Dear Keith and all who are following this thread, I will share my perspective on your questions. I have facilitated several national level OST meetings with operational people who have scientific backgrounds and indeed they appear to have greater passion for detail and data. This is a gift that they bring, and with care, can be a great asset in an OST meeting and its outcomes.
I love hearing that your second meeting went better and that all participants endorsed it as a meeting format. I am wondering how you intend to leverage all this great feedback? I am a proponent of good planning. The work, from my perspective, especially in an intact business (rather than a one time conference), is in the planning. OST always works and the facilitation is quite easy so with some tweaks over time, this is not where the extra effort needs to go. It is in the planning, with the right people. If you can imagine a sled going down a hill, once started, it keeps going. One challenge with the planning is to identify the correct hill for the sled to go down. In the second event that you facilitated, the business goal is clear. In your planning, did you also work with the 'sponsors' to decide what they wanted to capture in the documentation of the sessions, and did you work with them to find out if there was need for convergence and agreed upon action planning from their findings? In an intact organization, questions such as these become more important, so that people in the organization see results beyond the meeting. I think that in a business, no matter how the invitation is worded, it is likely that the expectation from 'bosses' is that people show up. I have been aware of situations where people have been fired for not attending, and in other situations where people have been fired for what they said during an OST break out session. So, this topic you raise about is it really an invitation is an important one to discuss. As is the topic of whether it is truly okay for people to talk about anything that they feel moved to talk about. I learned long ago not to assume that Open Space is Safe Space. On the subject of leaders and struggle for control, I think that this could be said about others in the organization too. All are humans, and part of the human drama is fear, and fear raises its head in different ways including something that is experienced as control. I find it useful to avoid judging people regarding their need to control, and instead I wonder with people what the fear(s) is (are). This is useful with senior leaders, and then we work out what can be done to mitigate the fears. A very long time ago, I initiated work with 'givens' for an OST meeting. These might be the 'givens' or non-negotiables of a Board, CEO, or senior leader. The 'givens' exist so it is useful to make them explicit. I also work from a vantage point of it being the senior leaders who open the space in their organization for an OST meeting to take place. When approaching the OST from this perspective, I make choices regarding what I do and how I can be of service for a good meeting and for useful results. I wish you well with this journey, Birgitt Williams Birgitt Williams President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy Author, The Genuine Contact Way 919-522-7750 Co-Owner of the Genuine Contact Program Genuine Contact Way blog Become a fan of the Genuine Contact Way Follow me -----Original Message----- From: Blundell, Keith [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 10:48 AM To: World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: Re: [OSList] OS in business meetings (2nd question) Dear All, I am trying to get my organisation to think about using OS. I have run two sessions - the first was an afternoon session which was my first and provided plenty of learning on how it could have been better. The second was a two day session around learning from our experience and working better in the future. This session was particularly successful and endorsed as a as a meeting format by all those attending. Some thoughts to add to this discussion: The first is that from a business perspective I think if you are sent a meeting invitation there is an expectation that you will attend. Therefore the invite is not "open". I am running a session later on in the year with Line Managers and intend to send an e-mail invitation on the heels of a calendar placeholder worded in a way that gives them the option of attending based on their passion, rather than on an expectation that they should attend. Loss (or perceived loss?) of control is also something that some senior leaders struggle with. Finally, I work with operational people who largely have a science background so data and detail are almost part of their "Psyche" and talking through the possibility of using OS can be interesting. I think this is summed up by a comment made when we were discussing options for the session I mentioned above which was scheduled for San Francisco. One person was particularly having trouble with the OS concept - "How can we invite people [from across the globe] to a meeting when we don't have an Agenda?" Regards, Keith. Dr K Blundell Change Advisor Communication, Innovation and Change (CIC) Product Development Global Operations Roche Products Limited 6 Falcon Way Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire AL7 1TW Office: +44 (0) 1707 36 6618 Mobile: +44 (0) 7990 777 127 Mail to: [email protected] Registration Number: 100674 The information transmitted in this message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you receive this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael M Pannwitz Sent: 08 September 2011 9:30 PM To: World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: Re: [OSList] OS in business meetings (2nd question) Dear Claudia, after facilitating a regular (astreinen, if you like it in German) OST event (Planning Meeting, 3 day OST event, Action Planning, Next Meeting) for the study body representatives of a Berlin Highschool we were invited to be present at one of their regular "business meetings" (2 hours each week). They asked us to watch them work in an entirely new way that improved their efficiency and fun 1000%. As we entered their "Meeting Room" we noticed the complete signage (they had taken the posters from the OST event), a circle of chairs and the issue wall (thats what I call the Bulletin Board in German). They sat in the circle, looked at each other for a while and then posted their business issues (there were three beginning times 20 minutes apart) and proceeded in breakout sessions. After returning to the circle it turned out that they not only had discussed their issues but also decided on stuff or on actions to be taken. They had a closing circle and were done in the 2 hours. They kept doing this for years... starting each school year (elections were annually) with a classic OST event. Of course, these were not "2 hours OST events" but definitely were open space business sessions and for the participants the most productive thing in their school experience... shared leadership, lots of space for selforganisation and a peaceful atmosphere. Any business can do that. Greetings from Berlin mmp PS: Several of the younger OST colleagues in Berlin had their first exposure to OST and open space in these events. They will probably take this experience into other "businesses" as they continue their journey. On 07.09.2011 15:01, Dr. Claudia Gross wrote: > The 2^nd issue I am interested to learn more about is "How does OS > work in business meetings (2-4h)?" > > What's your experiences and recommendations when facilitating such an event? > > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe > send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org -- Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany ++49-30-772 8000 [email protected] www.boscop.org Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 436 resident Open Space Workers in 71 countries working in a total of 140 countries worldwide: www.openspaceworldmap.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
