Hello Space Openers. I am a new member of the list, and I tend to tire
people on other lists I belong to with my questions, so be forewarned ;)
I am American, but currently living in Tokyo where I have just returned
to after a graduate program Sweden about Sustainable Development (based
on the Natural Step -in case anyone knows that, and many of you seem to
be from Canada so I am guessing some do). What left the greatest
impression on me while I was in Sweden was actually the first two days
in which we participated in a small (40 people) open space meeting with
the goal of writing a 40 person report about what we, as a class,
expected to get out of this program, and how we intended to go about
getting it out. I was amazed at how we produced such a high-quality
paper with everyone's approval in only two days. I was also fascinated
by the way that people who were interested in details such as the format
naturally got together to decide that (the kind of stuff I, as a
"dreamer" could care less about) and the dreamers like me got together
to discuss the "bigger" issues, and there were groups of in-betweeners
and bumblebees who brought us all together.
Anyway, it was amazing and fascinating.
Several months ago, as I was trying to figure out what is next after
getting my degree, and I had fantasies of doing *something*, *anything*
based on Open Space.
In the mean time, real-life happened, and now that I am back in Tokyo I
have started working for a small sustainability consultancy, and just
this weekend helped host a workshop that was planned long before I came.
Although everything went well, I couldn't help but imagine how much
more productive an open space would have been. Put aside how much more
fun it would have been, it would have also given the participants a much
greater feeling of ownership of the finished product, rather than us
listening to them and then writing up the deliverables as *we* (the
facilitators) thought was best.
This got me thinking again (more than ever) about open space.
And now my questions.
1) Aside from just "doing it" (I already have some plans in the works to
start some open space fun either with or without my new company) What is
the best way to go about getting a crash course in this? I have only
participated in the one two day meeting, but would love to experience
more, bigger open spaces, hopefully learning more about it. My web
searches have turned up one Open Space practitioner here in Japan, and I
will certainly be contacting them, but I am also wondering about some
"training courses" or rather, places where I can sit in on a real
meeting, but also have a chance to chat open space talk with other
facilitators.
2) I have been reading many of the blogs and websites of people I assume
are on this list, so I am getting a vague idea, but what did you all do
before you got into Open Space? What was your specialty? What is your
background? What do you do now? How often do you facilitate meetings?
What kind of clients? What other types of things do you do "on the job"?
Anyway, that is enough for today. I'm sure I will have more questions soon.
Cheers,
Kevin Cameron
http://www.bastish.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bastish/
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