Dear Lisa and All,
Happy Friday!
Firstly thank you for the wealth of insights and ideas that have been
prompted by my question. They have provided a rich source of ideas for
me to reflect and draw upon moving forward.
To answer my own question Lisa...
I concur with your thoughts (as well as those from others) and really
like the idea of the cards - I think this is very tangible and something
I will try at this event.
I do try and convey messages around empowering and engaging individuals,
as well as trying new and innovative ways of doing things - engagement
and innovation being buzz words in the organisation at the moment.
There was some feedback around referencing others who have experienced a
session, and this is something that is certainly happening - both
through my prompts, but also through casual conversations - "I was
talking to...and would like to hear more from you about OS". In fact
this was the start of the conversation with my current sponsor. So
slowly but surely....
In this particular instance the scene is still set to run the meeting so
I will certainly draw on the feedback as we continue our discussions.
I think I will also ask reflective questions of the sponsors after the
meeting and get them to answer there own question! In fact, the
invitation is going to go out to a broader audience than this particular
function in the organisation - so maybe they are starting to envision
success before the event anyway - "if we involve other functions and get
them involved in the discussions as well..."
The story I always tell (and which I think I did post some time back)
was of a meeting with some managers who at the end of the session, asked
if they should have an action list. Leaving it up to them, they agreed
the meeting wouldn't be complete without one! So one was duly created.
When I closed the circle one person said "I really enjoyed the meeting,
especially hearing the perspective of X. I need to go away and think
about it some more"
And as I always point out, that to me is the success of Open Space - not
the (superficial) action list, but that individuals "heads" are in a
different place after the meeting, which is the seed for from which
lasting and beneficial change can happen.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Have a great weekend,
Keith.
------ Original Message ------
From: "Lisa Heft" <[email protected]>
To: "World wide Open Space Technology email list"
<[email protected]>
Sent: 07/05/2013 21:49:21
Subject: Re: [OSList] How to assess the effectiveness of an OS Meeting.
... and then I return to Keith's original framing of the question.
On the one hand we can talk about what we feel others should see and
feel success. And what we know to be true about 'success' /
productivity / relationships / seeds of action / impact / efficacy in
this work we do.
On the other hand we might also imagine how to work within an existing
culture to name and show back to them things in ways that they - with
their existing cultural filter - will get and understand.
So: Another way I would answer this question Keith, is...
- I completely agree with Suzanne your observation about how - not just
for Open Space, but for any dialogue-based process - clients and
conference organizers tend to expect a measurement, or an action, at
the end - when they do not apply that same expectation to traditional
meetings and conferences. So: sometimes when I say this to a client
they get it. They go 'Oh - funny that's true.' And in our exploration
of 'measurables' is rich nutrition for understanding together if what
they really wanted was a sense of achievement, which can be shown in
many ways (including a Book of Proceedings. How many meetings have the
output of a full, participant-generated report of all the discussions
and working groups that happened over the course of the meeting? How
many processes offer such a rich amount of narrative data to pore
through in many different ways, to integrate the learning, review for
patterns, note who are the emergent leaders, see what the next meetings
should be about, make resources or need for further resources or
training visible, and so on?
- Narrative data is incredibly useful. So one way of 'measuring' is to
scribe - word-for-word - the Closing Circle comments and reflections.
Some folks talk about what they've learned from one another or
discovered with each other. Others talk about how the process has been
helpful. These quotes are useful for showing current and future clients
(including in-house clients) about efficacy, productivity, and more.
- Human behavior is something that a human behavior scientist will tell
you - it is incredibly difficult (sometimes impossible, always
expensive) to measure - for example attributing human behavior to a
particular meeting. There is so much in the constellation of things
that affect and inform behavior that are not about the meeting, from
nutrition to world news to home life to whether you have a good boss or
a lousy one. So for example measuring what actions directly came from a
conversation are not a realistic thing to ask to be measured. However,
*intention* is something that could be measured, such as 'what is one
thing I would like to do differently because of what I've explored here
today'. Before going into Closing Circle everyone fills out a card to
respond to this (in silence), puts their name under it, and leaves it
under their chair. Then you go into Closing Circle.
You collect those, transcribe them (to show the client), then send them
back to the individuals a week or a month after the event. So they
speak in their own voices to themselves post-event. And so your client
sees what folks are thinking of as a result of the meeting. Hard to ask
for measurement at the end of an overstimulating day but if they want
something within a 'now' timeframe.
So above, ways to think about your documentation design, in your
pre-work phase, before each event.
Based on how it might best be useful.
- The best thing? Having the folks who've seen the impact - describe it
to others who respect them.
So perhaps a bit of documentation about how your past and existing
clients have described the productivity / impact / 'success'.
And keeping that documentation to forward to others when they have
similar questions.
Seems like assessment of effectiveness to me...
And you know the best thing is not to 'sell' Open Space. Whenever they
ask questions you simply keep focused on analyzing what are the meeting
objectives, what are the desired outcomes, who are the participants and
why, what happened before and what comes after the meeting, what will
be done with the information / relationships / ideas generated at this
event, and so on.
Because people may not have a model of why Open Space works until they
experience it. So they'll ask for guarantees and that shifts focus from
what they wish to achieve and articulating even more what the meeting
is about and what it is not about, what is realistically achievable
during that amount of meeting time, and so on.
Keith - I'm interested to hear how you would answer your own
question....
Lisa
On Apr 18, 2013, at 3:17 AM, Blundell, Keith wrote:
Dear OS practitioners
As some of you already know I have been trying to pioneer the use of
OS in our agenda driven, action outcome orientated organisation. I
have had the opportunity to run several meetings, but they have been
short sessions and restricted participants (in terms of organisational
functional structure).
This has created a bit of a buzz and I am delighted that I have been
approached to run a meeting with a larger diverse group of
participants (cross functional) for at least a whole day! Brilliant
and I have no concerns that it wont be successful.
But...unfortunately it is viewed as an "experiment" and so I am being
pushed by the sponsors as how will we assess its success. I know that
there will be some good discussions, that participants "heads" will be
in a different place after the meeting, and it will be a great sharing
and learning experience. I also know that any change and actions may
come long after the discussions so that the link between the event and
outcome will be more tenuous.
Has anyone experience and ideas for explaining the effectiveness of OS
within an organisation?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best Wishes,
Keith.
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