Open Space happened - as always. This was my first OS with such a high degree of complexity and potential for problems. We spent a lot of time in the prep creating givens (and simplifying them) - we did the "invitation" in person to the teachers and the parents - and then we took everything else out of the agenda (no warmups) to leave the maximum time available for the Open Space.
The "givens" were very important - when we started the teachers had a long long list of what they wanted the program to be - and if they had stuck to the whole list there would have been no "space" for the parents. By going over the list with the teachers and paring it down to the essentials we ended up with happy teachers - their key concerns were taken care of - and a much larger "space" for the group to work on. We identified which of the original "givens" were actually issues - and encouraged the teachers to post them - and they were willing to go there. (Interestingly all the teacher "issues" were posted during the OS by parents - and the parents and teachers jointly created recommendations that ended up high on the prioritization list). During the planning we often hit snags and in each case we solved them "the OS way" - and each time that was the right choice. The planning committee originally did not include the homeschoolers who were the "problem" - we got them included and this really helped both clarify the givens and ensure that the givens were not a surprise on the day of the event. People kept trying to add things to the event - and we kept "thinking about that" and in the end (the night before) decided to stick with the principle of "keep it simple". If we had more time it would have been great to have a story telling session - but with only one day and needing to do convergence we needed all the time for OS we could get. During the day we heard comments like "if we had not done this the program probably would not have survived" "this is the best thing we have ever done" "I am learning more about the parents today than I did all year (teacher)" "I can now understand the teacher's perspective (parent)" "I am new to the school and feel welcome". In the final session of the day - in the final 10 minutes of the session parents and teachers came together - over 80% of the group was crowded into one classroom and the parents gave the teachers an overwhelming show of support - tears flowed and healing stared. The homeschool group did not achieve their goal (to make the program more liberal) but the truth of the school became evident - that while there were pockets of liberal minded parents most parents support a more structured approach to learning - and this is what needed to become clear for them. Everything that needed to happen happened - and no the group did not come out with a *final* vision - but 80 people did create 44 topics which led to about 35 discussions and over 100 recommendations which were prioritized and will be turned over to a visioning commitee - and the teachers who were thinking of resigning are committed to the program, and the level of tension was diffused, and clarity on where the program is headed was achieved, and new parents joining the program now feel part of the community. All this in one 7 hour session - Wow. At the end of the day all four walls in the gym were covered in paper as high as anyone could reach! I *know* that this is what Open Space does - but it still seems like a miracle. In the past most of my OS events have been either training events or "business" events - this was the first time we really met the OS "requirements" of diversity, potential for conflict and needed yesterday - and this time more than any other it really felt like once the space was opened something powerful just took over. The key learning for me was that once the givens are clear just get out of the way - trust Open Space - but give people as much time as possible for the sessions. We chose three longer sessions instead of four short, and that was the right way to go. I spent more time in the opening than usual - the participants were asking a lot of questions which has never happened to me before. We chose not to start with an ice breaker and if we had the group probably would not have ended up with the healing that happened in the final 10 minutes. Oh - and I *did* get the breath in :) and tried for a few minutes of silence but someone's cell phone went off so we just carried on and that was just fine too. Sharon * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
