Annamarie, Last fall, I opened space in 75 minutes with great trepidation initially but it worked. It was a student/community/teachers group with 2 separate groups of 40 participants each. We were 2 facilitators in two separate rooms. It was part of a six-week program on “Creating a Sustainable Tampa Bay community”. The first week, Margaret Wheatley was addressing and engaging the group on Skype; then Week 2 was a World Café.
Wk 3 was Open Space. The group responded so well that we decided to have Open Space in Wks 4 and 5. The first two sessions focused on emerging and discussing Topics; the last session focused on convergence: prioritizing and inviting action. Our goal was to maximize the time that participants would have together and minimize facilitator face time. The schedule looked like this: 3 minutes: Opening remarks by the Host 12 minutes Opening the Circle (Facilitator) 10 minutes Posting and announcing topics on the Bulletin Board 5 minutes Shop the marketplace 35 minutes Conversations and preparation of 1 flip chart sheet (3 summary points) 10 minutes Closing circle In order to save on any prep or facilitator time, we made sure to have everything ready in one big room with places for topic discussions all set up with chairs, etc. and on the floor a quick reminder instruction sheet of the “topic initiator role” and also a “participant sign-up sheet”. Our greatest concern is that we wanted to honor the spirit and energy in opening, holding and closing space in every way possible. In the end, it was amazing that it worked as it did. I would not choose to do a 75 minute Open Space if it had only been a one-time event but in this case, we had 2 more weeks so people had an opportunity to engage in the spirit of play, passion and responsibility being butterflies and bumble bees over time. I saw how well it can work with multiple sessions. It seems that’s the situation you have also Annamarie. What I learned is the huge benefit of having Open Space over a period of time. It made me realize that in our organizations, it would be fantastic to run meetings this way not just as one Special Open Space Event. My focus in the future is to build more time for conversations with hosts of Open Space to pre-plan and imagine the post-work of Open Space i.e. places to open space as a way of running our businesses or non-profits. I am still learning but with this university experience last fall, I saw that once people understand and give themselves permission to choose and follow their passion and energy, lots of good stuff happens. I have since heard from a colleague that the University sponsor of this program remarked that the students who took part last year are different in a very positive way and he seemed to feel that this experience had something to do with it. Hope this helps. Here’s a link that includes 5 of our 6 weeks in pictures and words. http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-powerpoint/ Annamarie I’ll say “go for it”; jump right in and just do it. I had lots of butterflies as I often do when I try something like this but again the philosophy of “be prepared to be surprised” gifted me with a magical experience and I feel so grateful. Suzanne On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Annamarie Pluhar <annama...@pluharconsulting.com> wrote: > Hoping this gets through... I tried to send a few days ago... > > Hi all, > I'm wondering if anyone has opened space for a 90-minute session? And if so, > how'd it go? I'm thinking it would take 20-30 minutes before groups started > talking, so there may be time for one session? Closing circle of 15 minutes? > It seems too short to me. I'm asking because I'm considering proposing OS > for a group that meets once a month of between 20-40 people. > Harrison will say go for it. I'm wondering whether anyone has. > Thanks! > > Annamarie Pluhar > Pluhar Consulting > Results through effective group process > http://www.pluharconsulting.com > 802.451.1941 > 802.579.5975 (cell) > > > > > > > * * ========================================================== > 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 -- Suzanne Daigle NuFocus Strategic Group 7159 Victoria Circle University Park, FL 34201 FL 941-359-8877; CT 203-722-2009 www.nufocusgroup.com s.dai...@nufocusgroup.com * * ========================================================== 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