I have seen OS work well in the Staff Meeting arena. Although typically what happens is that the Opening of Space becomes rather truncated in terms of time. After all, the people have taken the trip on a number of occasions. But an essential core usually remains. 1) Sit in a circle with nothing in the middle. 2) Take a moment at the start to silently acknowledge each other -- and catch your own breath. 3) Focus the group -- announce the theme. Maybe something like, "What are the issues and opportunities we confront this week?" Post the issues, and get on with the business -- works just like usual. Mention of The Principles and The Law was largely gratuitous, as signs bearing both were a permanent fixture in the meeting room.
Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20845 Phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jennifer Hurley Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 12:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Question RE Using Open Space for Staff Meetings Hello again. Thank you all for your throughtful responses to my question about starting an Open Space event with a Visioning Exercise. The Church I am working with has decided to develop a "Behavioral Covenant" first, and postpone the Open Space to the fall. I'll say more as the time gets closer. Now I have a totally different question. I'm principal in a small planning consulting firm (2 principals & 3 employees). I'm intrigued by the possibility of using open space for our weekly staff meetings, but I'd like to read more about how OS works for short meetings (ours are usually about an hour) and with very small numbers of people. Does anyone have suggestions? Is there anything on the WIKI pages about this? Thanks, Jennifer Hurley ***** Hurley~Franks & Assoc. 1429 Walnut St., Suite 601 Philadelphia, PA 19102 http://www.hfadesign.com Association for New Urbanism in Pennsylvania (ANUPA) http://www.anupa.org * * ========================================================== [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
