HI, I had one experience of setting the theme right before an OST event. I lead a training a few months ago for refugee women involved in what they call here in the Netherlands "Self-Organizations" (which means organizations for and by the target group they are meant to serve - interesting name actually now that I come to think of it. The training was about how to set organizational strategy. As part of the training I decided to do a short (4 hour) OST with the double goal of giving people the opportunity to think creatively about the way to confront their challenges of setting strategies in their different organizations and of ways to find synergy between the organizations, as well as to expose them to OST as a way of working (something I felt deeply that they could benefit from). I decided to place the Open Space "event" at the end of the training and during the first two days one of the things we did was explore together what the theme could be for them to explore together. We did this both explicitly through discussion and I guess also implicitly due to the tone of the whole training and how we all felt being there together. The evening before the last day we decided on the topic and the next morning the 10 women present posted 11 themes that they handled in the 4 hour time period.
For this sort of small group, this worked well - especially because I had limited access to the whole group prior to the training. In my contracting discussion with the client I only had access to one person and I wasn't convinced that together we could come up with a theme that touched the whole group at that moment. When I think about setting the theme this way, I realize that part of my reason for doing it like this was that I felt I needed access to more members of the system in order for us to really examine the issues people felt passion and responsibility for at that moment. What I've thought about this is that the idea of getting a representation of the systems involved in the OST seems for me to become important when setting the theme. At the moment I'm thinking that if that can't be done until shortly before the event itself it may be worth the wait...or for me it means that I have to work that into my own contracting with the client - make sure there is a broad representative group with whom to determine the theme of the meeting and not fall back on the 1 or 2 people who may be contracting the event. By the way, after having done the training with OST as the last element I think if I were to do it again, I'd decide to do the entire training using OST (with perhaps the option for people to ask me to hold a "session" of training about specific items of interest to them that they felt they wanted outside expertise on....) -- of course then it wouldn't really be a training in the classical sense.... Doris Gottlieb Consulting for the International Environment Hof van Versailles 23 1064 NX Amsterdam tel/fax: +31(0)20 776 8043 email: [email protected] -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]Namens Douglas D. Germann, Sr. Verzonden: maandag 10 maart 2003 16:08 Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: more convergence talk Michael-- I just noticed this somehow was being sent outside the list, and thought it might be useful for others to get into this mixer. Just how do people go about setting the theme with the client? :-Doug. ----Forwarded Message(s)---- Michael-- I am intrigued with the idea of setting the theme at the Open Space itself. Have you had other experiences with that? Has anyone else? Seems like an open way to open space. Similar to how Michael Herman opens space again in the convergence.... :-Doug. Germann Douglas as almost always: "it depends" 1. In os-trainings (start at 4pm on a Sunday and lasting till Thursday noon), I do the "exercise" of arriving at a theme, just as if it were (and it is) a regular customer/client/sponsor that Sunday afternoon. This is how the theme is found for the open space (1.5 days) that begins Sunday morning. In these exercises I have learned that it is possible to arrive at a theme with a crowd of 50 people (and do a bunch of other stuff) in 2,5 hours. 2. In the case I reported on earlier (with the facilitators), the theme was decided upon the night before because there was no planning session as is usually the case lets say six weeks before the event. Here it was clear from the beginning, that the participants were present anyway because they met in a week of training and exchange and the os was part of that. I doubt that a theme arrived lets say 6 weeks before the event would have been closer to their passion and responsibility. But this I say in hindsight. 3. All other os I have done had planning groups or a sponsor/client/customer that decided on the theme and invited around that theme. (Part of my planning session design is to ask who all needs to be at the os so that the "system" can work productively under the theme...this always leads to an expanded view of the "system" - in the sense of "getting the whole system into the room" - and often leads to a restatement of the theme). 4. When you look at our OSonOS gatherings, as another special case, I would bet that most come because of their passion for open space and to meet the gang, they really are not concerned about the "theme". 5. I invited the os-practitioners of Berlin (there are more than 70 of them in the Berlin area) to a bOSonOS without saying peep about a theme and some 27 said they will come, 15 or so said they would come but the date doesnt fit their schedule (it is a 2,5 day complete os). So, thats my 2 cents worth which I guess boils down to the experience that normally, os-t events have a planning phase in which the theme is arrived at and under which people are invited. mmp ----End Forwarded Message(s)---- * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
