<html>
<body>
Thank you, Koos, for your ultra-prompt and helpful feedback.<br>
Gary and I both appreciate your recommendations on this<br>
issue, and your advice will be very helpful now in following<br>
up with our clients.<br><br>
Thank you, Harrison, for your warm welcome and your valuable<br>
input. I always appreciate your perspective on OS matters --<br>
and the wisdom of your experience (and your stories) are<br>
always a delight!<br><br>
Hope to see you both at an OS event one of these days....<br>
and until then, many thanks to both of you....<br><br>
With grateful appreciation,<br>
Metta<br><br>
<hr>
<br>
At 06:52 AM 6/22/2013, you wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Metta -- Nice to see you here!
And Koos has it right, so far as I am<br>
concerned. Prepare anything you want to -- but the wall starts empty!
For<br>
particularly anxious execs I sometimes suggest that they prepare a list
of<br>
all the "vital" topics -- and put that list in their pocket.
Then, when all<br>
the issues have been posted, take out the list and compare. Most often,
the<br>
Anxious Exec (AE) has become so involved in the process, which does
go<br>
pretty fast, that they totally forget to check their list. The minority
that<br>
do remember find that their list has been covered and/or some critical
item<br>
didn't seem so critical anymore. There was one odd case. The AE checked
his<br>
list against the wall and there was absolutely no correlation. He was
sorely<br>
tempted to intervene and impose his list, but I made it very clear that
of<br>
course he was free to do that, (he owned the company) but he should
know<br>
that were he to take that step, I was gone. He bit his tongue and we<br>
proceeded. Over the course of the several day meeting, it became very
clear<br>
that the disparity between what the AE desired and everybody else
felt<br>
passionate about created massive obstacles to the company's performance.
In<br>
the closing circle, he resigned as CEO -- and to the best of my
knowledge,<br>
they all lived happily ever after.<br><br>
ho<br><br>
Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Dr.<br>
Potomac, MD 20854<br>
USA<br><br>
189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)<br>
Camden, Maine 04843<br><br>
Phone 301-365-2093<br>
(summer) 207-763-3261<br><br>
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora="autourl">
www.openspaceworld.com</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.ho-image.com/" eudora="autourl">www.ho-image.com</a>
(Personal Website)<br>
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
OSLIST<br>
Go
to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</blockquote>
<br>
<hr>
<br>
From: "Koos de Heer" <koos@auryn.nl><br>
To: "'World wide Open Space Technology email list'"
<oslist@lists.openspacetech.org><br>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 09:24:43 +0200<br>
Subject: Re: [OSList] Q re: "Preparing" for Passionate
Discussions....<br><br>
Dear Meta and Gary,<br><br>
I have had clients who set up complete online forums to have
preliminary<br>
discussions, share ideas, stories and videos etc. No problem. As you
say,<br>
whenever it starts... And when it is over... because after the event,
the<br>
forums can serve as a platform for ongoing discussion and action
planning.<br>
The number of people taking part were relatively low compared to the
OS<br>
event, but interestingly there were some passionate forum participants
who<br>
did not attend the meeting itself.<br><br>
I have never discouraged preparation of topics ahead of time, but I
have<br>
always been very firm that all topics, prepared and unprepared, go on
the<br>
marketplace when the event starts. People can prepare all they want, but
the<br>
agenda wall starts empty and everyone is free to choose where they want
to<br>
go.<br><br>
Koos<br><br>
<hr>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org<br>
[<a href="mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org" eudora="autourl">
mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org</a>] On Behalf Of Metta
& Gary<br>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 7:24 PM<br>
To: oslist@lists.openspacetech.org<br>
Subject: [OSList] Q re: "Preparing" for Passionate
Discussions....<br><br>
Next month we'll be hosting the annual board retreat (in OS) for one of
our<br>
non-profit clients (we hosted their 2011 retreat in OS, as well), and
this<br>
year we've run into an interesting dynamic.<br><br>
The outgoing president of the board wants to share an inspiring and<br>
thought-provoking TED talk with all the board members in advance of
the<br>
retreat so this video can serve as a starting point for discussion
(for<br>
those who are interested) during the retreat.<br><br>
In addition, the incoming president of the board has now indicated he
would<br>
also like to recommend some topics for discussion ahead of time for
"the<br>
group to consider in more depth" before the meeting.<br><br>
Previously, we've always discouraged any attempts (especially on the part
of<br>
senior leadership) to try to influence the outcome of an OS event
by:<br>
-- planning specific discussion topics ahead of time.<br>
-- preparing "presentations" (including setting up videos to
review during<br>
the meeting), and<br>
-- requiring any sort of "pre-work".<br><br>
At the same time, we all know that "whenever it starts is the right
time",<br>
and passionate information sharing obviously has a dynamic and organic
life<br>
of its own. (In this case, it looks like this info sharing is
already eager<br>
to start....)<br><br>
In light of this, we were wondering how others of you have handled
this<br>
dynamic with your clients, especially in those instances where sharing
and<br>
discussing a particular passion may be dependent (at least in part)
upon<br>
reviewing specific resources (or watching an inspiring
video).....<br><br>
Thanks,<br>
Metta and Gary</blockquote></body>
</html>