oh, and the self reflects, empties, and begins anew ... happy weekend !
On Friday, August 2, 2013, lucia pavia Ticzon wrote: > > keep going, sis ~ > spirit abides and the universe is spacious... > blessings ever more...to you and us all !!! > > > On Thursday, August 1, 2013, Sharon Joy Chao wrote: > > Just two weeks ago I had this interesting experience of opening space for > 1,100 (yes, the number swelled) under 4 hours. You probably remember the > massive exchange in OSList on how to convene under these conditions as we > burned the line talking about the merit of this assignment. The extent of > our discussion was remarkable for it showed the depth of wisdom and passion > attached to the practice with ideas flying from one side of the globe to > the other. > > It started with an invitation to a two-day symposium on performance > management system in government service. And because it’s a symposium there > were 6 speakers lined up including a dozen others for concurrent sessions. > Day 1 had a couple of plenary and concurrent sessions. Open Space was > slated in the morning of Day 2 followed by a formal symposium integration > and closure in the afternoon. This was the first time HR people in > government are called together, and there was a good mix of people from > national agencies, government corporations, state universities and local > government units in attendance. > > The open space session focused on making performance management system > (PMS) in public service truly essential, responsive and life giving. > Sitting through Day 1 presentations and forums made me realize that the > audience have compelling stories to tell in addition to having contending > views on how to move PMS in their agency. This prompted me to check my own > motivation as I worked with government in the past and I know that PMS has > always been a thorny issue in the service. I need to bring respect to > everyone involved and there’s no sense adding my own ideas and arrogance to > the issue. > > Bits and pieces of the process I used that somehow worked despite the > number and the time configuration: > > · Space was tight to include provision of an open space in the > middle, but the hotel staff did an incredible job of assembling 5 layers of > chairs in concentric circle. With this arrangement a thousand chairs almost > reached the wall but then again that’s fine as there was ample space for > people to move in the center. To facilitate movement an open aisle was > provided from four points of the room so what we actually had was an open > circle. > > · Opening was limited to an hour with 15-minute sponsorship and a > walkthrough of the theme and the OST process. The whole spiel gave me time > to completely/slowly walk the circle to establish some degree of proximity > with the participants. The rest of the hour was spent getting people to > queue and publicly announce their topics. > > · Convenors used placards (illustration board stapled on > three-foot bamboo stick) instead of papers to publish their topics. There > was no marketplace because the market was mobile. It was messy, disorderly > and fun when convenors started to go around the room for membership, while > the rest decide which topic to join. The decision to use placards was > brought about by hotel’s policy not to stick anything on the wall, and this > policy actually worked to everyone’s advantage. > > · It helped to talk about chaos openly and early on. There’s no > way I can manage a thousand in four hours; and the only other thing left > was expect chaos, accept it, and work it to my advantage. At the same time > I remained calm and secure despite the seeming disarray inside the room > especially when people start standing up and moving into groups. It’s > essential to coach the sponsor to expect it. The analogy I used to convince > them was that of a wedding event, one can think things through and > organize it to death but then again things don’t usually turn out as > planned. I also told the participants to expect chaos, learn to live with > the mess and love it. > > · When all the topics were declared (about a hundred), I realize > it did not make sense sticking to the original plan of having two one-hour > session, despite the color coded placards and instructions for groups to > have two separate time frames. With placards on hand, people immediately > self organized. Not even those sticky numbers posted (yes, this was the > only concession we got from the hotel) made sense at this point. Respecting > that tendency, I decided not to call for > >
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