My dear friends from the open space world, so I have to tell you that my training with "be prepare to be surprise" was intense. I guess that after this little conference that I had, I got my PHD on this matter (just a joke!) And now I would love to share some of my stories:
1- It was supposed and organized to be a three days conference and the last week I had to change it to a one day event. 2- I was expecting the minimum 10 participants and only 5 showed up 3- I planned that all the introduction will be around 1 hour or 1 and a half....and suddenly I gave all the explanation in 15 minutes.....as I was realizing that the participants were so dissaponted that they were not that much. 4- During this introduction I told them to close their eyes and started to think about why they attend to the conference, and I can tell you that this helped me a lot to calm down the negative feelings (that actually I was able to feel them, eventhough they were not talking). 5- So when they started to post their topics on the wall.........I felt such a relief, cause at least there was one topic at each session..........so as there were two topics on the first one, I told them to subscribe.......and suddenly the group decided not to divided, so they said that it was very related and they work the whole session on it.....which, of course it just surprised me........but this is about what open space is all about, right? 6- Little by little the group started to be a group and not only individuals.....of course they were a little bit lost about the thing that they were in charge of everything..........but thanks God, all the logistics (materials, coffee, food, computers, etc. were just perfect).......so it was up to them. 7- In the afternoon, they just decided that the topic in the morning was very related..........so instead of another topic, they continued working on the same one.........I can tell you at this point, I was wondering what should I do....interrupt them or not. Anyway I thought that as it is their space, its up to them. I guess that at this point you already know what happened on the third session.........THE SAME. And one of the participants were telling me, I hope that at the end we will have tangible results.(but in a very nice way, and actually she was one of the most proactive participants) 8- After the three sessions, I realized that they have just done a list of the problems in Costa Rica about the Sustainable Development (the topic was: Sustainable Development: Union of Efforts). So at the closing part, I inspired them to analize them and think about next steps and tasks to take in order to change this.....and I leave them alone for a while. When I came back, I realized that they had just make a list of ideal scenarios, and ideal situations....but not realistic ones. At this point, I got in......and I thought it was not bad, as I was not only a facilitator, but also the responsible to follow the next steps (cause this event was the first step to open an office in Costa Rica). So I explained them that it all depended on us. That we should write down specific tasks that when we cross the door of the room, everybody will now what to do after the meeting.........I CAN TELL YOU THAT THEY REALLY LIKED IT. 9- To be short (eventhough I was already long...ha,ha,ha) the closing part was the best one..........the energy was up to the skies, and everybody was just one.............I loved it. Hope this story help you or at least make you laugh ;O) Greetings, Laura Laura Gamboa Herrera Phone: (506) 226-3184 Fax: 001-603-761-7394 P.O. Box 57-1011 San José, Costa Rica * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== osl...@egroups.com To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@egroups.com: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed