Dear friends,
Interesting to see that out of the original
message by Peggy, two different discussions
develop. On the one hand, it is great to see that
different viewpoints can coexist peacefully next
to each other - very much like Open Space. On the
other hand I find it a little disturbing that
these two discussions seem to look the other way
where it comes to fundamental differences. A few questions come to mind.
I am wondering about this German arrow above the
agenda wall. I tend to think that it is an
example of keeping time and organizing the
conference for the participants where they would
be better off organizing it for themselves. I
never have an arrow like that and I have never
missed it. I want to quote a little bit of the beautiful mail that Tree wrote:
mostly, I guess I think of open space
facilitators as cultural capacity shamans. The
human race urgently needs to learn how to trust
that all is well and to trust our inner
inklings/guidance and the best way for the human
race to develop these skills is to spend time in
openly-acknowledged open space. If someone
comes to an OS event and 'all' they get out of
the event is that moment when they noticed an
inner click that said to them 'it is time to
move to another session', well, that is an
amazing thing, that is the whole point, that is
evolution unfolding. If someone calls the time,
we are depriving participants from knowing for
their own self what time it is, where they
should be, what they should be doing. What an
awesome gift to give someone. I will never
forget the first moment I got that click when I
was in an OS event and I perceived within myself
that I was in the wrong room and hey I could
follow that inkling until I stood in the place
just right. That is os facilitation, if you ask me.
It seems to me that the arrow that Michael
Pannwitz describes stands in the way of people
finding their own way. I know that Tree has also
written that there is no right or wrong, and I
agree. But still I find it interesting what
people's thoughts are on these differences. What do you think Michael?
I am also wondering what Elena and Marina think
about this, having read the posts of Tova and
Tree. Is it really true that people in certain
parts of the world need timekeeping and people in
other parts of the world don't? I tend not to
think so, but I have never been there so maybe I am wrong.
With love from rainy Utrecht,
Koos
At 09:40 15-1-2008, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
Dear Elena,
if I have a say in it and usually I do all
os-related stuff (planning meeting, event, next
meeting, etc.) start with a break. The official
beginning time is lets say 9 then the time from
9 to 9:15 or even 9:30 is a break for people to
mull around, have a cup of coffee, go to the
bathroom, chat...all the interesting and
important things people are accustomed to do to
approach the state of "whenever it starts is the
right time" (in German it is:Es fängt an, wenn die Zeit reif ist).
Of course, beginning with a break, and it
actually being part of the schedule, gives
notice to everyone that there is something
different here and that open space emerged out
of reflections (the guy with the hat)on the
energy, creativity, fun, great company etc. experienced in breaks.
Have a great day and take a break
mmp
Elena Marchuk wrote:
Hi Michael,
thank you for the letter and especially for the
reminding me about adhesive tape rolled
together .... which I saw, when Marina used it,
but ususlly did not use myself. My thoughts
went only to magnets as a possible way out
(need to work more on my brains - to train them :)
and thank you for the picture, I like it. and
arrow ... and especially I like a new item in
the agenda - pause, which is from 8:30 to 9:00.
I will never dream of such an item in an
agenda! Do you mean coffee-break by that?
it is also interesting, how different people
organize their 'seeing materials'
I really enjoyed that!
thank you very much
warm hugs from cold Siberia
Elena
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael M Pannwitz" <mmpa...@boscop.org>
To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: Thoughts on a Town Crier
Dear Elena,
oh, this arrow is very hightech, of course.
It is made of 160g red heavy paper, cut with a scissor.
It is attached to the schedule either with a
pin in case the surface permits that or with a
short piece of adhesive tape rolled together
and stuck to the backside (a chewing gum might
do the trick, too)...the point is, it needs to be movable.
Constructing this time arrow is one of the
tasks in setting up an open space as described
in the set of task cards...usually team
members get into a fight over who gets to do
that task. The word "now" (in German "jetzt",
which by the way is a wonderful old word
containing both the roots for "now" and
"eternity", a real open space word)is written
on both sides of the arrow so that the arrow
can point either to the right or to the left. As I said, hi tech.
In the following link you see the time arrow
being used in a German/Russian open space with
both languages shown on the time arrow
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/100
Have fun
mmp
Elena Marchuk wrote:
Hi Michael, thank you for the idea,
I love it and will think, how to do it on my time/place schedule
and wonder, what do you mean by cardboard arrow?
is it magnetic?
as usually I have just space near the
blackboard, which I use to be free for
posters, and it is just for one flip-chart
paper and no space for a sort of one-arrow
watch, which I thought first of... so it
could be an arrow just over the words :
session1, session 2 - which would need a big
arrow....sorry, and happy, I have fun with thinking about this
take care
and best wishes in a Happy New Year, today in
Russia is an OLD (ortodox) Happy New Year, so
we have 2 of them and very happy to celibrate
everything twice (our Christas was on January, 7:)
elena marchuk
novosibirsk
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael M
Pannwitz" <mmpa...@boscop.org>
To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: Thoughts on a Town Crier
Dear Peggy,
I have never seen anybody in these parts do what Jon does.
That might have different reasons such as
the many training events and local OSonOS people have participated in...
What is done here a lot and I always do it,
is to have a detailed schedule posted on a
large flipchart complete with a time arrow
(a little red cardboard arrow with the word
"now" written on it). When introducing the
schedule to the group I also point out the
function of the arrow...me or another team
member and often participants themselves
move the arrow as the event progresses. My
line is: In case you lose track of time or
wonder what is next just walk up to the schedule and have a look at the arrow.
Of course, sometimes people come up to me
and ask about beginning times, my response
is to just point to the schedule...I would
hate to add a town crier to my repertoire
seems it would be one more thing to do and
one chance for selforganisation and selfmanagement taken away.
Here is a few links to show examples of schedules with the time arrow
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/102
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/99
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/100
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/101
Have a great day in Seattle!
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
Peggy Holman wrote:
Has anyone noticed more milling about before people move into
sessions over the last few years? I'd been noticing enough of a
trend this way that I always intend to explicitly tell people that
there won't be anyone telling them when to move, that it is up to
them to follow their own rhythms and interests. I haven't quite
internalized this yet, so I usually forget. Anyway, I think I may
have figured out what is going on.
I just did an OS for a friend for a group of about 50. He uses OS a
lot but wanted to be able to really participate in this one. He
told me that he was a little surprised when the first round of
breakout sessions was starting that I didn't tell people it was time
to get started. He came to me when the first round after lunch were
scheduled to start and asked me wasn't I going to ring a bell and let
people know? I basically told him that I never did that. The
participants were adults and could figure it out for themselves. He
was floored and a little upset. He said he always lets people know.
And then it dawned on me: there are more and more people who have
experienced OS. Perhaps there are many practitioners doing what Jon
does - telling people when it is time to start the next session. I
realized that since most of these folks came at Jon's invitation,
they were probably enculturated to responding to a bell.
So I took what seemed a middle ground to me and rang a bell, saying,
"It's 1:30 and all's well." I figured a town crier was a minimalist
thing to do -- providing information without attachment to how people
used it.
I then spoke more with Jon because I wanted to understand his
perspective. He said that to him, what is posted, like the session
start times, are part of the commons and when he is holding the
space, that is part of his contract with the group, to give them the
information. He doesn't care what they do once they hear it. So, it
strikes me that Town Crier is a good description of what he does.
Given the trend I mentioned, I suspect Jon isn't the only one doing
something like this. I'd love to hear other thoughts on providing
information that marks the passage of time.
from sunny (for a change) Seattle, Peggy
________________________________ Peggy Holman The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 (425) 746-6274
www.opencirclecompany.com
For the new edition of The Change Handbook,
go to: www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook
"An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get
burnt, is to become the fire". -- Drew Dellinger
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Check out the Open Space World Map presently
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