<div>Hi Lucas (and everyone!)</div>
<div>I have never written to this list but have been watching from a distance for some time -sorry to be a lurker (I imagine there are a few out there!)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I have a story for you and a question about an open space I will convene this weekend.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I have facilitated 5-6 OS events so far and maybe a story from my second one might be relevant.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The theme was "How can we make XX more sustainable?" XX being a local council. We had 30 or so very passionate and thoughtful people enrol. I was still pretty nervous but confident OS would work, with great sponsor support</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Just as I was getting to the end of the introduction one man arrived late, quite flustered stood in the middle of the circle and demanded "Am I allowed to say something at this meeting! I want to say something now!" </div>
<div>When I reassured him that he would have many opportunitites to talk and asked him to sit in the circle he replied "Who are you? How much are they paying you? I want to say something now!"</div>
<div><br>Luckily I was able to maintain my Open Space cloakand managed to stop for a second (this is very hard for an ex primary school principal beliveve me!) quitely repeat what he said "Can you speak" I even managed a "Hmmm" before saying "I think you could arrange that" (Thanks to Brendan for my training - he said if you are tempted to give an answer to always repeat any question as if it is a really good one and ask the person "What would you like to do about that!) Even as I write this I still can't believe that I managed to just stand there and respond so quietly.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Magically at this point someone else from the group who knew the guy stood up to talk to him, settled him down next to him and started explaining the agenda making (which was about to start) </div>
<div> </div>
<div>This guy was the first up with his topic "What is the value of trees?" When he announced his topic he pointed to a council employee who was there and demanded " . . . and you will come to this conversation and you will listen to me!"</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I was intrigued (an understatement!) to see if anyone else would go along,and have to say that as I moved coffee cups around I did keep a fairly big ear on this group.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>In the end there were four of them - the council employee, this guy and one other couple. He talked quite loudly and aggressively for about 5 minute before one of the couple tried to say something. He replied "You be quiet I convened this meeting, I get to talk" The guy listened for a few more minutes and then said "Thanks for your ideas, but I think I might use my two feet to go elsewhere" His wife followed him. They were the first to move. After checking the board, they went two different ways and were warmly welcomed into the groups they joined) A few minutes later the council employee also said "thanks" and left. All done with no aggression and good will - it looked like magic!</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The guy was still mad, but left with no one to talk at, he stormed out, but not before pointing at me and saying "I'm going to find out how much they are paying you to do nothing!"</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The rest of the day ran smoothly . . . . </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Over lunch a participant came up to me to say that the guy attends lots of council meetings, is alwasy aggressive, usually ends up storming out after an hour or os and several people avoided him if they could (including two who had not come to the day since he had enrolled) He said his stomach had fallen when he arrived . Funnily enough he tried to congratulate me on how I handled it. I laughed and said "you guys handled it" </div>
<div> </div>
<div>He then said "I suppose those who leave are the right people too!"</div>
<div> </div>
<div>It was a good early Open Space lesson.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>And now my question (which I think I might have answered actually . . . .)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>On the weekend I am facilitating a community meeting for a group called Living Smarties - all about what we can do in our own lives to live more sustainably. The day will go from 10 - 3 but I know there are several people who can only come for part of the day - some early some late.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Do I welcome people who come after the introduction and briefly explain what is going on? Or do I let the group do this in its own way? Normally I would probably let the group sort this out, but this session is a bit different as I am the convener of this group normally so people will probably come to me for explanation naturally.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>My thought was I would see what felt right on the day but resist intervening as much as I can, redirecting people to the agenda or someone in the group.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Has anyone ever used a hand out for new arrivals?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ideas?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Shani</div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 28 March 2011 09:37, Lucas Cioffi <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lucas@athenabridge.org">lucas@athenabridge.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">Hi All,
<div><br></div>
<div>We've all heard that "whoever comes are the right people;" does that also imply that "whoever comes and leaves are the wrong people" too? I'm wondering if any of you have experience with people leaving in anger?
<div><br>
<div>Here's my recent experience...</div>
<div>My co-facilitator received this comment in response to a post-event survey:</div>
<div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote"><span style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: rgb(0,0,128); FONT-SIZE: 13px">"I for one was not impressed, I traveled 275 miles to attend, cost the government quiet a bit of money and left after the first breakout group. There was not even enough of an introduction to let people know what exactly what was going on. Had I known that this was going to break out groups talking about whatever with no actual solutions to what the problem was or no direction on how to overcome the problem I would not have attended. With the budget being what it is I feel this was a total waste of money."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div><span style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: rgb(0,0,128); FONT-SIZE: 13px"><br></span></div>
<div>Some more context:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>This was a workshop about internal transparency, held at a typical federal government agency in DC.</li>
<li>This person is well-known as an opponent to change at the agency.</li>
<li>The workshop was not an open space event nor advertised as an open space event, but it did include break-out groups and participants did populate an agenda wall for two breakout sessions. Because of the similarities in design, I think this episode may be of interest to the group.</li>
<li>These breakout groups were announced on the RSVP site, so this person had an opportunity to know what was going to happen at the event. Of course people are busy so often they don't know what they're signing up for, and I'm not going to blame this person for that.</li>
</ul>
<div>Anyway, has someone ever left your event completely frustrated? Did you do anything about it? I look forward to your thoughts.</div></div></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Lucas</div></div>* * ========================================================== <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a> ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of <a href="mailto:oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu" target="_blank">oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu</a>: <a href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html" target="_blank">http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html</a> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist" target="_blank">http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist</a> </blockquote>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Shani Graham and Tim Darby<br>The Painted Fish South Beach Eco Village<br>37 Hulbert Street South Fremantle WA<br><a href="mailto:stay@thepaintedfish.com.au">stay@thepaintedfish.com.au
</a><br>
<a href="http://www.thepaintedfish.com.au">www.thepaintedfish.com.au</a><br>phone 08 9335 4886<br>Shani 0417 941 991<br>Tim 0466 210 590<br>
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