I've turned Bhav's question and Harrison's response into a blog post on the Osuki website, and added a comment of my own.
Here's the link: www.osuki.net/?p=913 If you don't want to click on the link you can see my comment below. Harrison and Bhav, I hope it's OK with you that I've posted this article. I haven't named Bhav. I'll delete the post if either of you asks me to. Warm wishes from Bristol, UK. Jack P.S. Harrison, can you please remind us of the exact date of the 25th birthday of Open Space? Jack Martin Leith Innovation Next : An emerging hub for innovation next practice Bristol, United Kingdom Mobile: 07831 840541 (+44 7831 840541) Skype: jackmartinleith email: j...@innovationnext.org www.innovationnext.org | www.jackmartinleith.com Follow me on Twitter for innovation news: http://twitter.com/jackmartinleith Join the management renegades at http://moon-shots.ning.com --------------------------------- http://www.osuki.net/?p=913#comments While I agree with pretty much everything Harrison says here, in the 20 years that I’ve been working professionally with Open Space Technology, I can’t think of a single client that was seeking to create a self-organising system. They simply wanted to get a job done, and OST was the chosen tool. Many of the Open Space events I’ve co-designed and facilitated were not organised on a voluntary participation basis, yet the respective clients were happy with the results. Would voluntary participation have bettered these results? Maybe … maybe not. We’ll never know. What’s beyond doubt is that OST is a very robust process that can be effective even when prevailing thinking suggests it’s doomed to failure. In the early 1990s I co-facilitated, with Mo Cohen <http://www.osuki.net/?page_id=530>of this parish, a two-day Open Space event for the change management practice of a large management consulting firm. The client had a hidden agenda that was shockingly revealed at the end of the first day of a two-day Open Space event. The secret plan was a radical reorganisation of the change management practice that would have a big impact on everyone in the room. At the start of the second day the participants, conscripts one and all, binned their agenda and created a new one focused on the implications of the reorganisation. My friend and collaborator Jean-Marc Le Tissier<http://www.osuki.net/?page_id=126>(also of this parish) was an employee of the consulting firm and a participant in the event. Whenever we recollect those two days we agree that Open Space was the right tool for the job. It shouldn’t have worked – but it did. *That’s all very well in practice – but will it work in theory? **Unknown* Open Space is an extremely resilient 24 year old. Let’s start planning the 25th birthday celebrations (early July 2010) now! --------------------------------- * * ========================================================== 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