Michael, Ah, the details. You want to know more!
They had already scheduled an hour and a half to follow up on a conversation that started at a start-up style weekend to create an app for communities to identify and deal with abandoned homes in their neighborhood. (Major floods devastated the area a few years back leading to the issue.) So they were looking for a way to take the effort to its next step and in the process identify a longer term home for the project. Seemed like the sort of situation that would benefit from some simple self-organizing. Since they have never experienced an Open Space, I sent one of the wonderful videos on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTEO9CQe7Mw. I chose this one because it seemed so streamlined, with no words to get in the way. Since they have such a short time, I suggested something that I often do in this situation: invite people who have a topic of interest to write it a pice of paper and announce it. Others cluster with them and they go find a space for their conversation. No explanation of the principles or law of two feet. I modified a great 2-page OS primer that Anne Stadler wrote years ago - http://peggyholman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/2pageos.pdf - to fit their situation. Instructions below. Oh, I also offered to run a session with their team before they do it themselves. I’d be on the phone since I live about 1,500 miles from them. Interesting coaching people with no background in hosting conversations. It definitely puts the “anyone with a good head and a good heart” perspective to the test. Peggy ************** WHAT IS OPEN SPACE? It is a self-organizing practice which releases the inherent creativity and leadership in people. By inviting people to take responsibility for what they care about, Open Space establishes a marketplace of inquiry and action, bringing out the best in both individuals and the whole. PROBABLE OUTCOMES: v Builds energy, commitment and shared leadership v Participants accept responsibility for what does or doesn't happen v Action plans and recommendations emerge from discussions as appropriate v You create a record of the entire proceedings as you go along (optional, as noted in #5 below) THE STEPS IN BRIEF: Days Before 1. Select a focusing statement or question for your gathering. It should frame the higher purpose and widest context for your discussion in a positive way. (E.G., Something like: How can we move the abandoned homes project forward?) 2. Invite the circle of people: all stakeholders or all the people you'd like to have in the room. Include the theme, date, place and time of gathering in the invitation. Day Of Room set up 3. Create the circle: Set up chairs in a circle or in concentric circles, leaving space in the center. Put blank sheets of paper and colored felt pens in the center of the circle. 4. Set up breakout spaces: You will likely need 5-12 areas where people can hold their conversations. If you have one big room for the main circle, people can move their chairs for the breakout sessions. Ideally, find a room without tables that can hold double the number of people you expect. That gives you lots of elbow room to create a circle. People can move their chairs together to form breakout spaces and bring them back when they form the big circle again. To self organize: 5. Set agenda: Facilitator explains: the process the group will follow to organize. Invite anyone who cares about an issue to step into the middle of the circle and write the topic and their name, announce it, and then stand near their chair, holding the paper with their topic. They will be conveners who have responsibility for facilitating their session. (Note: if you decide you want notes, this is the time to let them know. I suggest providing a handout to the people who are facilitating the sessions with the information you want: Topic name, Convener, Who attended the session, Discussion, Next steps. Also include a link on where to post notes or an email address of where to send them. I can give you a sample. All that said, since you want to give away leadership, you may not want to do notes.) 6. When all topics have been named, invite people to join the person hosting the session they want. Let them know how much time they’ll have for the conversations. I’d suggest leaving yourself 20 minutes for the closing activities, so you can figure out in real time how much time they'll have. If the session hosts want to combine their groups because they have similar topics, that’s fine. 7. People participate in discussions. 8. Discussion highlights: reconvene in one big circle to share highlights, "ahas" and next steps: simply listening to whatever people have to offer. 9. Next steps: Ask the group for a couple volunteers to take the lead from here. This is also a time to identify any other next steps. 10. Wrap up: Invite people to speak a word or phrase of closure, going around the circle. If you like, you can ask people to make individual commitments, though that can take a little longer. After 11. Mail out whatever record is created and an address list to all who came. (optional) _________________________________ Peggy Holman Executive Director Journalism that Matters 15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 425-746-6274 www.journalismthatmatters.net www.peggyholman.com Twitter: @peggyholman JTM Twitter: @JTMStream Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity Check out my series on what's emerging in the news & information ecosystem On Mar 12, 2014, at 6:48 PM, Michael Wood <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm intrigued, Peggy. Was the process basically Open Space or something else? > How much time did you have available and what did you do? > > Michael Wood > Perth, Western Australia > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:33:49 -0700 > From: Peggy Holman <[email protected]> > To: Open Listserv <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [OSList] Congratulations Peggy Holman > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Thanks Suzanne and John. It?s definitely a new role, to focus on a single > organization. > > In fact, I just walked a couple people in a news organization through doing a > 30-person community engagement conversation based on self-organizing around > topics of interest. > > New territory! > > Peggy > > _________________________________ > Peggy Holman > Executive Director > Journalism that Matters > 15347 SE 49th Place > Bellevue, WA 98006 > 425-746-6274 > www.journalismthatmatters.net > www.peggyholman.com > Twitter: @peggyholman > JTM Twitter: @JTMStream > > Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity > Check out my series on what's emerging in the news & information ecosystem > > > > > > > > > On Mar 11, 2014, at 7:32 AM, john watkins <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Congratulations, Peggy! >> >> Sent from John's iPhone >> >> On Mar 11, 2014, at 7:29 AM, Suzanne Daigle <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Peggy opening great big space in the world of Journalism. I thought your >>> Open Space friends and colleagues would be delighted to hear this news. >>> Hearty Congratulations. Exciting news! >>> >>> Read yesterday: >>> Journalism that Matters is excited to announce that Peggy Holman, a JTM >>> co-founder and long-time board member is now serving as the organization?s >>> Executive Director. >>> http://www.journalismthatmatters.net/jtm_announces_new_executive_dire >>> ctor >>> >>> -- >>> Suzanne Daigle >>> Open Space Facilitator >>> NuFocus Strategic Group >>> >>> FL 941-359-8877941-359-8877 >>> Cell: 203-722-2009203-722-2009 >>> www.nufocusgroup.com >>> [email protected] >>> twitter @DaigleSuz >>> Call >>> Send SMS >>> Add to Skype >>> You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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 >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20140311/f6358c30/attachment.html> > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > > End of OSList Digest, Vol 37, Issue 11 > ************************************** > _______________________________________________ > 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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