Ralph -- Definitely right! Stuff happens!! Which always makes life learning-full. (How's that for a neologism?) I totally loved your first story, and as a senior citizen long addicted to napping my learning would be that we might need an adjunct to the Law of Two Feet which indicated that if bored and tired find a new position, including the horizontal. Actually if my behavior over the years is any indication, I must have always assumed that a good nap was a totally acceptable application of the law.
The second story could be fun, especially if we could find out why they did what they did, and what happened later (result). I also had a very similar situation where in the group essentially announced that it was all over at 2 pm on the first day. But what actually occurred was fascinating. The group was a small company which had come together around the subject of their future. You might call it Strategic Planning. But after 4 hours in Open Space, including lunch they had surfaced a fact of their lives that everybody knew, but nobody was willing to pronounce. They had no future. And they quit. My take was that Open Space worked as usual but produced results somewhat at variance with what the sponsor (President of the company) probably had in mind. Or something. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA Phone 301-365-2093 www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ralph Copleman Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 12:13 PM To: [email protected] Subject: On "Failure" 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 * * ========================================================== [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
