I never have anything to add to Lisa's lucid posts on Open Space practice.
But it's fun from time to time to take a bit of bandwidth to say: I AGREE! This is my experience exactly. Chris On 2012-10-03, at 1:51 PM, Lisa Heft wrote: > Hello, Kári - > > My thoughts are with you and your family. Do take good care of yourself. > > My experience is that - if doing a mix of 'traditional' format conference and > Open Space - the most ideal situation is traditional, (recreation day before > or after that or after the whole conference) and then Open Space. > I have seen that if Open Space happens first - when there is the switch to > traditional, participants feel uncomfortable and 'edgy' because they have > tasted the power of self-organization and physically being able to move to > what they need and find who they need - so they are not happy or focused > sitting in an audience listening after that. If you do OS as the last day (or > whatever) then there are two extra values of people being able to host > conversations about what they are learning and exploring in the previous days > of the conference as well as whatever your theme question / task will be. > Nice integration and self-organized continuation of learning, networking, > community. Plus, the close of the Open Space makes a very nice close for the > conference - it really feels like reflection, comment, participant voice to > close. > > The most difficult thing I know is to start and stop Open Space / break it up > within a conference - really, it destroys the reason for doing OS and > completely changes what OS can do. When I am told that by a conference I > simply switch to some other lovely interactive dialogue stuff - for example I > will do World Cafes within a conference with themes that will help > participants as they move through the arc of learning and the several days of > the conference. > > The other most difficult thing I know is to have OS at the same time as other > things in a conference - because usually there is not a good, focused opening > (for all participants who wish to join), arc of learning and thinking across > time, and not a good sense of closure. So it all feels like a big room where > conversations can happen but just like any other sort of coffee house > environment, no reason to do Open Space. You could just as well give people > signs to put on their tables to gather around a self-organized topic whenever > they come into that room, if they like. No process or facilitator needed. > (this is sometimes referred to as 'Birds of a Feather'.) > > Oh yes and I personally think that all formalities in a conference must be > seriously considered - do 100% of the participants need to do that voting or > decision, or is that for a small leadership group, do people really need a > keynote speaker or is the wisdom in the group, are speeches really good for > anyone other than the person speaking ;o) ... do people walk away from > conferences going 'gee I loved that formal gala and it really changed how I > do my work on Monday' or do they get more from participant-driven co-learning > - all things to consider when deciding on overall conference design. > > The thing about the Open Space Learning Workshop that is happening before the > WOSonOS - that is done for a specific reason: > The WOSonOS is like a 'user's conference' for people who do and have learned > about Open Space. So placing a workshop before the conference gives the > learning to people who are not coming to the WOSonOS and gives the > fundamentals to people who have never facilitated OS so the conference itself > acts as sort of a next-level learning for them - where they can integrate and > reflect upon what they learned in the workshop and then move further into > conversations with OS folks to explore more lessons learned, differences and > similarities in doing things and so on. > > Putting a workshop before this particular conference - as was done in Chile > for example - is also a strategy for growing community capacity. So the > WOSonOS is not a stand-alone event but is part of a chain of events that > builds and grows regional community. So in that instance, the workshop > connects with the conference or stands alone. In another conference - such as > the International Association of Facilitators conferences - the pre-workshops > can sometimes be a way to offer full-day experiences in particular issues or > methods, whereas the conference is more of a sampling of very short tastes of > things (90- or 120-minute workshops, for example). So that is I guess another > way of going deeper for those who wish to arrive earlier and can afford to > attend both kinds of things. > > I look forward to hearing others' similar or different experiences and > observations, > > Lisa > > > On Oct 3, 2012, at 10:07 AM, Kári Gunnarsson wrote: > >> Hi Open Space Community >> >> A sad news hit to day as I heard that my grandfather passed away to day. Hi >> funeral will be on the 12th of October and therefore I am no longer able to >> attend the Wosonos in London this year. I will however be online and >> perhaps I can participate somehow. (I will however be present at the Pre- >> Learning Workshop with Lisa Heft) >> >> One of my Open Space issues that I was faced with while I was preparing for >> the women's societies triennial meeting was the time of the Open Space. >> Whenever it happens is the right time. If sufficient time is allocated. (135 >> participants and 24 handwritten discussions reports, printed in a book of >> proceedings for all participants) >> >> I had 7 hours of the 3 days program and I could not use much time on the >> Sunday. I advised the planning committee about the time of the grief process >> as described in HO wave rider and based on that I suggested that it would be >> a good idea to let the women's sleep at least one time before closing the >> space. >> >> A question has been awoken now that I look at HO video for the agile >> community post event (see: http://youtu.be/HvUOj3lSoMs). A question on if >> the open Space should happen out side of the context of other meetings, like >> our Pre- Learning Workshop in front of the Wosonos main event or some >> post-event ad-dons for the people that care. If this would be the course of >> action for future annual or triennial meetings where some formalities must >> be taken care of (6 hours), and people like to have entertainment like the >> formal gala with all the speeches and other fun stuff. By divorcing the >> formalities from the Open Space, we will have other people registering for >> the open space than before hand. (Some don't like elections and such and >> would skip them, while others would only go for this part out of >> responsibility, while having no passion for discussions.) >> >> I'm now thinking about this in terms of of tree options. >> >> A: Open space summit (1-3 days) + 1 day for recreation + 1 day of formalities >> >> B (A in reverse): 1 day for recreation + 1 day of formalities + Open space >> summit (1-3 days) >> >> C (mix match): 3-5 days of everything. Open space mixed within the other >> agenda items. >> >> I think option A and B are easier for me as a facilitator where I can only >> show up for my part and then vanish. >> While I thin option C is intrusive for the open space where the planning >> committee would be interested to add lectures and presentation in the >> morning / evening of the open space to do some unproductive input for there >> formalities agendas. I just had some experiences with option C, it works. >> >> What are your stories and experiences with these planing options? >> > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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