One response is: practice. People gain more facility at hosting a breakout and participating in a breakout by doing more of them and learning. So I'm interested in fostering a culture of interaction and learning.
I love the Fourfold Practice in the Art of Hosting for this reason. As a simple potent framework for practice and learning these arts of participatory leadership. Hosting oneself, participating, hosting conversation, and cocreating a community of learning. Open space is a fine space for practice of all these. I can offer tools at each breakout space such as notepads and even creativity tools like clay and pipe cleaners and the like. Yet what happens is always ... the only thing that could've. What I can say as I open space is limited and I don't know that people are really hanging on every word. So I tend to take a longer term view and hold space for trying and learning and trying some more. Thanks for the inquiry! Jeff -------- Original message -------- From: Paul Nunesdea via OSList <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> Date:03/22/2015 8:23 AM (GMT-08:00) To: Lucas Cioffi <lu...@qiqochat.com>,World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> Subject: Re: [OSList] Great formats for breakout sessions? Hi Lucas, Spot on. I have seen this happening, the energy gets wasted, specially in small OS seems that social pressures inhibits the Law of two feet. Wonder if the same happens in virtual OS, where people can actually leave the "virtual rooms" without any social pressure... Thanks for such well thought questions. Best Paul From my iPad On 22/3/2015, at 15:10, Lucas Cioffi via OSList <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: Hi All, I checked the OST User's Guide and the OS List archives, but I didn't find any mention of what format the breakout sessions can/should take. During some but not all OS events I've attended, facilitators have mentioned that breakout sessions should be conversations rather than presentations. The OS philosophy would say "there's no need to suggest how to run a breakout session" and "empower the participants to choose their own formats for each session" and "do less" and "it just happens". However, we all know from firsthand experience that some breakout sessions are more personally satisfying/rewarding than others, just as some 3-person coffee break conversations during normal conferences are better than others. Here are some potential problems with breakout sessions if they are implemented poorly by participants: There can be too many sub-topics for the breakout session so some ideas do not get brought up at all. Most of the time people do not brainstorm all the topics at the beginning of a session and they dive right into the discussion of the first issue that comes to mind. So they don't ever know all the topics that are on everyone's minds. Some people do no feel comfortable for various reasons related to introversion, discrimination, or office politics, so they never speak up. As facilitators, we know ways to avoid this but the participants may not know how to avoid these meeting pitfalls. One person dominates the discussion. The built-in remedy for this is that everyone else votes with their feet and leaves to form their own breakout session later, but sometimes this doesn't happen and it's simply a lost opportunity for everyone. Here are my questions for the group: 1. What formats to the breakout sessions usually take at events that you facilitate, and are some of these formats better than others in your opinion? 2. What formats could breakout sessions take? Someone usually starts with why they convened the session, but then what usually happens? What could happen? 3. What meeting tools/aides/games can help improve the quality of breakout sessions? Thank you for your insights! -- Lucas Cioffi Facilitation Community of Practice on QiqoChat Charlottesville, VA 917-528-1831 _______________________________________________ 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 Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
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