Congratulations, Esther! What a wonderful discovery you have made.
And...I always re-read the Guide before every OST I do, and bring it along in the box of markers and bells and stuff. Sometimes I look into the Guide during the day.... You did good! :- Doug. Germann On Wed, 2006-10-11 at 08:06 -0400, Communications Esther Matte wrote: > Good morning to you all! > > Well, I DID IT!!!! My first OST, and with a very small group of 5 people. > > Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me a couple of weeks > ago. I went there last night with confidence in your advice, my heart, the > group and the process. And it worked wonders! > > There were only 5 participants. Three people chose not to come, one of > which was a surprise for the sponsor. So I started off by saying that the > people who were there were the ones who were truly passionate about the > theme, and they were the ones we needed. > > I did the usual opening in about 10-12 minutes, skipping most of the > reassuring parts. They posted 11 subjects, combined three, so there were 8 > discussions in 3 rounds of 45 minutes each. > > I followed your suggestions and expressed clearly the two choices they had: > discuss everything as a group, which was very tempting of course, or follow > the method. Then I suggested they give it a try at least for the first > round of discussion, and one participant supported this suggestion. I added > that they might find that discussing as a group would make it very > difficult if not impossible to go through the 8 subjects in 2 hours and > maybe using the Law and playing bumble bees would allow them to discuss > everything and go deeper. Much like what happened to Diane, they gave it a > try and never looked back. Of course, it's less natural with a small group, > but it works really well anyway. > > The next step will be action planning. They were all surprised at what they > had accomplished, felt revigorated and inspired and now have a clearer > picture of their situation and what they might want to do next. > > As for me, it was a thrill. I felt OST was perfectly in sync with my self, > and was both excited and scared of doing my first event with such a small > group. I re-read Harrison's book during the weekend, read all of the advice > received from you yesterday morning, meditated a bit before going there, > centered my self and stayed focused to be fully present and invisible (this > week's discussion about presence was inspiring) and let go of any > expectations and fear to simply go with the flow of the moment. > > I still feel the energy from the event this morning, and I know in my heart > I found a path on which I'll travel for a while and bring people to > discover. Thank you all for your support! > > Esther > > At 17:40 2006-09-19, you wrote: > >Hello Esther, > > > >I have had a couple with less than ten people. There's a few thoughts I > >have about OS and a small group: > > > >- it seems to be even more important than with a large group to have a > >central question which is very powerful. After all, if you have 300 > >participants and some really want to do something else, > > that's one thing. If you have a few people, it could feel different > > (meaning I am not sure whether it would really be different, because I > > haven't experienced that yet). > > > >- I have also with the smaller groups done a full opening but with smaller > >groups sometimes comes a smaller room. If the circle is very small, space > >can get cramped. So I suggest to make > > sure you have space enough > > > >- I have worked with teams in an organisation which had held 10-15 open > >space events. Each team member in the leadership team had actually been > >trained in OST. > > Several times OST was used in creating the agenda and process for a > > team meeting, but without the whole opening. Worked well. > > > >Greetings from (today) Holland, > > > > > > > > > >Gerard Muller > >Open Space Institute Denmark > >Phone: (+45) 21269621 Skype: openspace1 > >Mail: g...@openspace.dk > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >On Sep 19, 2006, at 2:29 PM, Communications Esther Matte wrote: > > > >>Hello everyone! > >> > >>First, let me say thank you for the wonderful learning I found in the > >>OSList. I’m new to Open Space, and even though I have yet to make my > >>“first big circle” as Ted put it recently, I feel more confident thanks > >>to you all. > >> > >>I may have two possible projects with very small groups (5-7 people) > >>which is what worries me. I have participated to one OST in my > >>experiential training with Diane Gibeault (fantastic!), and > >>co-facilitated one with 45 people. But I simply cannot visualize how it > >>works with as few as 5 people. How do you do this? Do you have several > >>rounds of discussions? In separate rooms? Do people actually work by > >>themselves and team up? Can you do it in approximately 3 hours ? (Maybe > >>20-30 minutes opening, 2 X 40-minutes rounds of discussion or 3 X > >>30-minutes, action planning and closing). > >> > >>I'm sure some of you have done this. I'll be meeting with the first > >>possible group next week, and nothing is set in stone yet for the other. > >>Any comments, suggestions, ideas or warnings will be very much appreciated. > >> > >>Thank you very much in advance for your time! > >> > >>Esther Matte > >>Communications Esther Matte > >>1011, Marie-Victorin > >>Verchères (Québec) J0L 2R0 > >>www.excellence.ca > >> > >>"L'art de dire" > >> > >>Tél. : (450) 583-5849 > >>Téléc. : (450) 583-3513 > >> > >>* > >>* > >>========================================================== > >>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 * * ========================================================== 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