Wow Sandy, thanks for sharing! This is encouraging and very valuable.
I love your creativity and how you managed to bring so much Open
Space into that constricted space. Great job!
Koos
At 19:41 18-11-2012, Sandy Gee wrote:
Hello again lovely OS community,
I posted a question asking for advice on here a few months ago. It
was about organising a 3 hour OS slot in the afternoon of an
Existential Psychotherapy Conference in a non-ideal setting - A very
formal and smart space with an auditorium in fixed tiered rows.
I benefitted hugely from all the input I got here as well as at
Lisa's workshop in London and at WOSONOS.
It happened on Saturday and I'd like to report that it was a great success!
Though the organisers had been very nervous about it and the setting
was pretty challenging I was well prepared and had found ways to
address all the difficulties...
For the OS introduction and marketplace I followed Harrison's idea
of making an approximate circle by putting 2 rows of chairs in an
arc across the front of the auditorium facing the tiered rows (the
chairs just going right across where there was a raised platform).
It took a number of devices to get them to co-operate with sitting
there - a 'welcome to Open Space' PP slide projected onto the
screen, with the request to 'please sit in the chairs across the
front and the first 3 rows of the auditorium'. I reinforced it with
'DO NOT SIT IN THIS ROW' signs on all the upper rows (and string
blocking off the rows on the other side). And then when I saw that
they were nervous and reluctant - strong personal appeals to "please
come forward and sit across the front - nothing special or
spotlighting will be asked of you, we're just trying to create a
sort-of circle". The reluctance was very understandable as they had
been in that space earlier with 3 big name speakers just presenting
and them all as passive audience. And indeed this is the style
previous conferences have all been.
I used humour about the awkward and uneven circle - telling them
that the varied height circle was intending to communicate our
equality! And I was able to easily link it all to the conference
theme which was 'Challenging Contexts and Uncertain Landscapes'!
Indeed this seemed to help break the initial ice.
I followed your idea Lisa of 'implying the circle' by placing the
principles around the perimeter of the circle (having to invent some
creative ways of doing that using string and pegs in places to avoid
anything attached to the walls) and by circling around the space as
I gave my introduction and explanation of the process. Thank you too
Lisa for your advice in your 'thoughts and Ideas' PDF, in which you
suggested setting up my living room with the themes on the wall and
practicing circling the space and speaking aloud whilst imagining
being there. That helped me to get more clear and concise. It helped
me to notice where I had a tendency to get repetitive or
long-winded/unclear and discipline myself to keep it simple and
brief enough for the short time I had. I also typed out pretty much
what I would say with coloured sub-headings to orientate me if I
should get a bit lost in the nerves of it all. I only looked at it
once, but the process of writing that and then just having it there
helped. This was a much more formal, bigger and more time
constrained situation than I've done OS in before and all this
helped me cope with that.
Actually the awkwardness and obvious inconvenience of using the
auditorium in that way in some ways helped make the transition to
the informality and 'mucking in' quality OS needs. Following their
initial reluctance to sit in the awkward circle - I was pleased and
surprised that they got stuck in quite easily with the paper and
pens for writing up their topics - some handing paper back for
people to write in their rows before coming forward and others even
speaking first with a just blank paper in their hand and then
writing up what they'd said more concisely afterwards.
We started a bit late but easily got through the marketplace in the
45mins and off they went to their 1st sessions (11 topics in each of
the 2 sessions). (I managed to wangle an extra 15 minutes on
initially proposed 30 minutes by encouraging the organisers to let
me take more of the time for the OS closure out of the whole
conference closure - thanks for that idea Lisa).
For session topic zones I used laminated orange A4 sheets with
letters on bamboo poles cable-tied to the chair legs (like at
WOSONOS 2012). I attached velcro re-usable cable ties to the top of
the poles which i could then thread through slots in the laminated
A4 sheets to create 'zone flags' (easier to dismantle and transport)
for each of the circles of chairs. These were set up in other rooms
than the auditorium (according to a layout plan I'd drawn up) and
this worked well.
We had a challenge with the agenda wall being created in the
auditorium but the topic zone areas being in a separate part of the
venue. That made it impractical for people to refer to the
auditorium agenda board when bumblebeeing between sessions. So we
simply got moveable boards and, after the marketplace, we moved them
to the hall outside where the OS topic sessions were taking place.
We used light A2 foam boards, used 'dual tack double-sided tape' to
'post-it' them to the auditorium wall, then were able to remove and
reposition them, after the marketplace, onto doors in the hall.
The closing session was back in the auditorium in the awkward circle
at the front and by then people had got comfortable with
participating, so freely offered snippets of their experience of
both the process and the content. Many were energised, enjoyed it,
felt excited and had started conversations they'd wanted to have but
didn't know how. One said that this now felt like a community in a
way that it never had before. A few expressed discomfort with
aspects of the process - feeling conflicted in having to decide
whether to stay or move, being much more aware of the encounter with
the people rather than just the material for discussion, feeling
grumpy and rebellious about notetaking and how they felt it
interrupted the process. But even those who had found it
uncomfortable also expressed that they'd got something from it. And
the content that they fed back about was expressed with interest,
excitement and edginess. A couple expressed surprise that it worked
when they had felt sure it couldn't!
Interestingly one of them expressed a sense of slight stiltedness
and flattening of the energy to be back in the formality of the
auditorium for the closure after the freedom of the Open Space
sessions and suggested that if we'd just got people to re-position
the chairs in the larger room where the sessions had taken place it
would have retained more of the energy of OS. I hadn't imagined that
this could be possible due to the numbers, but by that point we were
down to about half the participants so it actually could have
worked. (About a third left at lunchtime and another third before
the OS closure - apparently very usual at this conference and partly
a result of an overly long and packed agenda). Interestingly -
another case of that 'once they've had a taste, they resist any
going back into a more constricted space' phenomena!
I personally received a lot of great feedback both directly and in
how people interacted with me - many people seemed to find me easily
approachable and came and talked to me or just dropped in a comment
in passing. A lot were very appreciative, two gave me very specific
feedback on how I had been a great facilitator (unflustered when
things went wrong, informal, warm, clear). A couple expressed
dilemmas - what they wanted to do, but felt too shy (I encouraged
them to dare to do it anyway and they did), another felt a bit bad
about not having taken notes (I encouraged him to consider - was
there anything now they were finished that they'd like to share with
the rest of the conference? and just write that - which he did).
All in all there was a real energetic buzz, people were excited and
appreciative, several things had been started that there were plans
to carry forward further and it looks very likely that Open Space
will be part of next years conference.
Thank you everyone who helped me with your great ideas and generous
encouragement. I'm thrilled and look forward to more...
Sandy Gee
<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
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