Thomas -- I knew you were out there somewhere! On the subject of "Givens" and how you use them -- I would guess that it is ultimately a matter of personal preference and comfort (the facilitator's personal preference and comfort). As I said when I started all this, I felt uncomfortable, and so my preference was never to bring the matter up for discussion -- at least in terms of specific things that would be withheld from the arena of Open Space. For sure I would (and do) engage the sponsor deeply in terms of desired outcomes (why are we having this meeting anyhow -- and what would be different if we didn't have it at all???). But in all honesty, I have to say that if, as, or when I found a sponsor/client who would require that "certain things" be withheld from the realm of consideration, my response is virtually automatic. Don't do an Open Space. Doubtless there will be other ways to proceed, but none that I would care to follow.
You mention working with school groups and the idea that the pedagogical curriculum might/should be "off limits." I have worked with any number of school groups, and it is absolutely true that Principals, Teachers, and School Administration desperately want to keep the discussion of the curriculum off the agenda. They see this as their own professional "patch." And all interlopers keep out!! Generally speaking, they are quite successful in their effort -- and then they wonder why parents are less than enthusiastically involved... Odd! At the end of the day, at least in a democratic society, the parents/public WILL talk about these issues and decide them (Who pays the taxes?). The real issue is -- will this conversation be nasty or nice? If the conversation is avoided long enough, it will happen, but explosively -- and usually destructively. So for my money, anybody who places that sort of conversation in the protected area of "The Givens" is simply storing up trouble for the future. I think our friend Artur has put all this rather succinctly: "But, as you recall, my main point about "givens" has always been the word itself. Who "gives" the "givens"? It must be some sort of unquestionable authority. Unless they would not be called "givens"...So, when you ask the sponsor "are there any givens?" aren't you accepting the command and control way?" 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 osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Thomas Herrmann Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 3:30 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Givens Dear friends in Open Space Thanks for bringing this issue up again! I do talk with my sponsors about givens. There are so many things to this but I will start off by describing the overall process I use facilitating OS-meetings. I use the basic design worked out by Birgitt Williams in working with OST. In fact i always open space at least 3 times in such a process. Pre-meeting, main meeting and follow-up meeting. For the pre-meeting I use WholePersonProcessFacilitation facilitating the participants through some easy models to get a picture of the past and present and the hopes for the future (post-event). I let them formulate a theme, givens, how to follow up afterwards and how to keep everyone informed later on. The post-OS-meeting is usually facilitated using WPPF sometimes in combination with OST. The thourough prework has several purposes one of them is to allow the sponsor to make an informed choice of wheather he/she wants to use OST for the meeting. In that meeting I explain that the hot issues must be allowed space after the conference. I guess some leader would need a lifetime to prepare to let go for this, so on occasions we decided not to use OST. Most of the times the givens allow us to go on using OST anyway, which I am very happy about. On the first OS-meeting I experienced the sponsor closed the space by saying: "Now the management team will look at the results and come back to you all about how we will proceed." I could feel how people sunk together after having been very empowered during the closing round. My interpretation was that she was afraid and unclear of how she would be able to control the work afterwards. During the whole event she refused to talk to the facilitator! I know many people have been very disappointed from participative processes where the space has been closed down afterwards. Then, as usual there is a BIG HOW! HOW always makes a huge difference. The work with givens can be fruitful but I also think it can be harmful if done in a bad way. I agree with those of you saying that the ultimate is to have no givens, but I think there are not many leaders around in organizations that are willing to open everything up. This may be because they have some information that others don´t have and/or that they don´t trust the employees enough. I don´t think Sweden is exceptional regarding this situation. Someone wrote about that the meeting will result in recommendations, in that case I agree we do not need givens. I mostly use Open Space aiming at action right on. Right now I am in the middle of preparing for an OS-meeting in a school, for parents who all are obliged to support in some way, when putting their kids there. It seems that one of the givens will be that the pedagogy is not open for change by the parents initative. I´ve been trying to write this email for a few days but I was too busy with other things while more and more was written about the subject. Thanks all for your sharing. Kind 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: tho...@openspaceconsulting.com www.openspaceconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------- Vill du skapa en välmående och effektiv organisation och ta tillvara hela dess potential? Open Space Consulting erbjuder dig: * Lärtillfällen kring hälsa och balans i organisationer * Analyser av organisatorisk hälsa och balans * Handledning av effektiva och kreativa möten och konferenser * Utbildning av mötes- och processhandledare * Coaching för organisationer i förändring ---------------------------------------------------- Vårt antivirusskydd scannar alla utgående mail. 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