Fabulous thoughts, all.
I have a million questions.
Invitation: what wording, who invited, how invited - and were young
people included in doing outreach and crafting invitation
Theme: what were the options, ideas, possibilities for theme
Environment: how was the food, hydration, noise level, youth-friendly
physical space, signage, enough room for discussion circles
Host's/Sponsor's and facilitator's introduction and instructions: a
reflection on how that might have been / was worded and presented? Was
there any framing done at the open, in the cultural context of the
group and situation
Teacher-Parent-Administration description of the event - part of
invitation and outreach - no preparation is needed to be a participant
in Open Space - but did folks know why they were gathering together?
Schedule - was enough time given for opening, multiple discussion
sessions, closing; was this at a good time in the day or would
participants have been tired, hungry or etc. because of placement in
the day or week
Design - were the objectives (reasons for gathering together) and
desired outcomes discussed at length in the analysis-to-select-tool
phase, informing that yet, OS was the right tool for the time, reason,
situation? If conflict and edginess was known in advance of the event,
was the OS given enough time? (often we design 2-day events for higher
conflict-possible situations as often Day 1 a number of folks name the
situation or act it; Day 2 enough people often move into the
'therefore' stage
Safety - the one rule my colleagues have used in very high conflict
situations is 'leave all guns outside the room' - no kidding - I heard
it here on the list. That was specific to a specific and charged
situation. Were there any more guidelines - in hindsight - that could
have been mentioned before the event or at the start of the event? Not
layers of rules for behavior or pushing into the self-organization,
but a simple naming of taking care of each other or etc. appropriate
to that group and situation, in the initial framing by the facilitator
at the start?
By the way, as a side note - Harrison mentions the use of OS in prison
- I have used a adaptation of OS in prison - and people *do* get to
opt in...to the circle, to the event, to the conversation, to sharing,
to listening versus talking...as Harrison says, the Law of Two Feet
can be honored and choice is possible...
Cheers from California and thank you so much for sharing and exploring,
Lisa
Lisa Heft
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
Opening Space
[email protected]
www.openingspace.net
Join me for the Open Space Learning Workshop
December 9-11, San Francisco
And the Open Open Space on Open Space
(for those who already use Open Space)
January 15-17, San Francisco
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