Welcome to facilitation, Daniel - Open Space and all the other forms of inviting people to converse about what matters to them, Lisa
On Jun 21, 2015, at 4:45 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > Lately I'm noticing that people are absolutely starved for genuine connection > with other humans. Or, so it seems... > > ...I'm coming to this conclusion as a result of getting more and more > experience doing these Open Space events in organizations and conferences. > > At a conference at PMI in Boston last Friday, I facilitated an very short > event that was 1 hour from end to end. We did 5-minute sessions to introduce > the format. All 50++ of them were completely new to it. In the closing > circle, these people reported genuine authentic pleasure in connecting with > others. > > This was more than a little strange to me, since the 3 sessions were just 5 > minutes long. > > Earlier that same week, inside an organization, with about 20-25 people, > Harold and I with Louise Kold Taylor literally "threw together" an OST event > last Tuesday. It was all improv. We were winging it. We were all unsettled. > We were all making sh*t up on the fly. We had like 20 minutes to set it up > and convene. > > It wasn't supposed to work. > > This "improv-episode" was missing many of the standard elements in the > standard OST composition. > I'm embarrassed to say which... and how many. > > And hey guess what? There was loads of connection and engagement by and > between the members. LOADS. > > This from an organization "with no time" to do such things. This via an > "unsettled" facilitator. We scheduled the 45-min sessions for 10AM, 1045AM, > 330PM and 415PM. So there was this huge gap in the schedule. We did not > expect the afternoon sessions to be attended at all. What was amazing to us > was the fact that almost all of them returned for the afternoon sessions and > they all immediately engaged. > > All of which had me scratching my head for quite awhile. Do you know what I > mean? As in, "what the heck is going on here?" > > Why is this OST thing so robust, even when some of the essential "big O, big > S" elements are missing? When there is "no time?" When there is no planning? > When the facilitator is not really prepared? > > What is making this OST stuff work, even when it's "slipshod" in terms of > planning and form? > > My current hypothesis is: typical people in our world are literally starved > for real connection. > > And that anything, anywhere resembling anything AT ALL that looks like a > genuine and authentic opportunity to connect ... is going to work. > > And this without "management" of things like "when to start", "when to stop", > "topics", "silence", etc. > > This Human-Connection-Starvation hypothesis might tend to explain: why OST > always seems to (mysteriously) work, why getting out of the way is a primary > job of the facilitator, etc. > > Daniel > http://OpenSpaceAgility.com > http://DanielMezick.com >
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