Dear Chris and Rhett,
I offer the following in response to your questions about working with
educators in Open Space:
1. Required attendance.
In February, 2000 I facilitated a four hour Open Space for the Adjunct
Faculty in the College of Business and Management at Cardinal Stritch
University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The College of Business and
Management (CBM) provides opportunities for faculty development in two
ways: 1) a requirement that Adjunct Faculty attend 50 % of the Saturday
morning faculty meetings-there are usually four per calendar year or 2)
an individual development plan that is approved by the Deans. I have
been an adjunct faculty member for 16 years prior to being hired full
time in 1999 and found these required meetings to be boring. The main
thing I got from attending was meeting others who teach the same subjects
that I teach. If I got one new idea to improve my teaching, the faculty
meeting was worth it. The cost in time was not. I observed that no one
really knew what adjunct faculty wanted to do in order to develop and
then suggested Open Space.
I proposed a theme: What are the issues and opportunities for achieving
academic excellence now and in the future? It did not take long to
convince the "powers" that this approach would work and the result would
be identification of some of the priorities that could be addressed in
other ways. I agreed to facilitate the four hour Open Space with the
understanding that there would be follow-up "dinner dialogs." All CBM
Adjunct Faculty and administrators were invited to attend. The faculty
took to Open Space like ducks to water. The result was predictable.
Most enjoyed it and lots of helpful ideas surfaced and were recorded. We
sent the proceedings to all atttendees and then posted them on the
College of Business and Management Web Page. The major themes that
emerged were 3 T's: Teaching, Technology, and Trends. The "dinner
dialogs" essentially surfaced concerns and suggestions that resulted in
the same 3 T's.
I share all of that to suggest to you that there often is context that
is related to requirements. It all depends on how you look at what is
required. Then, send an open invitation! Who comes is the right people!
Was the Dean
worried about controlling the message. Yes! He asked: "How will this
information that I need to communicate to the faculty get to them." I
suggested: In two ways 1) You can post a session in the marketplace and
see who chooses that information or 2) You can send everyone an e-mail
that includes your PowerPoint slides. Bold of me wasn't it!!! Was there
fear of what would happen. Not really. I think that the administrators
trusted me. I used that trust to prepare them for doing something
different. I did share that once we do a faculty meeting in Open Space
there was no going back to the old ways of "Command and Control." The
May Adjunct Faculty Meeting included a mini-Open Space. Which means that
I opened the space and we had one round of conversations in Open Space.
So ...required meetings now still exist, but are certainly more
productive. I notice that there is less grumbling. People do use the
law of two feet. This is healthy!
2. In June, 1999 I was asked to convene and Open Space for 83 doctoral
students in the College of Education at Cardinal Stritch University. The
purpose of this day was to identify potential dissertation topics. This
was part of the annual two weeks "in residence" requirement rather than
being credits for a course. One of the conversations is still continuing
to this day. If you want to know more about this Open Space, let me
know and I will share what I know. Again, context is part of the answer
to your question. This was not a course per se. But...part of two
requirements: 10 residency for face-to-face learning and 2) the
dissertation.
Obviously I am an educator. I teach Organization Studies- Org.
Behavior, Org. Communications, Org. Leadership, etc. I wear two hats-
Full-time teaching in a 12 month curriculum for working adults and, in my
spare time :-), some projects as an organization effectiveness
consultant.
I am interested in learning about what you and others are doing in
academic environments. Is anyone interested in developing some courses
using OST?
Best regards,
Sheila T. Isakson
Isakson Associates LLP
PO Box 370256
Milwaukee, WI 53237-0256
(414) 482-1996
Fax (414) 482-1896
isak...@juno.com
*
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