Harrison and all, I've had a few that sort of fell flat.
One involved a group concerned about availability of services for senior citizens across an entire US state. Two-thirds of the room consisted of seniors themselves and, frankly, a lot of them ran out of energy about an hour after lunch. So they sat around, a number slumping in chairs with eyes closed. Another involved an exploration of customer service issues for an airline. Lots of corporate leaders from the airline present, along with their booking agents (this pre-dates internet booking sites), frequent flyer customers, and corporate travel execs who make travel policy for their companies. A great mix, actually. We were set to go from 8:00 a.m to 4:00. About 2:00, a group of participants more or less seized control of the meeting somehow (I wasn't in the room when it occurred) and got everyone to agree to shorten the meeting by a full hour. When I returned at 3:00, someone simply informed me, and asked that I begin the closing circle. So that's what I did. I never found out what actually happened. Not sure how to think about that last one, since I never found out how it all developed, but the following one is more like a true failure. I was asked to convene a two-day open space gathering for about 200 folks from around the US. It would be the annual meeting of an association of a certain type of public health officer (cannot recall the details). The whole thing was pretty dead from the outset –– I mean 200 people posting a total of only 15 sessions for two whole days!? I found out the theme was all wrong. The planning committee chose an idea that turned out to have no juice for the association's members. I had spent hours in conference calls with the leadership group and the planning committee, and they'd assured me that the idea they chose was at the heart of the challenges facing them and their organizations. Turns out that was dead wrong. Nobody else cared. I don't know how I might have seen through this situation ahead of time. I essentially agree with you, H. If the conditions are appropriate, it will work. But, if the three experiences above teach me anything, it's clear that stuff can always happens. Ralph Copleman * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
