Dear All,
Last night I had my first opportunity to give the OS gift to a group. Being a member of a facilitator network group we (my wife and I) were given the opportunity to facilitate a meeting, of course, selfishly I chose to use open space. The theme which we came up was "For a great meeting: What would you like to do?" ... We tried to come up with a theme which would allow for new & spontaneous members to feel part of the theme as well as, I guess, an existential theme which might just work. What emerged however was a new theme that the participants spent the whole evening discussing "What is this strange animal, open space?" .. Challenging as it was, I practiced the art of silent facilitation and let the group evolve and emerge with its discussions, sometimes I was drawn out with a question which I felt I could help... Interestingly, initially there appeared to be a lot of discomfort, that, at a facilitators network meeting, there was no clear 'leading facilitator' to stimulate and prompt the group... by the end of the meeting however (just 2 hours which flew by the way) everyone felt energised and inspired in some way. It seemed like there was some ability for OS to self-correct itself based on the true passions of the participants... Moral of the story: There is good reason why choosing a theme (and a good one!) is important. Ps- I miss you too viv. :-) -- Andrew Rixon B.Sc(hons) PhD Urban Water Infrastructure CSIRO- Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology http://www.cmit.csiro.au P.O Box 56 (Graham Road), Highett, 3190, Victoria, Australia Tel: +61 3 9252 6363 Fax:+ 61 3 9252 6249 Mobile: 0400 352 809 Email: andrew.ri...@csiro.au -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Harrison Owen Sent: Thursday, 28 July 2005 8:19 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Not in Halifax Viv -- you will be missed for sure. At least I for sure will miss you!!! Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 301-365-2093 207-763-3261 (summer) website www.openspaceworld.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Viv McWaters <mailto:v...@thereef.com.au> To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 7:28 PM Subject: Not in Halifax Greetings from a cold and wet 'downunder' As you prepare to gather in Halifax, I'm sitting here in my office wishing that the Jetsons had turned out to be true and that I could teleport, miraculously, from one side of the world to the other. I'll just have to be content with the miracle of electronic communications instead :-) Having sprung an open space event on an unsuspecting group on Friday and received confirmation of a major national OS in a few weeks, training with Brian in August, and not being in Halifax when I had planned to be there - well, OS is pretty much on my mind. I've also been mentoring a couple of people who are using OS and I'm always reminded how a depth understanding of OS makes decisions about what to do or not do quite straightforward, while a superficial understanding of the mechanics raises all sorts of questions. Hence the importance and significance of OSonOS where we can delve into those sometimes murky depths. So I'll experience Halifax vicariously through Oslist and will look forward to all the goss when Brian returns. Have a great OSonOS! 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 * * ========================================================== 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 * * ========================================================== 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
