Esther -- Sharing is really what it's all about, I think. Nobody owns Open Space. How could they? After all circles of people, bulletin boards, and market places have been around in one form or another ever since. But how we can most effectively work with all of that to create conditions that liberate the human spirit is an evolving learning. Nobody has the corner on that market, and all of us are the richer when we pool out insights, which you have done so elegantly. I thank you!
Responsibility is a funny thing. People often talk about GIVING somebody responsibility or assigning responsibility. My own learning has been that responsibility is something that can never be given or assigned -- and when it is, the results are usually disappointing, or worse. The key factor is CARING. When responsibility is given or assigned there is a high probability that we will not care for what we are responsible for. However, when we care, responsibility is the natural concomitant, and we will naturally assume, and take responsibility for, what we care about. In fact, to be denied responsibility for what we care about is annoying at the least, and may even be painful and tragic. The situation may be extreme, but I think of cases where parents are denied responsibility for their children, such as happened in your country and mine when the state moved in to "educate" the children of the 1st Nation Peoples. It may have been done with the best of intentions, but the whole thing was a disaster which is still with us. So in Open Space, when I talk about taking personal responsibility for what you have a passion for (care about), I never thought of this as a "requirement" or an "order" -- but rather as a very natural progression. Like the Four Principles and the Law of Two Feet -- this is descriptive, not prescriptive. Of course you will want to take responsibility for what you care about! It is a totally natural act!! It is a birthright, part of your humanity, part of what makes you human. And to be denied that responsibility is, in some real sense, to deny your humanity. It is degrading, demoralizing, and shouldn't happen. I am sure that your "sponsor," in asking that you go "lightly" on the responsibility bit was doing that for the best of reasons as she/he saw the situation. After all (as you say) the folks had a lot on their plate, and the sponsor didn't want to add to their burdens. But just suppose that the folks really CARED about the issues they had raised and the actions that needed to be taken? My point is simply that your sponsor was making a decision for "her people" that really wasn't her choice to make. Not to be "hard" on the sponsor, but it strikes me as odd when executives ask for inspired, effective, can-do "workers" -- they will often cut them off at the pass. The silent message comes out something like -- You can care about anything you want -- but don't take responsibility for it! Weird! But it happens, and I suspect that we all do it. Thanks for sharing! Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Communications Esther Matte Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 2:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: 1-day OS with action planning Hi all, As you know, I'm a newbie to OS after training last year with Diane Gibeault and Larry Peterson here in Canada. I already thanked you all after my very first OS for sharing so generously your experience on this List. I learned a lot with all of you. And I wish to thank you again as I've rarely (never?) seen such openness and genuine desire to help and share in a professional practice. There was a rather disturbing series of messages this morning, but growing pains are to be expected I suppose. I think it's good that sort of an international committee is starting up, that there is some planning for international events two years ahead of time and that there is an intention to alternate between continents. So, here I am, after my first 1-day OS with action planning. It was a little over a week ago, with a sub-group from a client for whom Diane Gibeault had facilitated an OS last December with me as assistant. After decanting the event (is this the right word in English? Refering to decanting a good wine to let it open itself, take it's full flavour and aroma), I can say that I learned a lot and I feel at my place facilitating OS. It was a small group (21), and a very engaged one too. I felt stress right at the beginning, when the sponsor first asked everyone to introduce themselves and then spoke for about 20 minutes (despite our 4-5 minutes preparation)! I looked at the "whatever" and "whenever" principles posted on the wall, and took a deep breath. Throughout the day, I did what we ask people to do if they feel confused in front of the Market place: trust yourself, trust the group and trust the process. And of course, it went fine :-) I had a follow-up meeting with the client last week, and the comments were very positive. The sponsor had invited people from the community (their clients) to join in, and it was very active and inspiring. All participants thought the objective was attained, and found the OS process efficient and highly satisfying. One interesting thing was that sort of a pattern emerged in the discussion groups. In each round, there was a rather big group (between 10 and 15) and other small ones, even individuals by themselves. After priority setting, the client decided on a fourth priority, mostly because there was only one vote less then the third, but also because she didn't quite like this "big and small groups" pattern. As it turned out, no one went to that fourth action plan group. So that says a lot, again, about that "control" thing, right? One evaluation comment (anonymous) surprised me: "too many rules". Ever happened to anyone? I think it may have to do with the priorities setting process and action planning forms. It was difficult to bring the group to the convergence phase. This morning, I read several convergence methods some of you use (on Lisa Heft's website - thanks Lisa for posting this!) and found great ideas for the future. I would like your input on something if you have time and wish to share your experience. This particular client was very specific not to insist very much on the responsability side of OS, because people are disseminated in a large territory with low access to technology, so it's not practical to work in groups, and all have an already very heavy workload. The client still wanted action planning in order to have a basic game plan for each priority and act as a "global coordinator", calling on people for their help when needed. So I mentioned personal responsibility without emphasizing it in my opening (since the time was short, that was fine!). I did, however, add a point to the action planning form so that people could state what they would like to do in implementation, if and how they would like to be personally involved. I think it can work for that group, as they already have regular conference calls and intend to put OS action plans on the agenda every time. The client will be leaving the organization in a couple of months, but will be replaced by someone who participated in the OS. So we'll see if it does work in real life when I have my final follow-up meeting with the new person in place. That being said, I still wonder if maybe I should have put a little more emphasis on personal responsibility anyway, as it is really what makes things happen. Even though people are geographically apart with low access to technology, there's still that need for the first phone call or action that will bring others. Any thoughts? I'm looking forward to facilitating more OS events in the future, and thank you all for your support! Esther * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
