Harold -- It is not about trusting the process for after all Open Space has been "done" well over 100,000 times in 134 countries -- and it always seems to work. It is really about trusting the people. And if the 150 employees of your company are anything more than marginally competent, committed and brainy, there is not a question in my mind that they will come up with the pertinent issues for the company. After all, they ARE the company. Not everybody will have the same issue (thank God), nor will everybody be interested in all the issues -- but take it from an old timer you can be totally certain that the right people will come up with the right issues -- the ones they care about. And of course, if there are no issues, you will have a very short session.
You may also need to think about another company :-) A suggestion: Do you Open Space as the last day - in which people are challenged to assess and synthesize what they have learned on the first two days, and point the way forward. Doing OS on the first or second day will create problems. As you know from your own experience, life in Open Space will get pretty energetic, exciting and stimulating - after which sitting at the feet of Talking Heads will not seem appealing. I am reminded of working with a group of Japanese engineers (software) and the sponsor's concerns were totally similar to your own. Not only were these engineers, but they were Japanese Engineers (whatever that was supposed to mean). I told him that as long as the group fell generally within the genetic pool of Homo sapiens there should be no difficulty. There wasn't. It's true. Even Engineers can do it! Have fun!! Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Harold Shinsato Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:20 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Advice for an OS for learning & sharing for software developers Dear Owen, Thank you, it's such an honor to get a reply directly from you. I think my issue is faith in myself and in the process. I've read the book (some chapters more than once). I think maybe I just needed to hear it again in a different way to help me "get" it. I appreciate the encouragement. I've seen Open Space work in other scenarios and I just need to trust that people will bring the topics that they care about. But I keep thinking I have to "do" something to make it work, to allow people to bring questions or topics like "How can we lead in a 50K Conglomerate?" and not just some engineering topic that they had to spend a week preparing a powerpoint based on their prior experience, which is the "box". It's like an ugly itch in the brain, but is there some way to help me quiet it down? I keep seeing this image of me opening the space and then no one filling in any topic cards, or just a few that didn't get put in the first tracks. Has anyone had experience in a similar situation for 30-50 engineers in a single department but working on different projects? Harold * * ========================================================== 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