Hi Dan Wonderful ! I can see you walking away slowly from the center to open the market place. Very powerful way to show how to "get out of the way to let them go to work".
I am not sure to understand what you did for the closing circle. Was there one mic passed around the circle ? Or did you invite people who wanted to talk to do it together with their 2 neighbors , thus having only a (self)selection of participants talking ? christine On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 7:19 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList < oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > Greetings All, > > I recently received an invitation to open space twice (2 locations > scheduled one week apart) for a very large USA organization. Both events in > both locations had many hundreds in attendance; we arranged seating for 400 > at the 2nd event. (see link and pic listed below.) All in all over 1100 > persons in total received an invite to one or the other of these events. > > I learned a few things that I am sharing here now. My intention in sharing > is to help others who might find themselves arranging and executing > larger-attendance Open Space events.... > > > The general theme of the learning has everything to do with that idea of > 'one less thing to do'.... > > =============================================== > Thing1: Opening circle > =============================================== > > At the 1st event, when the moment of invitation arrived, I simply placed > the microphone very slowly in the center of the circle.. and very slowly > walked away, and found myself a seat. They figured the rest out ...without > any assistance whatsoever from me. Awkwardness was replaced by flow as they > realized I wasn't doing anything and the group advised itself. > > At the 2nd event, the client knew me and the process by then. So, after > putting that microphone down, I just went all the way ...and slowly vacated > the circle completely. It worked great...and felt really good too. I stood > motionless well away from the circle for several minutes before moving > slowly along to a new place and repeating that until I circled-the-circle > exactly one time. > > I plan to keep doing something like this going forward. > > Any stuff that needed "managing" was handled by the group without any help > from me. > > One less thing... > > > =============================================== > Thing2: Marketplace "help" > =============================================== > > For large gatherings, some OST sages suggest situating 'helpers' at the > time-space grid, presumably to assist participants if they need it. > > Not having done any OST events larger than 230 members, I was kind of > unsure about what to do about this. Felt to much like "managing stuff" to > me. So for the 2nd event I decided to omit any Marketplace assistance > whatsoever from the experience-design, even though the group was much > larger than my experience. > > After I slowly and deliberately explained and demonstrated the process of > posting to the Marketplace, I laid the microphone down at center very > deliberately, and slowly vacated the circle. And observed what they were > going to do. And almost immediately this one guy (who posted early) > lingered at the Marketplace. And he took it upon himself to orient anyone > who had a question. Some of those he oriented then began also orienting the > others. > > One less thing.... > > > =============================================== > Thing3: Space-Time Grid of Post-Its > =============================================== > > We expected 400++ so we had 18 session spaces and 5 1-hour time slots. We > we built a grid with 5 time-rows and 18 space-columns, with each time-row a > single color. Total 5X18=90 session tags. The 5 times were coded in 5 > colors. > > When it became obvious the attendance was under 300, we simply draped a > "curtain" of Post-It flip-chart pages over the rightmost end of these 5 > time-rows to truncate the number of available spaces from 18 to 13, for a > total of : > > [5 timerows] X [13 spacecolumns] = [65 total session tags] > > ...After the start of the first session-time we later exposed additional > space-columns 14 and 15 (each with 5 time-rows) so folks could add up to 10 > more sessions throughout the day if they wanted to do that. We also placed > the microphone over there. > > > > =============================================== > Thing 4: Whoops: Marketplace crowded by the circle; 1 MORE thing to do.... > =============================================== > > ...When we arrived the evening ahead of the event, this epic circle of 400 > chairs (see pics and links) was situated in the very center of room. The > circle was clearly crowding the Marketplace. > > It became obvious that about 50 chairs needed to be moved before the > Marketplace opened. We were told we could not move any chairs that evening. > (Something about facilities.) With the client, we decided to do the > following: > > ...At the moment just before the Marketplace was declared open, we paused > everyone and asked those 50 people seated in those 50 chairs if they might > be willing to get up, pick up their chair, and carry it over to the > opposite side of the space. It took about 45 seconds for the group to move > those 50 chairs. Thereafter we declared the Marketplace open. > > All in all a great event ensued. It was a large learning experience for > all of us who took part in arranging and executing these two larger events. > > > > =============================================== > Thing 5: Huge closing circle, not much time... > =============================================== > > Some more experienced Open Space friends suggested having 2 or more > "runners" each 2 microphones running around, instead of passing the > microphone from hand to hand. The so-called "popcorn" method. Imagining > this made me feel very uncomfortable, so I rejected it. I did not have an > alternative at the time but realized I had the current day and the whole > next day to come up with something. > > So I slept on it. > > I woke up with this: Closing circle: "Now we pass the microphone around, > to express what we think and feel, about our experience together...before > we start, take a look to your right and notice the [2] people sitting > closest to you .. (pregnant pause). Now look to the left and notice those > two folks also .. (pregnant pause). When you get the microphone, *connect > with those two people to your left, and you all decide who is going to > talk.* Then go, and when done, pass the microphone to the next [3] > people." > > ...the numbers 2 and 3 can be configured to match the situation at hand, > such that the closing can include everyone and stay within the time > constraint. > > > > > One less thing to do? > > > Kind Regards, > Daniel > > > > > > Link to larger picture: > https://twitter.com/DanielMezick/status/563596914193891328 > > > > > > > > -- > > Daniel Mezick, President > > New Technology Solutions Inc. > > (203) 915 7248 (cell) > > Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog > <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter > <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>. > > Examine my new book: The Culture Game > <http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the Agile > Manager. > > Explore Agile Team Training > <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching. > <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/> > > Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/> > Community. > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > -- [image: Christine Koehler, créatrice d'espace de Dialogue et de Coopération] Executive Coach, Médiateur www.christine-koehler.fr Tel : 06 13 28 71 38 Fax : 09 72 32 36 65 <http://christine-koehler.fr/2013/formation-de-levenement-au-processus-avril-2013/>
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