Dear all I posted this article online (you can read it with the links working here: https://rationalmadness.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/what-happens-when-you-bring-a-conference-mindset-to-a-unconference/ )
A few OS folk suggested I share it here too in case any fruitful thoughts emerge. best wishes Paul levy *What happens when you bring a conference mindset to an unconference?* I’ve attended three unconferences in a row recently that all claimed to make use of open space technology. All three started very promisingly with some tea and coffee and a big circle of chairs, not to mention reassuringly blank walls and the smell of sticky tack. We settle to silence as a facilitator stands up and there are smiles in some, a sense of anticipatory earnestness in others. We are told that this conference is going to be different, and that the big difference is embodied in the two letters “un”. For this is an unconference, unlike any normal conference, unusual for some, undoing the traditional models of pre-decided meetings, unplanned, undecided, unravelling in undesigned ways – in fact, generally “un.” And that’s why we are here – for an emergent, self-organised conversation. In all three unconferences, the “conference” bit began quickly to suffocate and drive out the “un”. I don’t intend to name and shame these events specifically. But there’s some possibly useful reflecting to be done for anyone interested in unconferences and open space. *Story 1* In story one, the facilitator over-facilitated the market place, “pushed” for sessions and seemed unable to cope with silence. This led to the facilitator looking at “allies” in the circle and hoping with popping eyesballs that they would get up and offer a session. This indeed happened and it stifled the more spontaneous potential in the room. The facilitator fussed around sessions like a mother hen and kept making announcements about how much time was left for sessions. “Of course, you can go on as long as you all want, but I just wanted to let you know that….” At the end of the day, the closing circle was over-facilitated and people were nudged to speak and the allies were once again picked out like plants in an audience. *Story 2* In this unconference there were half a dozen pre-set keynote talks – five minutes long each before we opened the circle. This pulverised the energy in the room and we were promised some more in the afternoon. The facilitators couldn’t just trust the space to open and had preloaded the day with some traditional content. Several five minutes turned into ten and there were Powerpoint bullet points aplenty. It was as if open space couldn’t be trusted. The unconference was the filling in a kind of shit sandwich. On reflection, the keynote talks really had little to bring to the day and they jarred with the spirit of open space and unconferencing, almost a facilitated act of hypocrisy. The afternoon sessions in the open space dwindled and many people left (politely or furtively) at lunchtime. I sense some irritation at the “designed” and imposed part of the day. *Story 3* This was a very dynamic day but the sessions felt a bit “cooked”. This was because of two unnecessary facilitator interventions. The first was this: Instead of an open space marketplace, we were all given post-it notes and had to write our sessions. We then announced them to the group, one by one and put them on a wall. This meant that silence for some people wasn’t offered as an option. We were then sent for coffee as the second unneeded intervention took place. The facilitation team tried to group the topics and then allocated them (and us) to time slots and rooms. I found myself twice in a room with so many topics forced together that some issues weren’t covered and we remained very general. Of course, we were told, we could use the law of two feet and I did notice that happening more than at some unconferences I have been to. It took quite a while for those post-it notes to be grouped and, looking back, I do wonder why the facilitators didn’t keep faith with the unconference spirit and just let people announce sessions, times and rooms themselves. *Reflecting on all three stories* I had the chance to observe all three stories as a participant. All of the facilitators were “nice” people. All wanted the day to work and all had stumbled upon unconferencing at some recent time in their lives. Two had clearly copied the events they had attended. One had simply chosen to tinker with open space and add in more facilitation. In all three cases, the interventions affected the process, I believe, negatively. They did that by: *- being too dominant as a “speaker” at the start, and setting themselves up as leaders* *- by weaving over-heavy content into the event – unneeded talks, delivered by bullet point slides* *- being uneasy, and unable to deal with silence and patient openness* *- by trying to organise the content and, insodoing, taking ownership of that process away from the participants* *One less thing to do! * Harrison Owen, the herald of open space technology, regularly entreats facilitators to look for one less thing to do. We should only add in to open space when that truly feels needed in the moment. Over many years, even decades of open space, it hardly ever makes sense to complicate, and the role of the facilitator is really to disappear as quickly as possible. Self-organise doesn’t need to be externally organised. Open Space technology and all true unconferences are “un” because they offer the absolute minimal process and structure to create a space for self-organised conversing and working. It isn’t ever about the facilitator. Facilitation is really one less thing to do. There’s a huge difference between doing good and do-gooding so, whatever the benevolent motive, unconferences do not need over-fussy, interfering facilitators. We do not need to fatten or muscle up an open space conference with a few injected keynotes or some clever facilitated “tool”. “Just open the space” – and I would add “get the hell out of there, or join in the conversation.” Not all unconferences confirm to the model proposed as “open space technology”. Most alternatives are designed with a bit more process embedded. But even in these alternatives, (World Cafe is an example), the same conference mindset can been seen, where the facilitator tampers with the process in ways that over-complicate and undermine it. ei1 So what was really going on? What I believe was at the heart of those three stories is a “conference mindset”. It is a kind of paradox. When you still hold a conference mindset, an unconference is a risk and it is easy to dilute it, to revert bits of it back to a more controlled, designed process. In a conference mindset, facilitation is viewed as an important leadership role. At its worst, you are the captain of the Good Ship Emergence and, though we may not know exactly where we are going, it is YOUR boat and YOUR wheel. All of this stifles the potential in the space which is opening. Sometimes the space doesn’t open at all – people zip their mouths, get irritated, superficially compliant and even fearful. Most just collude with the developing mediocrity Often the facilitators look relaxed, enjoying their own sense of “cool” and are certainly fired up and excited. Often the event falls short but a conference mindset often has lowered expectations etched into behaviour as a norm and so, when the event doesn’t reach its potential, it is still named and celebrated as revolutionary, successful and “the neatest thing we’ve ever done.”. A conference mindset tries to design the unconference to succeed. it tries to engineer that success often losing faith with the truly open and minimally structured nature of open space. Open Space Technology is beautiful. A conference mindset can add wrinkles to its brows and cease up its joints. Delightfully I have occasionally witnessed self-organising communities ignore the interventions anyway. But not always. Often it is a missed chance. Often it feels a bit ugly. Some questions to think about before designing an unconference If you recognise yourself in any of the stories above, I’d like to leave you with a few questions to ponder… … on second thoughts, you decide what those questions are.
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