Chris Macrae writes: Thanks Larry & Michael et all 1) Clearly I want to stir up a debate- if more people were confident that Open Space is the central conversation (employee research, community or network of change catalyst) communing all through organisational transformation, then it would be the most vital connecting skill connecting whole Transformation Projects not a loss leader,
and the facilitating agent would be the whole transformation social leader of the project -why do so few people seem to want to be fulltime large scale change agents? 2) Over here in the UK we have at least 2 groups concerned with exploring this and other lines of thinking which emerged from the ukosonos in February. http://www.openspaceuk.com/projects/index.html nurtured by Martin Leith [[email protected]] (In fact I think this 'beyond lossleader' may have mobilised most of the groups but I will leave other leaders to speak up beyond the two I met) [email protected] Amanda Bucklow pre-sell of open space (Amanda battles hierarchy wherever its culture or metrics are the main conflict driver eroding sectors where safety is core - think NASA!, transport, ...) [email protected] David Firth: post, repeat use of open space ( David first entertained in my mind the innovation idea of subverting hierarchy about 8 years ago with his book on why the corporate fool is the chief innovation officer in disguise) -perhaps you could contact any of us with cases which best exemplify large projects you only got because of open space so we can record the gist of how those organisations valued the whole role of Open Space & Social Leader of Organisational Transformation; and obviously we'll report back to all lessons learned 3) I've become obscenely interested in how to explain that hierarchy is today's greatest system problem of non-transparent powers; This is what is destroying the sustainable purpose of organisations to multiply value openly for everyone; and when we open space is stirred into an organisation that is the supreme innovation moment for taking hierarchy out of the picture whilst everyone discusses how: they could team or could multiply value of personal networks or practice communities or even collaborate with other organisations transparently or any self-organising of networking model of how to be humanly more productive and joyful/trustworthy with co-workers We also now know that beyond the corrupt few, every big organisation that has been devalued to nothing in recent years was caused by: 1) too much hierarchy, ruled by poor mathematical measurements and knowledge governance that a) systemically failed to detect relationship conflicts, b) compounded such conflicts ( after 5 years of research, trust-flow governance maths is now fully available as an open source code) 2) hierarchy ruling alone instead of collaborating with whatever was the main people producing power in an organisation : be that teams in service sectors or networks where the product's learning value is such that the customer wants to multiply value created. Let may be clear: when I worked in a Big 5 firm I wanted the best of hierarchy and best of teamwork but was in a culture that spun the worst of both, the worst working applications of my life (well emulated perhaps for horrid lack of touch with serving human beings by working in one of the big 3 media/communications companies) So renegotiating hierarchy is the most fundamental consultancy process that big organisational leaders need, and its just a case of finding a friendly way to inform them!; I am sure a common language of innovation can be crafted around that (tell me if you want to cut some slides together) and open space facilitators are the central project designers of all such true organisational transformations of systems AND for all these reasons I would love to find some compelling sales or after-servicing presentations on so OS is never perceived as a loss leader for doing some other facilitation work Chris Macrae, [email protected], www.valuetrue.com Black Swan Society, http://www.valuetrue.com/home/glossary.cfm?letter=f Larry wrote: Chris: Michael is right that we have lots of experience here in Ontario, Canada, with OS being more than a lost leader but as part of a change process -- with some evidence of real results in a number of organizations -- community, government and corporate. It is not only "part" it is integral and essential as an "accelerator" of self-organization and change. Starfield has called it the Project Accelerator or Performance Accelerator and it is engages change processes that also need the best skills of "project planning" or leadership to move to implementation of specific pieces. The cultural and momentum shift, plus the learning with OST accelerates the self-organization and the change (If it fits). Or it doesn't and that is important learning. The case I have been sharing on the OS List is one of the best examples. We are one external player in the change process of this large organization. We have worked at most levels with OST events as part of change agendas. Michael: You said: "For me as facilitator working with teams (often groups of 7 or more) its proven to be useful to consciously design the "hierarchy" for the team and for the interaction of the team with other subsystems (catering, publishing, facility management, the sponsors, child-care, sound technician, press/radio/television, etc.) for the open space-event (including pre-meetings, setting up the os, the os itself, follow up)." I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I usually don't get involved in "designing" the hierarchy in systems I'm in. They usually have one in place, but it may not work very well. When I work with a "sponsor" developing an OST event as part of a change process, I get as clear as necessary with them about the nature of the decision structure within which they are working -- who makes what "formal" decisions. The sponsor group is often a cross section, but not always. Clarifying the "context" within which they are fostering change and opening space is critical at the beginning. That makes it more likely they will understand how to "coordinate" the energy and clarity (do its) that emerge from the OST and convergence in relation to what is being pursued. * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
