Ah... right Harrison - I was forgetting how Kathy does it. We just plunk the "max mix" in a room and let them fight it out.. :) I guess I'm calling any "representative" group that has been select as a cross section (vs selected by having a passion for an issue) a max/mix.
Sometimes - and not always - when we have been asked to work with a group the "management" is leary of Open Space - and one key concern is that if we get all the staff together they it will just turn into a pissing match. I know that OS will work - You know that OS will work and yet still the fear of chaos reigns. In this case we did a max/mix session for 3 hours with 18 folk and did some small group work and some large group work and some dialogue and in the end got enough of a "preview" of the sorts of issues that the dept would raise in the larger session that the management team finally understood that a whole system event would not lead to chaos. In the end we got one day of tables of eight (max/mix) and one day of OS and a half day of convergence and that was as much space as the group could open. Before the max/mix session we were expecting 80 of the dept of 140 to show up (the rest had to provide support) after the max/mix session 135 people signed up for the 3 day off site and the group self organized an off site war room. I think it was a good thing. The max/mix was a bit of a safety net for them and the OS was a great experience. Next time I think they would be willing to go straight to OS. It would be great if we could find more clients who were ready and willing to go right into OS but we haven't solved that puzzle yet. Happy Ho Ho to all, Sharon * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
