Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 07:46:13 -0500
To: bjpet...@amug.org
From: Harrison Owen <owe...@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Open Space a la carte (long)
At 04:34 PM 12/10/00 -0700, you wrote:
Have the originators of the cafe process published any books or articles
that would provide "how to" information as Harrison's User's Guide does?
I gather that Alan has linked with the Cafe Website -- and if you want to
go to the "horse's mouth, try Juanita Brown <juanita...@aol.com>. Juanita
is an old friend who does marvelous work, and as near as I can figure out,
Cafe came out of an evening Soiree at her abode. Folks just started doing
it as sort of a party game, and then discovered that they were doing
something useful. I guess that is the way most folks discover useful
things. It is indeed fun, and compared to whole mess of other ways of
getting people engaged in fruitful conversation, it comes out close to the
top.
Having said all that, my personal experience with Cafe has been that it is
frustrating and restrictive. Just about the time the conversation really
got good, the facilitator was saying "change tables." I must also confess
to a degree of annoyance -- brought on I am sure by my irascible nature.
Somewhere in the middle of the affair, I found myself saying (to my self
thank God) "I really don't need some facilitator telling me when I should
start or stop a conversation -- and with whom I should converse." I guess
I felt it was quite manipulative (although nicely) and to some degree
demeaning. But I am sure that is just me.
At a slightly deeper lever -- I couldn't help but feel that if we were
going to spend all that time -- why not just open the space and get on
with it. There was nothing (at a substantive level) that happened in Cafe
that doesn't almost immediately happen in Open Space -- but more to the
point -- there is masses of stuff that happens in Open Space that never
has a chance to get started in Cafe...
The Old Curmudgeon
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
