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heros</title></head><body>
<div>Christine,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>A favorite story about heroes and special guests of mine:
The Parents Union from an elementary school here sponsored an OS
inviting parents, teachers, staff, some principles from other
elementary schools and members of the Education Dept. Five
special expert guests arrived, they were presented with flowers for
their lapels as is customary here, and all joined the circle (down low
on elementary school size chairs). The sponsor began by saying
what an exciting day it was, people were very eager to begin their
topic conversations, but they wanted to especially welcome and honor
the guests who had contributed so much to education, etc, etc, so she
would ask each to say something to the group. And they each had
1 minute to do that (with a very big smile!). At the end of 1
minute she thanked #1, passed the mic to #2, and so on.
And everyone clapped loudly. They were caught off guard but
actually looked relieved and pleased enough to stay around for the OS
to get going, which is not the custom.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Looking forward to your report!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Gail</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Chris - Being the odd duck that I am -
I must confess that I have never seen a situation where Open Space was
not appropriate. For sure I have encountered times/places when people
didn't want to do it, were afraid of doing it - but at the end of
the day, and no matter what they did, it would still be Open Space.
This would be true even if they chose the most draconian, dictatorial,
lockstep form of facilitation possible. Ridiculous? Possibly, but if
all systems (organizations) are open and self organizing (as I think)
then that fascist facilitator is ultimately a product of his/her and
the group's shared delusion that somebody is actually in charge!
Still Open Space - just done poorly. Actually, given the level of
anxiety and frustration usually present in such situations, it is
worse than just "poorly." Probably closer to the massive
sub-optimization of the human potential in that group.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Or how about another strange thought? -
No matter how frustrating a particular OS may be ("waste of
time and money") it is still useful if you understand that every
Open Space is like a Rorschach Test. Since there is no predetermined
content or meaning, What you see is what you Got. Or put another way,
"Whatever happens is the only thing that could have." Just
imagine -- you do the Open Space and a group of lethargic, backbiting,
nasty people spend their time doing nothing and/or pillaring each
other. Unpleasant for sure but clearly this is an organization ready
for a funeral. So get out your shovel and prayer book! Nasty business,
but useful.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite>ho
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Harrison Owen</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>7808 River Falls Dr.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Potomac, MD 20854</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>USA</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Phone 301-365-2093</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>www.openspaceworld.com</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>www.ho-image.com (Personal
Website)</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your
options, view the archives of <a
href="mailto:oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu"
>oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu</a>:</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html"
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html</a></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><b>From:</b> OSLIST
[mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]<b> On Behalf Of</b> Chris
Corrigan<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, November 29, 2010 6:15 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: open space and heros</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Christine...</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I don't have much more to add to what
Lisa has said here, except to sya that my own experience has borne out
the fact that high levels of diversity are a good thing and in fact if
you have high levels of diversity in the room, OST is a very good
process because it allows the resilience in the container to hold the
passion that goes with that diversity.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Giving people different levels of status
in OST is not something I would ever do. The fact is that
everyone has various bits and pieces of status because of their
history and contributions and that is all going to be in the room.
But I would never organize structure around it - such as a
"scientific committee." The closest I have come
is having indigenous Elders sitting at tables near the middle of the
room while 150 people talked about an indigenous child welfare
organization. The Elders also convened sessions, but they had a
space in the room that was theirs and throughout the day people came
to visit with them. I would do that in the context of your
meeting though. In fact the wise ones may actually be happy with
just being treated like everyone else.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>As for the fears, it is very difficult to
engage in the "what if..." kind of hypothetical questions.
You would be hard pressed to bring me an unsubstantiated fear
that I have not actually experienced in Open Space...what if no one
posts a session? Been there. What if someone gets angry?
Yup. What happens if a small group tries to take the
process over? Check. THe more tied you are to your own
outcomes, the harder these situations will be to deal with. And
if you are severley constrained by your own pre-determined outcomes,
beyond even reasonable givens, you shouldn't really be using Open
Space. </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>My learnings in all of these cases is
that it worked out. It wasn't always nice or fun, and
occasionally it was a waste of time and money. I'm not going to
kid you that challenging situations can always be resolved by simply
using Open Space. This can be very hard work. But if I
could guarantee that everything we did was going to go perfectly we
wouldn't need to meet would we? Dealing with complex groups of
humans always has the risk that things will be different than we
expect. Prepare to be surprised, because most of the time in
Open Space, most people's expectations are exceeded. Just don't
panic, and if you get confused or ambushed, stop and ask everyone the
question: what's going on here? And then open
space.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Sending you great good
wishes.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Chris</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>----</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Chris Corrigan<br>
<a
href="mailto:chris@chriscorrigan.com">chris@chriscorrigan.com</a><br>
http://www.chriscorrigan.com</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>On 2010-11-29, at 6:12 AM, christine
koehler wrote:</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Hi to all<br>
<br>
I am working with a group that wants to organize a open space event in
a highly "political" context : Theme is very sensitive, has
been discussed for years by all actors without any results except
fights and division. But now context has changed and they feel that if
they, actors of the system, don't work together now and suggest
something very quicly, the law will do it for them without them...<br>
Yet it took them some time to agree to go for OST. Their fear is great
: they fear that some actors in the system will take advantage of the
event for their own interest. They also fear that "wise men (and
women)" who were pionners in their field but now do not act any more
but talk talk talk , will take advantage of the event to Š talk and
bring the audience somewhere else.<br>
Interesting fears, aren't they ? I'd love to have your opinion on
those.;<br>
<br>
Regarding the first fear : they choose not to invite one specific
person as co-inviter with them. There was a strong veto from one of
the co-inviter, saying that working with this person had been one of
the worst experience in his life and that he won't do that again. As
this co-inviter is probably one of the most active in the group (he
DOES the work), I think his request was accepted as a given.<br>
Yet now the group fears that this (not-invited-as-co-inviter) person,
who has a strong influence base, might come with lots of his people at
the event and influence the whole result..<br>
The risk is that they limit the number of participants to X people per
organization (or/and whatever criteria they choose).<br>
My question : did you experience a situation where a person, not
invited as a co-inviter because too difficult to deal with, has
"spoiled"an OS event ? I wonder if the risk is real (if so
I'd challenge the group and have him included as a co-inviter) or if I
just let them go with people they really want to work with...<br>
<br>
Their second fear concerns the wise persons (who are also "big egos"
;-))<br>
They don't want them as co-inviters, but they want them somewhere.
These people are the "heroes" of this community, but they are not
so young now , and are not so active anymore in doing things.
They talk about offering them to join a "scientific
committee" or something like this. I don't like the idea of
"scientific committee" in the context of an OS event, but don't
have any better idea. What do you suggest ?<br>
They also fear that they invide the space during the creation of the
agenda. All of those wise persons, I was told, can, with the help of a
mic, bring a group wherever they want and talk for hours. Especially
if they are all in the same room (because none of them wants to speak
less than the others...)</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Any suggestion to me, as facilitator , to
avoid use of mic as a tribune without being rude to their heroes ?<br>
<br>
Christine Koehler<br>
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<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Gail West<br>
ICA<br>
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road<br>
Taipei, Taiwan 111<br>
8862) 2871-3150<br>
SKYPE gwestica</div>
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