Great! I love these kinds of events…large, important, nervous! Your story took me right back to several I have done, and I love your approach Daniel. Something about the s l o w walk away from the centre is very powerful and I imagine has the effect of acknowledging that tentativeness is in the room and needs to be addressed by action…
Thanks for sharing. Chris > On Feb 7, 2015, at 10:19 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Greetings All, > > I recently received an invitation to open space twice (2 locations scheduled > one week apart) for a very large USA organization. Both events in both > locations had many hundreds in attendance; we arranged seating for 400 at the > 2nd event. (see link and pic listed below.) All in all over 1100 persons in > total received an invite to one or the other of these events. > > I learned a few things that I am sharing here now. My intention in sharing is > to help others who might find themselves arranging and executing > larger-attendance Open Space events.... > > > The general theme of the learning has everything to do with that idea of 'one > less thing to do'.... > > =============================================== > Thing1: Opening circle > =============================================== > > At the 1st event, when the moment of invitation arrived, I simply placed the > microphone very slowly in the center of the circle.. and very slowly walked > away, and found myself a seat. They figured the rest out ...without any > assistance whatsoever from me. Awkwardness was replaced by flow as they > realized I wasn't doing anything and the group advised itself. > > At the 2nd event, the client knew me and the process by then. So, after > putting that microphone down, I just went all the way ...and slowly vacated > the circle completely. It worked great...and felt really good too. I stood > motionless well away from the circle for several minutes before moving slowly > along to a new place and repeating that until I circled-the-circle exactly > one time. > > I plan to keep doing something like this going forward. > > Any stuff that needed "managing" was handled by the group without any help > from me. > > One less thing... > > > =============================================== > Thing2: Marketplace "help" > =============================================== > > For large gatherings, some OST sages suggest situating 'helpers' at the > time-space grid, presumably to assist participants if they need it. > > Not having done any OST events larger than 230 members, I was kind of unsure > about what to do about this. Felt to much like "managing stuff" to me. So for > the 2nd event I decided to omit any Marketplace assistance whatsoever from > the experience-design, even though the group was much larger than my > experience. > > After I slowly and deliberately explained and demonstrated the process of > posting to the Marketplace, I laid the microphone down at center very > deliberately, and slowly vacated the circle. And observed what they were > going to do. And almost immediately this one guy (who posted early) lingered > at the Marketplace. And he took it upon himself to orient anyone who had a > question. Some of those he oriented then began also orienting the others. > > One less thing.... > > > =============================================== > Thing3: Space-Time Grid of Post-Its > =============================================== > > We expected 400++ so we had 18 session spaces and 5 1-hour time slots. We we > built a grid with 5 time-rows and 18 space-columns, with each time-row a > single color. Total 5X18=90 session tags. The 5 times were coded in 5 colors. > > When it became obvious the attendance was under 300, we simply draped a > "curtain" of Post-It flip-chart pages over the rightmost end of these 5 > time-rows to truncate the number of available spaces from 18 to 13, for a > total of : > > [5 timerows] X [13 spacecolumns] = [65 total session tags] > > ...After the start of the first session-time we later exposed additional > space-columns 14 and 15 (each with 5 time-rows) so folks could add up to 10 > more sessions throughout the day if they wanted to do that. We also placed > the microphone over there. > > > > =============================================== > Thing 4: Whoops: Marketplace crowded by the circle; 1 MORE thing to do.... > =============================================== > > ...When we arrived the evening ahead of the event, this epic circle of 400 > chairs (see pics and links) was situated in the very center of room. The > circle was clearly crowding the Marketplace. > > It became obvious that about 50 chairs needed to be moved before the > Marketplace opened. We were told we could not move any chairs that evening. > (Something about facilities.) With the client, we decided to do the following: > > ...At the moment just before the Marketplace was declared open, we paused > everyone and asked those 50 people seated in those 50 chairs if they might be > willing to get up, pick up their chair, and carry it over to the opposite > side of the space. It took about 45 seconds for the group to move those 50 > chairs. Thereafter we declared the Marketplace open. > > All in all a great event ensued. It was a large learning experience for all > of us who took part in arranging and executing these two larger events. > > > > =============================================== > Thing 5: Huge closing circle, not much time... > =============================================== > > Some more experienced Open Space friends suggested having 2 or more "runners" > each 2 microphones running around, instead of passing the microphone from > hand to hand. The so-called "popcorn" method. Imagining this made me feel > very uncomfortable, so I rejected it. I did not have an alternative at the > time but realized I had the current day and the whole next day to come up > with something. > > So I slept on it. > > I woke up with this: Closing circle: "Now we pass the microphone around, to > express what we think and feel, about our experience together...before we > start, take a look to your right and notice the [2] people sitting closest to > you .. (pregnant pause). Now look to the left and notice those two folks also > .. (pregnant pause). When you get the microphone, connect with those two > people to your left, and you all decide who is going to talk. Then go, and > when done, pass the microphone to the next [3] people." > > ...the numbers 2 and 3 can be configured to match the situation at hand, such > that the closing can include everyone and stay within the time constraint. > > > > > One less thing to do? > > > Kind Regards, > Daniel > > > > > > Link to larger picture: > https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/563596914193891328 > <https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/563596914193891328> > > > > > > <Mail Attachment.png> > > -- > Daniel Mezick, President > New Technology Solutions Inc. > (203) 915 7248 (cell) > Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. > Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>. > Examine my new book: The Culture Game > <http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the Agile > Manager. > Explore Agile Team Training > <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching. > <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/> > Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>Community. > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org>
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