When I do open space with my business hat on in the consulting role, I
almost always start with four imperatives that most companies start
with, even if they havent articulated it, but soon lose sight of. I call
it VMPM. Vision, Mission, Purpose, Method. Many companies have a mission
statement, few ever read it after it has been written. NO company is
healthy for more than a year or two at a time, although many run very
successfully from the economic metric for years or decades. I just put
up the four words, the group gets to define them. Here are my
definitions, that we usually start with to frame the discussion:
Vision: what does it look like when it is done. A vision is a snapshot,
or series of snapshots. Vision is not Mission.
Mission: What is the target, how does the map compare to the territory.
The territory is not always reflected on the map. (just by a street map
of Nairobi sometime, and you will see what I mean). Mission is not Purpose.
Purpose: the personal "why" . Purpose is purpose, it is my personal core
driver.
Method: How we do it, the outflow of the inflow of the first three
points. Method is how I achieve my self interests as part of a
collaborative community, also called a company.
All successful communities have these common elements: Community! which
is collaborative and cooperative, consistent and committed.
I have found that through the day of OS things hidden or unknown become
apparent. All day I am moving idea and discussion points into those four
points, and whatever other axiomatic points the circle cares to add on
their own.
David Glenwinkel
www.villagecare.com <http://www.villagecare.com>
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Suzanne
Daigle
*Sent:* Sunday, March 24, 2013 6:44 AM
*To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list
*Subject:* Re: [OSList] Follow-Up and Flow in Open Space
Ditto for me too! Suzanne
On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 9:49 PM, Lourdes Adriana Diaz-Berrio Doring
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Yes I agree with Nici I was going to say the same thing!
Adriana Diaz-Berrio, Montreal, Quebec
2013/3/23 Nici Richter <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>
What a wonderful conversation!
Oh - I am loving it!
Thank you!
Nici Richter
Johannesburg, South Africa
On 23 March 2013 14:56, paul levy <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Dear colleagues
Someone suggested I post this and I'd be delighted with some reflections
on it...
warm wishes
Paul Levy
Follow-Up and Flow in Open Space...
/"Time runs backwards in the spiritual world."/
No, don't stop reading. Not yet.
There's a lot of debate in the field of emergence focused on "when
things open up, how do you close them down?".
In the realm of Open Space, often the textbook reply is not to close
down at all but simply to open some more space for closing down...
In other words, if we are worried about outcomes from an open space -
what will happen back at base, the actions, the commitments in practice,
then all we need to do is to follow up with an invitation to another
Open Space that focuses on the question of action. So you need at least
two open spaces to get stuff done.
Another view is that one should trust the open space itself - whatever
happens of course is the only thing that could have. And many open
spaces do self-organise sessions about action so... just trust the
process. It always works.
A third view is that these are paying clients we are usually talking
about. As facilitators we can't just leave the organisation "up in the
air", walk away and let them do what they will with the space we've
opened up! Many facilitators then reach for the post-it notes, often in
the last hour, and start to draw out (or bleed?) actions from the
meeting. All kinds of clever prioritising and voting ensues. Elsewhere
I've suggested this might be a counter-productive way of going about things.
Now, here's an alternative view and its based on the idea that time runs
backwards in the spiritual world. No! Stay with me. Just for a bit
longer. Imagine you put what went "before" you (past), before you (in
front of you.
For those of you still here, read on...
I am going to suggest that follow up is often best at the start, not
after the event. I've tried it. It works. If the client is very
concerned, even at the planning stage, that action must result, then, of
course, include the invite to decide and commit to actions in the
invitation to the open space. Make that call to action explicit and that
will help to set the path for the right people to come. Some open space
invitations are very "theme" focused and it is easy when we immerse in
self-organising conversation, to forget the element of our will that
sometimes sleeps a bit when we go into the head space of sitting in
circles, self-organising the content of what is often talk, talk, talk.
So, build the reminder of action in the invitation before the event. Put
action before the event, not after it.
Yet even then it is easy to forget when the space opens. Not always, but
often.
Now, stop reading if you don't like apparent craziness.
Try this. Before the event, invite those coming to share what they think
the actions should be arising from the Open Space. Ask them to come up
with actions before the event has started. This can be done online or at
a pre-meeting. Get the actions out. When an open space is commissioned,
it is often because a critical issue or challenge in the organisation or
community has given rise to it. It is born out of restlessness. And
restlessness is often takes the form of blocked flow. People often know
(or think they know) what the actions and priorities are. Not everyone,
but some. They may not be correct, but they sit there, bubbling behind
the damn of "not yet" or "no".
If certain actions have already been fixed and decided by leaders, be
open and transparent and build them into the invitation. If the actions
are to be arrived through community and organisational input then use a
method to surface them - but not after the open space - BEFORE it. The
reason is because a lot of the future already sits as potential in the
word, hidden, waiting to emerge. Human beings often tap into this and
know what needs to be done, before they explore how, and verify why,
sometimes deciding against anyway. The bubbling potential underneath is
the potential for "realisation" and it is mostly about action. The
release of potential is often exhilarating. Often at open space events,
that potential for action gets lost in the self-organising gorgeous
chaos of of emergent head-talk. Especially in the West.
Get them out on the table BEFORE the event. Put them up on the wall.
THEN open the market place. The suggested "follow-up" actions will then
be "incomes" not "outcomes" of the event. They will be there, not
bubbling underneath, but instead shared consciously, and they will
irritate and inspire. And often sessions well self-organise around them.
By the end of the day, what we put "before" us, before the event
started, now stand "Before" us as commitments after the event.
Trust the self-organising nature of open space and also trust the
inherent knowingness of the human collective and individual will.
There's often no need to worry about actions not arising from an event,
if we accept that those actions were largely already there in the
collective story and flow AND genius of the community.
Some of those actions going in will be thrown out, others re-affirmed,
others changed and played with, and new actions will also come into being.
I'm not suggesting this for all Open Spaces. Actually it works best
where action forms the main part of the invitation, is vital to the
sponsor and the community and also where there's an intuition that many
of the actions are already known and the open space overall theme is
really more about the who, when, where, why and how.
Put the ending at the beginning, the imagined actions as the inspiration
and input. Then space will open around what we already think and feel
needs to happen. It might not. But then, again, it just might.
But please, ditch the post-its and the after-event prioritising. It has
nothing to do with opening space.
I believe that when we start an emergent conversation we may well have a
blank page. But usually organisations and communities travel along
timelines of past into present into future that are more like tapestries
than lines. Linear is but one way we experience life. Yet past is always
playing into the present, the future in the form of the unrealised and
the potential inspires us in the know. Often something in the future
will be a direct transformation or culmination of something that began
in the past. We are also past, present, AND future, which is more of a
picture rather than something linear. In open space, the action often
precedes the word. Allowing those actions to speak in the past of the
open space often creates a marvelous alchemy of flow where past and
future meet in open space in the present.
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Nici Richter
Strategist
Sustainable Strategic Insight
http://www.sustainablestrategicinsight.co.za/
Mobile +27727406181 <tel:%2B27727406181>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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Adriana Díaz-Berrio Ph.D. CRHA
(514) 739 2268 <tel:%28514%29%20739%202268>
www.diazberrio.com <http://www.diazberrio.com>
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Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com <http://www.nufocusgroup.com>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
twitter @suzannedaigle
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