love them odd ducks that keep me up on my toes (even with my achilles
tendon torn)thinking
mmp
Harrison Owen wrote:
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.
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.
ho
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
www.openspaceworld.com
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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*From:* OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of
*Chris Corrigan
*Sent:* Monday, November 29, 2010 6:15 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: open space and heros
Christine...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sending you great good wishes.
Chris
----
Chris Corrigan
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
On 2010-11-29, at 6:12 AM, christine koehler wrote:
Hi to all
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...
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 … talk and bring the
audience somewhere else.
Interesting fears, aren’t they ? I'd love to have your opinion on those.;
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.
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..
The risk is that they limit the number of participants to X people per
organization (or/and whatever criteria they choose).
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...
Their second fear concerns the wise persons (who are also “big egos” ;-))
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 ?
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...)
Any suggestion to me, as facilitator , to avoid use of mic as a tribune
without being rude to their heroes ?
Christine Koehler
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