Dear Harrison, dear Michael M and all, having been a participant and part of the organizing-team I want to offer some more details - completing Michael's and Jo's wonderful reports.
The idea for this training workshop was born last june at the 1. Berliner OSonOS. Some (esp. younger) participants of Bosonos expressed their interest in a training knowing that they would not be able to afford it without public sponsoring. At that point Michael M and Jo generously offered to do the training WITHOUT ANY PAYMENT if they had no work and costs with preparing and organizing the workshop. And there we went - during the following months an organizing team formed itself and started working on the (maybe worldwide first?) self organized open space training. We were eight (Thomas, Ekkehard, Malte, Michal, Insa, Ute, Juliane and me), four males, four females (without quota!) six of us located in Berlin, Juliane later on taking part from Sevilla. At the beginning we knew each other little or not at all and went through all different states of teambuilding. Maybe experiencing a kind of open space organisation without really being conscious about it. Times of high learning!! What we made possible to offer: A five-day-training-workshop open for whoever felt to be the right person. The training was located close to Berlin, at a lake in the forest. Fee was 390 up to 890 Euro including accomodation and food nearly 24 hours a day. Every participant had the chance to decide by herself if she felt like paying the minimum or the fee for a normal training workshop. All money not needed to pay the costs was announced to be used for additional open space projects. We had calculated that break-even would be at 34 participants. On 6th of january we had no idea if the workshop was going to take place and I recommended to work on "plan B". On the 24th of january we had 60 registrations, no more beds available and a waiting-list! Thanks to internet!! At the end the average payment was about 460 Euro and we gained surplus to support coming open space events. An open space foundation which is just about to be founded will take care of the money - as well as of the gift notes (an alternative to credit notes we developed: every participant who felt like supporting open space was given the chance to donat a present to the foundation - something he or she is able to and likes to do). And we received wonderful gifts! I skip the training itself at the moment - if you want to know more about it please ask. Tonight I only want to share the one and biggest outcome for me personally: I lost my fearing conflicts and 'remembered' valuing them. Thanks to all who contributed to that process. And Michael: I like the idea of exchanging osonos and I, os-facilitator. With a fulfilled heart, Marei "Harrison Owen" <hho...@comcast.net> schrieb: > This went straight to Michael, but I meant it to go to the LIST. So > Herewith.... > > Michael -- this is totally magnificent!!! I hope that everybody on the > OSLIST, particularly those who are doing training or thinking about it, will > read closely. Great Stuff! And for those of you who may be JUST thinking > about doing training -- REMEMBER -- Share the Love! You will certainly have > fun, and you might even make some money, but don't count on it. And your > idea about an OS on Training (if we can still call it "training") is right > on the money. For sure I will be "there" or maybe "there" could be > Washington??? Cherry Blossom time 2005???? > > ho > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Drive > Potomac, Maryland 20845 > Phone 301-365-2093 > > Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com > Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org > Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Harrison Owen [mailto:hho...@comcast.net] > Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 6:26 PM > To: 'Pannwitz, Michael M' > Subject: RE: participant organized Open Space-training, second installment > > Michael -- this is totally magnificent!!! I hope that everybody on the > OSLIST, particularly those who are doing training or thinking about it, will > read closely. Great Stuff! And for those of you who may be JUST thinking > about doing training -- REMEMBER -- Share the Love! You will certainly have > fun, and you might even make some money, but don't count on it. And your > idea about an OS on Training (if we can still call it "training") is right > on the money. For sure I will be "there" or maybe "there" could be > Washington??? Cherry Blossom time 2005???? > > ho > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Drive > Potomac, Maryland 20845 > Phone 301-365-2093 > > Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com > Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org > Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Pannwitz, > Michael M > Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 4:08 PM > To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > Subject: Re: participant organized Open Space-training, second installment > > Dear Harrison, > this training design has been on a transformational journey since > 1997 when Fred Moeller, Agnes v. Walther and I put on the now > legendary 12 hour training (from 10 am till 10 pm on October 31, 1997 > in a round, glassed church in Berlin) a year after I had been to your > training at Roffey Park, UK in 1996 where you were assisted by > legendary arctic pedestrian Romy Shovelton and after I had > facilitated 15 open space-events myself. > In fact, the mode of working in an open space (then we chose the > traditional topic "How to create organizations that work") > immediately followed by an open space on open space was gleaned from > our long experience in training of OD consultants where experiental > learning followed by reflection on the stuff learned was highly > developed. > As further trainings followed the design was refined and expanded. In > 1999 Gabriela Ender and I trained some 40 os-facilitators in Austria > (here we added action planing) closely followed by another training > in > Berlin in 2000 (we added setting up the open space by participants > themselves) and a training in Moscow with Jo Toepfer (50 > participants) where we added the 3rd os designed and facilitated by > the participants themselves. Finding the theme for the first os > during the training and designating a sponsor was first introduced in > Westfalia in 2000 (51 participants) and in Hungary (41 participants) > where Jo and I were joined by Felicia Schulz. > In 2001, 2002 and 2003 there were more trainings with varying > colleagues adding and changing further nuances: Eva Gehltomholt, > Henning Bendsen in Denmark, Rudolf Netzelmann in Poland, Hans-Georg > Wicke in Weimar at an international training and then the > participant-organized training we just reported on. > Somewhere in 2001 we started working with the "Question and Answers" > posters that were put up from the moment the training started. The > point of these posters was to allow participants to record their > questions and quickly return into their role as participants > (especially in the first os when tendency is high to focus on the > technology). To deal with questions not answered we had a "nuts and > bolts" session towards the end of the training. In our last training > we installed "travel groups" that had various tasks among others to > look at the questions and answers posters so that we could skip the > "nuts and bolts" session at the end. > This worked fine except that on the fifth day participants requested > that we have an evening session just before their last night party. > We agreed to that session at 8 pm under the condition that we would > answer some questions with "its in the book" and would be served cold > beer. Well, about half the group showed up beer and all, there were > fine questions but about 30 minutes into this another part of the > group came in for the "laugh therapy" session in the same room and > that put an end to that. (later one participant came up to me and > mentioned that she was also interersted in that session but stopped > at the door as she heard me tell a story that she had heard a couple > of times before and went to a more productive place for her). > I myself then joined the laugh therapy session and we set a new world > record of powerful, nonstop laughing in a group of about 20 people > close at the edge of wetting my pants. > After this encounter with participants I withdrew to quieter quarters > in the bar. > I think we will continue to skip the nuts and bolts part but respond > to high energy requests from the group. > Adding the "finding the theme", setting up the os by participants and > designating a sponsor for the first os in the training (this happens > between 4pm and 7:30pm on Sunday) has had the effect that the focus > on the technology is reduced...in fact, the action planning part of > this os produces tangible action steps. > As we dropped "Delphi" and other statistical methods leading to > prioritization in our ongoing work with open space we also kicked it > out of the training design replacing it with the mini-os leading to > action around issues people have passion for rather than issues that > have high priority. This time we added this kind of action planning > to the third os that was set up and facilitated by participants > themselves followed by feedback. That worked just fine. > But it also drained the participants so that on the last half day > (Friday) the final round of dialog was cancelled in favor of having > more time for individual work on the further journey as facilitators. > As far as your question is concerned: > Things did happen as we thought that they would. > Still, it is a huge challenge every time (even though I have been > through this with close to 600 participants in trainings) to fend off > the idea that os can be learned or taught. > Sticking to knowing that it can only be remembered (providing a > selfexplanatory setting for the nuts and bolts) frustrates > participants and trainers...two or three days down the road > participants will send signals that they are on the remembering > journey. But up to that point they experience the trainers as > humorless, cold nitwits. > As we were talking about future designs, we are now thinking that we > would change the sequence of the 3 os-events. > Instead of having the osonos between the os in which the "trainees" > experience themselves as participants of an os and the os organized > and facilitated by the "trainees" themselves we are now thinking of > having the osonos as the last and third os with the possibility to > reflect on both of the two prior experiences. > > One other thing that we keep ruminating over is the urge to meet with > others that have had extensive training experience, an os on > designing events for remembering open space. In the meantime, we > invite colleagues to walk with us during the training week. > Greetings from Berlin still groggy > mmp > > > > On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 08:35:24 -0500, Harrison Owen wrote: > > >And -- when you catch your breath (get some sleep), I would really be > >interested in knowing what you thought was going to happen versus what > >actually happened. And what did you learn from that. > > > >Harrison * * ========================================================== 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
