Hi Thomas, A big learning that I had years ago was in the Province of Ontario, Canada with a two day OST meeting for a large group of social and health services. It could have been a constructive, positive turning point to create a better future for social and health services at a most critical time. All the right people where there to make a difference. Harrison was brought north to facilitate. Larry Peterson and I assisted. There was no real pre-work done. There was a third day for the conference following the OST in which there were to be traditional workshops. Harrison, Larry, and I met with the client by phone and in person to make a case for the two days being insufficient for this OST meeting. Most of the participants were in deep grief due to recent government cuts in grants. Many social and health services had to close down. Others were forced into mergers. This meeting was to develop a plan for the future. There was no format to acknowledge the grieving nor to honor the past and present so that people had their best foundation to start the development of a plan for the future.
On day one, almost all discussions were the story telling sort to discuss the horrors of what had and was happening. By day two, some of the discussions started to focus more on the future and on possibilities for the future. There was insufficient time, in relation to the grieving, to develop action plans and get more concrete about solutions. Throughout that sector of the province and beyond, the results of the meeting as I understand them were: 1. the reputation of OST was of a meeting format that just didn't work with residual anger at the format and the facilitators. Larry and I spent time doing damage control, enabling those who were talking to us to understand that if we had only had one more day, the results would have been to have some solid action plans and that the meeting format was good, as were the facilitators 2. at the time, the three of us had some feelings that the organizers wanted the meeting format to go badly---they had vested interests in other formats---they could have given us the time we needed to do it well 3.even today, 8 years later, I still run into people who comment about that meeting, very unfavorably----who say that we had our one big chance to bring about a better future for the social services despite the circumstances---they saw the potential of the meeting format---and they say we blew it 4. a very few people saw the potential and understood more time was needed and were willing to try the meeting format in their own organizations Eventually, with a lot of diligence, perseverence, and well done OST, the reputation of OST improved. There is still, however, some residual bad feelings. And how could we have done a better job? In my OPINION, we should not have taken on this job when we believed from the beginning that the OST required a minimum of 2 1/2 days to serve this community well. Since then, I have been a strong advocate of good planning work, a story telling evening the night before any OST event that is about the future so that the past and present can be honored, and if there is a lot of grieving due to recent circumstances, to insist on a meeting duration of 2 1/2 days OR if the client only has 2 days, to start at noon on day 1 and end at noon on day 3. I offer this to you to assist you in your decision making. I hope it helps. Blessings, Birgitt -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Thomas Herrmann Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 12:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Storytelling before an 2 day event Hi friends in Open Space I the end of may I will facilitate a 2 day OST conference for a department of a public organization (70 employees). Last friday we had a pre-meeting with the managers. We set a quite wide theme focusing on the future of the organization. The last years they have had cuts in their grants and it seems clear it will get even worse. Employees are worried about this. We had a look at the griefcycle and it differs in different parts of the department, but it seems quite a few of the employees are not really ready to talk future. We will not have the possibility to have a storytelling evening the night before so I am thinking of other alternatives, and would appreciate feedback. 1. use the first 2 hours before lunch to invite for storytelling and start the work in Open Space after lunch. That means one afternoon/evening + until lunch the next day for sessions + convergence in the afternoon (we won´t be able to go on to late day 2) 2. Have an evening/afternoon of storytelling the week before. 3. Collect stories by individual interviews, as Harrison describes in "the book". How does that work? How/when did you present the information to the participants? I´d be greatful for any advice! Regards Thomas Herrmann Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81 Open Space Consulting Fax +46 (0)300-713 89 Pensévägen 4 434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden Email: [email protected] www.openspaceconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------- Open Space Consulting bistår dig som vill skapa en välmående och effektiv organisation. Det gör vi genom att: * Erbjuda diagnoser för organisatorisk hälsa och balans. * Ge stöd i förändrings- och utvecklingsprocesser. * Handleda kreativa möten och konferenser. * Utbilda mötes- och processhandledare. "Inspirerade medarbetare, det skulle väl smaka? Tänk - kaffepausens energi ständigt spraka!" ---------------------------------------------------- * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/2003 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/2003 -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Thomas Herrmann Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 12:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Storytelling before an 2 day event Hi friends in Open Space I the end of may I will facilitate a 2 day OST conference for a department of a public organization (70 employees). Last friday we had a pre-meeting with the managers. We set a quite wide theme focusing on the future of the organization. The last years they have had cuts in their grants and it seems clear it will get even worse. Employees are worried about this. We had a look at the griefcycle and it differs in different parts of the department, but it seems quite a few of the employees are not really ready to talk future. We will not have the possibility to have a storytelling evening the night before so I am thinking of other alternatives, and would appreciate feedback. 1. use the first 2 hours before lunch to invite for storytelling and start the work in Open Space after lunch. That means one afternoon/evening + until lunch the next day for sessions + convergence in the afternoon (we won´t be able to go on to late day 2) 2. Have an evening/afternoon of storytelling the week before. 3. Collect stories by individual interviews, as Harrison describes in "the book". How does that work? How/when did you present the information to the participants? I´d be greatful for any advice! Regards Thomas Herrmann Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81 Open Space Consulting Fax +46 (0)300-713 89 Pensévägen 4 434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden Email: [email protected] www.openspaceconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------- Open Space Consulting bistår dig som vill skapa en välmående och effektiv organisation. Det gör vi genom att: * Erbjuda diagnoser för organisatorisk hälsa och balans. * Ge stöd i förändrings- och utvecklingsprocesser. * Handleda kreativa möten och konferenser. * Utbilda mötes- och processhandledare. "Inspirerade medarbetare, det skulle väl smaka? Tänk - kaffepausens energi ständigt spraka!" ---------------------------------------------------- * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/2003 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/2003 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
