to speak.</div><div>No-one said otherwise, so I sat down and let the meeting find its own way.</div><div><br></div><div>After the meeting, one or two people said they would have liked to experience Open Space.</div><div>The 'funny' thing was that the participants moved into their own informal Open Space, once the speaker sat down.</div><div><br></div><div>One of the things the organisers had been told they needed, was confirmation of what local participants wanted.</div><div>The organisers wanted to take proceedings to the local council to back their case for being allocated some public land and so on.</div><div>Because the Open Space part of the meeting was so informal, no proceedings were written down.</div><div>But I imagine that whatever happened was the only thing etc...</div><div><br></div><div>My main concern was that local folks might think less of Open Space and not use it in the future for other events.</div><div>I wondered what signals I might have missed when setting up the event.</div><div>(I haven't run many events yet, and hoped I hadn't 'let the side down'.)</div><div><br></div><div>And I was annoyed that the woman who stood and took over the meeting had not attended the earlier meeting that was set up specifically to inform her about Open Space.</div><div>Without knowing of her existence and power, I am not sure which other way I might have gone, under the circumstances.</div><div>Any thoughts?</div><div><br></div><div>Allison.</div><div>PS Good on you, <b>Robyn</b>, for stepping aside.</div><div>I admire your gumption.</div><div>Best wishes with the week ahead.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for that idea of just standing there, <b>Michael</b>.</div><div>I think it would be a good idea for me to read the book you mentioned: <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!</span></font></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 15/11/2009, at 11:44 AM, Robyn Williams wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Hi folks</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">On Friday I was facilitating a 2 hour workshop primarily using Open Space</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">principles as requested, and as I would have suggested anyway given the task</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">in hand. My own 2 feet did the walking less than halfway through when the</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">'person in charge', who I'd not met before, interrupted the process,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">criticised me, and gave me directions (in public) and not for the first</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">time. The agenda items were being announced, and her direction was that all</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the issues should be dealt as a whole group and indicated that I should</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">facilitate that. I said no, thanked them for their time, wished them well</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">for the rest of the session, and left.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Given the short duration and the task at hand, this had been a long-winded</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">arrangement which resulted in more questions than answers. Arranged by a</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">delegated person without authority, I wasn't able to ascertain who was</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">really 'in charge' (I was told that it was a group project, ie all team</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">leaders) or get agreement for a meeting to clarify expectations. The day</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">before the workshop I contacted the Director of the department, had a</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">pleasing chat, and arranged to meet before the session. That session was</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">cancelled later in the day, and a shorter session was re-convened for</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">another time (when critical people could be available). Sure bells were</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">ringing but I started to think that I was being overly consultative. I mean</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">what could go wrong in 2 hrs? Right?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">On the way home I reflected on how it had unfolded and my part and felt that</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'd done as well as I could do under the circumstances despite my</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">inner-critic suggesting that walking out was pretty extreme and surely I</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">could have done better. Needless to say I've learned lessons from this and</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">have damage control ahead of me this week (sigh).</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So what would you do, or have you done, when your role is undermined?</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">And how did you reach closure with the client/s?</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Best wishes, Robyn</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Fremantle Western Australia</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">PS WA colleagues - anyone available to debrief this with me?</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">*</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">*</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">==========================================================</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">view the archives of <a href="mailto:oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu">oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu</a>:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html">http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist">http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist</a></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>*
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