Great, great story Judy! Thanks for sharing it.
You made me laugh too with the high heels and the pantyhose :-)
Esther
At 11:33 2007-11-23, you wrote:
In keeping with the vein of Just Do It and
resources will appear (formerly Finding Funding
for Community Work), this is a report on an Open
Space event I facilitated this week wherein, I
Just Did It and
resources appeared (or will appear).
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The title of this story and the theme of the OS
event is (was); Making It Happen.
Background on me (for context):
My life was forever altered the week of May 27
31, 1996 when I took the Open Space Train the
Trainer at St. Ignatius College (a monastery in
Guelph, Ontario) with the Man with the Hat,
Larry Peterson and Birgitt Williams. At the
time, I was an Organizational
Development/Training and Development type
working for a large prestigious (at the time) multinational corporation.
I had just spent a year of my life working for a
Type A micromanager (who was located in
Australia) planning, organization and
implementing a series of conferences for the
senior level executives outside of North
American. It was a huge and cumbersome project.
I was on the phone 24-7. I spent thousands of
company dollars doing a detailed needs
assessment, designing workshops, hiring
facilitators around the world, and managing the
onsite logistics in four international
locations. All while playing the role of group
psychologist and attempting to manage the
emotional roller coaster inherent in a
micromanaged, remote team. While the hotels were
nice and the food was good, at the end of the
day (or month or year), most people involved
(participants, sponsors, organizing team) would
say (provided they were guaranteed
confidentiality) that we did not get a good return on the investment.
If it werent red, I would have grey hair as a
result of this experience. After that, unless I
found a better way, I swore I would never get
involved in planning large group events
again. Fortunately, at St. Ignatius College, I found the better way.
After that I introduced the approach to my
company. While I had considerable success at
the lower levels, my inroads with the executives were limited.
I was let go from this company several years
ago. Since then, as an external Organizational
Development/Training and Development type, I
have had several opportunities to Open Space
with organizations and sponsors who get it as
I do. I also had child number two.
This past spring, as both kids would be in
school in September and our finances were
faltering, my husband and I agreed that it was
time for me to seek full time employment
again. To help me learn how to get a job, I
joined a local networking group comprised of Executives in Transition.
This is where my story begins.
The Story Making It Happen
The first session I attended, I felt a bit
awkward. The group, about 60 Executives in
Transition, were mostly 40-60 year old men in
suits and white shirts The few women attendees
were wearing dressy suits, high heels and
pantyhose (not attire this mother of young
children is familiar with). I tried not to
feel too self-conscious, as I stood up in my
Birkenstock equivalents and corduroy pants to
introduce myself and give my 30 second
commercial. (I had failed to read on the
website that the dress code for these meetings is first interview).
However, it appeared like a group where I could
work on my 30 second commercial, interviewing
skills, and, network to make connections to
those who might hire me. So I dusted off my
professional woman jackets and pants (no
pantyhose for me
) and showed up at the second
meeting better suited to fit in.
The format of the group was conventional. The
first half hour was Good News reports from
people who had interviews or had landed, and
then new members were asked to give their 30
second commercial (aka You never get an second
chance to make a first good impression.). Then
a keynote speaker, followed by 1 ½ hours of
table team networking. For networking we were
numbered off and asked to go to the
appropriate table. In a round robin fashion,
each person at the table talks about their
career background and direction, practices their
commercial, and the group supports with suggestions and advice.
At the first networking session I ended up with
a group of men (mostly in white shirts), most of
who were in the Food Packaging industry. I
learned a bit about this industry and asked some
relevant questions, and they were polite and
worked to understand my field and come up with
appropriate suggestions and advice for me.
Of course, I know that this process would be
much more valuable (and fun) if we did it in
Open Space. To me, it is a no brainer
application. So I suggest it to the Man in
Charge. He was intrigued, and amongst other
questions asked me how he would measure the
success of such a session. I told him that we
would measure it by the number of people who
showed up (there are about 1500 members of this
group, but only 100 150 show up for the weekly
meetings at three locations) and the formal and
anecdotal feedback from the attendees of the
session. He agrees that it might be a good idea
to try something new and says he will fit me into the schedule.
Several months later, after numerous exchanges
of emails and conversations (discussing Open
Space and agreeing on the theme and invitation),
the Man in Charge schedules the session for
November 20th. In the announcement on the
organizations website and in the local paper,
and at the November 13th meeting, the session is
announced as Open Space Technology The Next
Generation of Networking by expert speaker
Judy Gast. (Wow
. an Open Space and a Networking
expert
if only...life would be beautiful
) I
raise my hand and clarify that I am not an
expert on networking and will be facilitating
a session where participants have an opportunity
to get into conversations about whatever they
have passion for. I say our theme will be
Successful Career Transitions Making it
Happen. The boss of the Man in Charge (i.e.
the founding father of the organization)
interrupts me and says curtly, Oh, I didnt know, no one told me about that.
Weeks before the event, I discuss the set up for
the room with the Event coordinator for the
facility. I give her a hand drawn diagram. She
sends me back a computer diagram with 60 chairs
in a square. I email her back that the chairs
need to be in a circle. We go back and
forth. She sends me a terse email and says that
the square is the best her software can do. I
explain how once before I showed up early in the
morning before an Open Space and had to
rearrange 200 chairs into a circle. She
reassures me that her staff will understand the
concept of a circle. (They didnt.)
I patiently wait for the Man in Charge to send
out the short, pithy, intriguing announcement
(as we had agreed) to the entire group (all 1500
members). He doesnt. I call him a couple days
before the event and politely tell him that if
members think that a speaker named Judy Gast
(i.e. an unknown person who hasnt written a
book) is going to talk about Open Space The
Next Generation of Networking, then he will get
less than the normal number of attendees. He
sees my point and emails the announcement to the entire group.
The day before the event I am shopping in my
local drug store and I see a cute little
battery-operated massager in the shape of a
bee. I think this will be cute to use when I
describe the bumblebees. At 25 dollars it is
overpriced, but I fork over my grocery money for
the week and buy it nevertheless.
I show up for the event early, concerned about
whether the facility staff understands the
concept of a circle. Forty five minutes later,
after having rearranged chairs, put the bee and
the pens and paper in the centre, put up the
posters and garnered flipcharts for the
breakouts, I am ready and confident that
everything is going to work just fine. After
all, The Man with the Hats number one mantra
is: Anyone with a good head and a good heart
can do it. I had loving parents who sent me to
good schools, so I should qualify.
About 75 people show up by 8:30, the scheduled
start time. A different Man in Charge welcomes
everyone and announces the workshop
agenda. First he says we will have Good News
and Introduction of New Members. That will be
followed by Part One of the Open Space Workshop,
followed by a 15 minute break, after which comes
Part Two of the Workshop. Obviously, he didnt
know and no one told him either. I dont say anything.
We have about 20 new members (the average for
any previous meeting I attended was 6). It
takes forever for them to get through their 30
second commercials per the required formula,
which is projected on the wall. (I couldnt
convince them that an overhead projector was
really not required for this piece.) The group
patiently and politely listens.
The original Man in Charge is handed the mike to
introduce me. I had emailed him a short, pithy
biography. Since I hadnt written a book, I
thought the group would need some information
about me to let them know they were not going to
be turned over to a complete incompetent (this
group is particularly sceptical of touchy feely
HR/OD types). He doesnt read it. He says
something to the effect of At this group, we
are always willing to try something
different. After all, if you always do what
youve always done, youll always get what you
always got. Judy Gast, a member of this group,
twisted my arm to try this new process for our
networking. It is called Open Source
Technology. Please be sure to give us your
feedback at the end so we know whether to do it
again. Please welcome Judy Gast.
I sigh, under my breath, but loudly. The man
sitting next to me notices. I stand up, thank
the Man in Charge for the opportunity to present
something new to the group, and start walking
the circle. I breathe. They are all staring
at me, sceptically, with their arms crossed. Or
so it appears to me. In the interest of time, or
perhaps because I was nervous, I dont say half
the things I had planned. Actually, I cut it
short because...at the last moment..I remember
the words of the Man in the Hat. His second
mantra is Think of one more thing not to say
or was it not to do? Whatever, it
works. (That, by the way, is the Man in the
Hats third mantra: It always works.)
I didnt forget to give tribute to the Man in
the Hat even told the group about the Utube
video wherein he does a 30 second elevator
speech on Open Space in the back of a
cab. (They were not interested, probably should have left that piece out.)
When I get to the part about bumblebees and
butterflies I turn on the battery operated
bumblebee. It makes a loud racket on the wood
floor as it buzzes around. People laugh. I am
glad I spent my grocery money on the bee
I know
I have plenty of oatmeal and peanut butter in the cupboard.
When I say Go for it and point to the paper in
the centre, half a dozen folks rush to the
centre. Others are amazed. After several
periods of silence, wherein people and potential
topics lurk, twelve sheets of paper are posted
on the wall - six for each time slot. Perfect
just what the grid allocated (there were more
stickies/spaces if needed). I invite everyone
to go to the wall and get to work. Everybody
goes to the wall. The mingling, shuffling and
buzzing starts. Several ask me questions about
what they are supposed to do. I think; perhaps
I left out too much. Oh well, they get it and go to work.
A couple minutes later I go to the wall to
peruse the topics. There are only four topics
posted for the first session and numerous people
are still hanging out deciding where to
go. Where are the missing topics? I look
around. The initiators took their papers and
posted them on the walls next to their
flipcharts. I scurry around and collect them
and retape them to the agenda wall.
A woman wearing a dressy suit, high heels and
pantyhose comes up to me. She tells me that she
would have posted a topic but she didnt want to
get down on the floor in her skirt and
heels. I smile apologetically and tell her
that I am sorry I didnt think of that. I hand
her a piece of paper and encourage her to post
her topic. She carefully writes her topic on
the paper and tapes it on the wall. Im glad
that I dont own a dressy suit, high heels or a pair of pantyhose.
When it is about 10 minutes past the time for
the second session to start, people are all over
mingling and talking to each other (being
butterflies). Two people come up to me, plainly
worried. Arent you going to ring a bell and
ask people to move to the next session?, they
ask. Whenever it starts is the right time, I
reply politely. Turns out, they were topic
initiators - worried that no one would show up
for their sessions. They returned to their
flipcharts, people showed up, and the discussions flowed.
The boss of the Man in Charge is concerned as
one group has about 20 people, and one person
appears to be dominating. He tells me a story
about how for a while they had to put an
external person in charge at each of the
networking table teams to make sure that
everyone got equal air time. I smile and make
an inane comment noting that; if you treat
people like adults, they are more likely to act
like adults. He doesnt get it.
When it is time for the closing circle, I do
ring my bell. Every seat is occupied. I
explain that this time is for comments,
reflections, insights on what they learned
whatever people feel like saying. I walk the
circle with the mike. Numerous comments are
made about how much fun it was, how people
really opened up and shared what was important
to them. There are several poignant comments
about new insights, new connections and actions
planned as a result of the conversations. A man
volunteers to write up the session, include all
the Reports and post a consolidated document on
the website. A woman asks me how often this
group plans to use this approach for our
meetings. I carefully deflect the question and
turn to the Man in Charge to answer it. He
smiles (at me) and asks the group; How many
people would like to see us use this approach
again?. Everyone raises his/her hand
enthusiastically. He says that they will for
sure use it (and me, if I am available) again.
When it is over, numerous people come up to me
and thank me for the great session. Several
people want to talk to me about potential
applications for their not-for-profit or other
group. One person asks me to be a speaker at a
course that she is organizing. I am happy the trial worked.
After cleaning up, the Man in Charge comes over
to thank me. He says he wants me to do it for
the other two locations and he will deem those
sessions workshops (vs. speakers). I tell
him I dont really care what it is called (after
all this one was announced in the beginning as a
workshop). He tells me; We pay people to run
the workshops. I reply, Fine, make it a workshop.
After all, I need money to buy groceries for my family.
Postlude and thanks
I want to thank Larry Peterson for encouraging
me to write up this story. He has been my
colleague, friend and mentor ever since I met
him at St. Ignatius College in May 1996.
Judy Gast
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