Hi all The other day I opened space and broke most of the rules - I didn't tell my client I was going to use open space, there was no mention of open space in the pre-workshop material that went out to participants and I didn't even mention open space technology when opening space. There was no discussion about givens (by me anyway). This was a bunch of academics (about 60 people) who had been thrown together from various institutes and campuses under a new umbrella, without any consultation (of course) and with an ongoing process to appoint a new head of school. They sat in a circle, we had a theme, some times and spaces, no stickies, the principles and the law, and reporting sheets. The convergence session used Chris's non-convergence convergence (thanks Chris!) around the theme of implementing their ideas. About seven action teams emerged with a range of projects and they were stunned at how well the whole event met their needs, blah blah blah - you know the rest.
And here's why I did this. It was a bit of an experiment. I've always been bemused why the process of Open Space is discussed so much with clients (sponsors) when it's the outcomes they're looking for and they usually don't care too much about the process (as long as it's legal, ethical and safe :-) In situations where I can't or it's not appropriate to use OS, I rarely discuss or divulge anything about process - mainly because I tend to improvise anyway, and I usually don't know until I get in the room what processes I'll use! One memorable event I planned meticulously all the way on the two-hour flight, to get in the room and decide at the last minute to do a mini (three hour) open space. So to add to Harrison's missive (or is it mis-givings?) about givens, i haven't talked about givens with a group for years - and I think I'll even experiment a bit more about not telling them anything at all about OS. Just a few Friday afternoon thoughts from a sunny, but showery, and windy, Bells Beach. Cheers Viv *************************** Viv McWaters Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd PO Box 665 Torquay 3228 Australia (03) 5261 9498 0417 135 406 "Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. " Schopenhauer * * ========================================================== 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
