Simply wonderful story Lisa - inspired me and made me laugh!! (And what did you love about Texas btw??)
Jon Oxford -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu]On Behalf Of Lisa Heft Sent: 26 August 2006 04:21 To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Open Space for small groups Hi, all - as you may tell, I have been away for a bit traveling and facilitating, and I am catching up with an ocean of emails, including delicious little fishes in that ocean: many thoughtful messages on OSLIST. In response to Justin's questions about holding a very small Open Space. Fabuloso Jaime wrote: I remember a posting on the OSLIST about an OS meeting with as few as 2 people! I am not sure if I could find this message for you, but no doubt that someone else will. Just wait and see. Welcome to the OS community! Marvelous Thomas wrote: I don't think that's the record Jaime. I remember Lisa telling a story where no-one showed up and she had an OS-meeting by herself!! Hard to beat! And, of course, it worked out marvellously - well, you are marvellous dear Lisa - sure missed you in Moscow! Warm regards Thomas Thomas, you and everyone at the Moscow conference were very much in my thoughts! I did write about a very small Open Space - only one person.below I shall reprint the posting I sent to OSLIST about it back in May 2002. Cheers, Lisa _______________________________ So there I was last week at the International Association of Facilitators conference in Fort Worth, Texas. It is a conference put on by all volunteers (fellow facilitators) where facilitators present workshops to each other ... I only had a few people signed up in advance for my Open Space Technology workshop (hey - whatever happens), and so when I got to Fort Worth I asked the conference hosts if they might spread the word to and invite people from the community, so that I could offer this service to people working in Fort Worth. Well, after thinking so very hard on how to put together a message and how to get the word out over the holiday weekend, I suddenly realized that I should let it all go and see what(ever) would happen. So I set up the room and waited for the adventure. I had invited a volunteer who was helping with the conference to come to my workshop, as he had been working so hard he had not attended anything. And so it turned out that Doug was the only participant in my Open Space. (!) Nobody else showed up. So we went on an adventure together. I asked him if he was interested in testing out two questions about OS: one, with how few people can you do OS, and two, can you teach one-way information (such as how to do OST) in a completely OS setting. He was open to it and so was I, so we just dived in together! - - - - - Our Open Space lasted from 8:30am until 3:00pm. My preparation included handouts (checklists, planning, further reading, samples), a collection of books of proceedings, and flyers about OSonOSinOZ and other upcoming events. The room was set up like a normal OS, with the inclusion of a wall full of little signs organized into Role and Task (the idea is to choose a role from one column and a task from another and put them on like nametags, so in a group of people you would have a whole range of circumstances and settings for using OS and you could role play talking to clients about these situations). Signage around the room included areas A, B, C and D. I set up about six chairs in a circle (even though Doug and I only filled two of them - our imaginary colleagues filled up the rest), and I opened the space. The theme was "What Can We Learn From One Another?" Doug immediately lay down on the ground to write sign after sign with his topics; I soon joined him to add some topics that I thought might play well off of his topics along that same line. We generated 17 topics: His topics were all about what he wanted to know about OST (bear in mind he had not read the book and had no previous knowledge of OST): - 1st Time OS Experience - Worst OS Experience - Open Space versus Other Methods - Use of Computers to Track Minutes - Follow-up after Meeting - Best Food for Open Spaces - How Much Space Needed - How Long Is Too Long? - New Techniques - Agenda Planning - What's Changed About OST In The Last 5 Years? My topics - I could probably have not written any topics at all. Of course I have never written topics when I was the facilitator, and Doug was doing just fine. But I thought it would help to play off of each other, because of the issue of diversity. So here's what I added. - On Being an Independent - What Do You Love About Texas? - Where Are The Indians? - Spirituality and Work - What Do You Want To Be Remembered For? - If You Could Try Anything, What Would You Try? So now we had a wall full of items, complete with the time/space stickies. So here's what we did next: We took all the 9:30-10:15am topics and posted them on the wall near area A. And we brought three chairs over there (one for each of us and one for a virtual colleague). Doug led the order of the session, picking out each item from the wall as he felt drawn to it, and that is what led our discussion. We covered all those issues, and then it was time to go 'to our next session'. So we moved all the chairs over to area B, brought all those topics over to post on that wall, and continued as such around the room throughout the day. "My whole group" decided to go to lunch together, and I was happy to take 'my whole group' out to lunch. My whole group took 'bio breaks' together, as well, whenever needed throughout the day. By the end of the day, every topic had been discussed, *plus* Doug had a complete education in Open Space based on his own learning needs - a custom-designed master class on Open Space. Proof that you can give one-way information in Open Space and still have it be learner-centered (a big surprise to me). But wait - something even more wonderful happened...People came to visit! Our workshop was near the bathroom - maybe that helped, plus we kept both doors wide open. (I was tempted to put up our "Session Full" sign on the door....). Two other workshops were meeting that day. So first, Rob Stroober (hi, Rob!) from the Netherlands came by and sat in our third chair in the circle. He dropped in right when we were talking about the Your First OS and also If You Could Try Anything...topics. He just fit right in and we learned from him regarding those topics. Then he had to leave to catch a plane. Bye, Rob! Later on Sherwood ___ came into the room. He had experienced OS many years ago with Harrison, and he walked right in on the topics of how OST has changed over the years. So he was able to share some thoughts on that overview. Then we left to rejoin his other workshop. Bye, Sherwood! David Johnson, a facilitator from Texas, shared his scariest facilitator moment - ironically, when he had to dump a very carefully planned agenda and suddenly respond to the group's need and found himself booking rooms for self-organized discussions a la Open Space. See you later, David! And Laura Hsu from Taiwan (hi, Laura!) dropped in to share how she teaches the method of OST, and we had a wonderful exchange of ideas and materials. (Bye, Laura!) So we had international cross-cultural input and surprises that happened when new folks sat in our third chair! - - - - - To close, I passed my favorite special rock around our circle, now reformed in the middle of the room, of six chairs. Doug shared some thoughts, I sat in another chair to share with him what sometimes people say in a closing circle, and then I sat in my own chair to close. In the center of the circle were fabric, the rock, my Tibetan bells, my compass, flowers and some food offerings. It was a wonderful, magical experience, and it taught me much that I would never have known in any other way. Doug is off to lead his own Open Spaces, and I thank him for his partnership in what was a delightful day full of learning, laughter and exploration. And PS: We still made enough noise for the two other workshop groups to hear us through the walls! I guess joy is sometimes loud.... Lisa ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e lisah...@openingspace.net www.openingspace.net * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist