Hello dear Open Spacers,
What follows is my learning report for my most recent Open Space. The reports will eventually be available on my website for searching when I get the time to get the @#$#!@# thing (thats blessed thing for those of you who dont speak wingding ;-) ) fixed up .until then here it is in full School District 57- Prince George Centre for Learning Alternatives Open Space September 2, 2005 Theme: Student Success: The Power of Working Together Design Parameters: Short notice (2 days); one day OS (9:00-4:00); action planning; 60 participants, no helpers, mandatory attendance. How the day ran: Sponsor contacted me via email one week before the event was scheduled. Previous speaker had cancelled as second day of two day professional development conferencesponsor saw this as an opportunity to introduce OS to the school community. Was able to confirm with sponsor two days before event and had initial planning conversation of about 30 minutes. Sponsor really wanted to get some action planning in and the day had to be short (4:00 pm finish). Not a lot of time to work with the sponsor to create an alternative, so trusted in OS form and created a design for three breakout session times, a reconvene and reopen to non-convergent action planning, lightening reports and one-liner closing circle. Flew in and had a 1 hour working session with the sponsor the night before. Started at 9:10, by 10:10, the participants had posted 20 topics. Session times were 10:15-11:30. 11:30 -12:45, lunch break from 12:45-1:15, 1:15-2:30. By 2:30 we had both a newswall with 30 pages of report posted and a gallery of beautiful posters of conversation highlights. (I decided to go with both, as we had little time for people to read and the two stations provided space for everyone to get a chance to see what was going on.) Rang bells at 2:30 to reconvene and shift to action planning. Asked people to take 10 minutes quiet reflection time to look for themes, connections or actions that had heart and meaning for them and that they were willing to champion. Back in circle, they posted eight action topics. Had conversations for ½ hour. Back in circle, had lightening report-in with topic, immediate action, and how to connect if you wanted to help outONLY! For closing circle, asked them to think of one word, one phrase, or one sentence to express what they had learned about Student Success, working together, or an AHA moment. We were done by 3:55. Whew! Learnings: Yes, you can do it. It is harder without helpers. I spent a lot of time helping get reports to print and saved onto my flash drive. It would have been nice to be able to focus just on holding the space. (Not whiningjust wishing ;)and driving the point into my memory to stress the importance of technical helpers more.) The whole action planning thing has me thinking. By the end of the third session, the energy is deep and slowready for a shift to reflection/introspection. The shift to action planning felt jarringand was a bit confusing for some people. But the grounding effect it had felt really important. It has me wondering about using the closing round of a one-day as a grounding tool. I am wondering if a closing round question can generate the same grounding effect? There is something really special about people walking away from a day in open space knowing they are personally responsible for carrying out into the world something precious that was born in the open space. I could see it in their faces and hear it in their voices--tremendous excitement about what they had achieved. So while I know it is a stretch to get action planning into a one day, and work hard to help sponsors stretch to that extra half day for the times when that just isnt possible, I am beginning to believe that I need to continue to work at a form that will support the grounding effect of action planning for one day events. Something that is both graceful and respectful of where participants are at after a day of meaningful conversation. I was prepared for some negative reactions, as attendance was mandatory. Two participants came up to speak with me about their discomfort in the opening circle. One was shaken up by the process she felt something was being done to her that she was a guinea pig she needed pull back from what was happening and write to herself about her reaction. The other was just plain uncomfortable, from the moment she walked in. She had to push her chair back and get space and distanceshe found the mike overpowering the space uncomfortable. I appreciated their honesty and we had an interesting conversation. Upon initial reflection, I feel that the fact that they were both able to take care of themselves in the moment and that they chose to stay, even though both considered leaving meant that the space was open enough to include them as they were and as they needed to be. I think that the reactions were strong as (although they were both adamant that they had chosen to come) they had not really chosen freely to participate in open spacethere is a difference between feeling experimented with and choosing to participate in an experimentthat I believe stems from the mandatory attendance requirement. They both said that they enjoyed the rest of the day and found it productive and meaningful. Never take this amazing thing called Open Space for granted. Just as those of us who are blessed to live in incredibly beautiful and safe places sometimes have to remind ourselves of how blessed we are and work a bit harder to feel again the wonder of where and how we live, I was reminded again of how rare and precious Open Space is. For this person here, Open Space just makes sense its of course its obvious. But to the majority of folks its magic, wondrous, the best thing theyve ever encountered, wow! There still arent many places out there in the big world where we can step forward into what has heart and meaning for us and be met with the freedom to act on it. It is truly a privilege, a blessing and a joy to open space. How do you walk a circle with a wired mike? Is there some kind of trick? I hope that someone will consider offering a workshop at OSonOS for those of us less talented/experienced and not used to dragging a tail . Cheers all, Wendy * * ========================================================== 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