Dear Martin, Harrison, Lisa Thank you very much for your answers. It helped !
I had the call with the guy, and we had a long conversation together. We talk about the range of outcomes he wished for. Having Harrison's voice in mind I told him that to my knowledge, there was no other way to have 90 people engage in 3 hours with the ability to act together soon and keep connected on the long run in spite of divergent interests. he insisted on having 2 guys presenting briefly before I explained how it worked. We ended up with the agreement of 5 people supposed to speak 5 mn each, including himself. Of course they spoke 10 mn each, so I shortened the opening keeping it to a minimum. It was obvious that the sponsor was doubtful and his glances at me - and his team- were quite cold. But he played the game. And guess what... of course it worked ! There were 30 sessions and about 20 action plans. In spite of heat wave (and no chairs for breakout sessions , because of no chairs allowed in the huge hall...), people didn't leave during breaks, and obviously were not in a hurry to leave after the closing... Everybody was very happy. During closing circle, all standing, the sponsor admitted he was very doubtful, then added quietly" today I learned a lesson about participative democracy". Another guy said he was used to open space, and that this one was very convivial. :) I'm glad I know how to breathe. Lisa, you asked me why I am asking when I know the answers. Precisely for these reasons. Knowing that there are other people somewhere that are as crazy as I am and do believe the same, help me breathe and open the space the best I can. Christine On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 6:51 PM, Lisa Heft - <lisah...@openingspace.net> wrote: > Hi, Christine - > > Several things come to mind. And I know you already had your phone > appointment. And I am wondering what you sensed and did and what happened. > But still I will share reflections if it helps in general or as you reflect. > > 1) What does your intuition / gut / sensing say? I imagine you know your > own answer. Is there a reason you hesitate when you can feel inside exactly > what to do and say? > > 2) I agree that it sounds like OST is a good approach if the issue is > complex such as this. However there are huge power dynamics operating as > well, right? So these next things come to mind: > > - if the sponsor > > fear that there it will not enough reflect the diversity of actions and > timeframe and the possibility to create a kind of frame to support long > term action on the territory. > > — then her/his intuition may be speaking loudly, not just her/his fear, > no? If this all is so, does that not tell you both that it is more > important to take more time to plan (rather than the rushed planning) and > find a longer meeting time on another date? if it is so important? > > And SO many things support long-term action. Not a single short event by > itself. Instead, relationships, infrastructure, time, ability, resources, > partners, champions, desks and computers, ability to step outside one’s > daily tasks to add in these tasks, SO many things. Are these in place > before the event to support the actions that are being invited? If not, is > asking for action appropriate for this particular event? Or is this for > part of that strength, such as in ideas, relationships, and so on ? Does > all that have to be accomplished by one short event? And if it is complex, > why so short? > > 3) I always go with what is realistically achievable, given the > circumstances which I may or may not be able to inform. > > - Without knowing more details, dynamics, ideas and emotions brought up > during your pre-work conversations, I can only say that as an outsider to > this my own intuition / gut / body says to take advantage of what a short > OS meeting can =realistically= deliver - which is a highlighting of > emergent issues, ability for people to notice who else cares about these > things, ideas generated for opportunities and for describing challenges, > and that’s about it. With a documentation design that really captures, > with another event scheduled after people can rest and reflect on their > documentation (data), then going into the next step of mapping out (or even > a small group having a conversation about) what are resources / > relationships / realities for what in their systems can support actions, > then inviting people who are really the people who have > power-mobility-ability-relationship to identify and work on some actions, > and so on and so on in a chain of meetings and conversations. Not just a > quickie because (do I understand you correctly?) there was some meeting > time within a COP21 event. > > - Also with these power dynamics I would pay attention to other things > that can help as in: no introductions, no speeches, name tags only saying > names (not organizations or titles), and maybe even more of an emphasis in > the theme question on “I” to bring it into peoples’ bodies (mixed dynamics > here can often bring in tension and words of ‘somebody should’) - things > like that. > > Lastly, you asked what we did in a similar situation. I spoke to truth. > Always. “This will not work if you do x.” “If you want to do x, I can > support that by changing the process to do y but the Open Space process > will not work if you do that.” “Are you worried about x.” “You know that > will not fix x” “Then we need more time for inviting diverse people.” “Then > we need more hours in the meeting to embrace that tension and possibility.” > “That deliverable cannot be delivered in that short a time frame.” “Then we > must change the objective / theme / goal.” “Then we must schedule > additional meetings to accomplish each of these tasks over time.” “You know > that that does not support sustainability - you have seen it before, I am > sure.” And so on. > > He is such a busy man, you say. If so, it is essential to help him use his > (and others’) time wisely and productively. Right? That is what you do, > when you do your best, Christine… > > No doubt some of us may be sharing thoughts and experiences about these > sorts of things when we gather for the Open Space Learning Workshop in > Krakow September 8-10, and also during the WOSonOS on September 10-13. I > SO look forward to that... > > Lisa > > On Jun 29, 2015, at 11:32 AM, christine koehler via OSList < > oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > > Hi > > > of course, the way I put it sounds rather comic.. > > I am supposed to facilitated a 3h 1/2 OST next wednesday with 90 > participants from a very diverse background (impact of local actions on > climate change and COP21 -in Paris next fall- and they are all local > actors : politics, technicians, companies, non-profit etc.. Host is the > territorial entity via a statesman with a territoral mandate. > All has been organized in a few days, we have considered many different > design to come back to OST because of simplicity and efficiency . > But now the sponsor fear that there it will not enough reflect the > diversity of actions and timeframe and the possibility to create a kind of > frame to support long term action on the territory. > Diificulty lies in the goal : for the planning team, immediate need is the > use of the space that the entity is willing to rent (and pay for) during > COP21 BUT that has to be run collectively (and not as usual here « we do it > for you ») , for the politics, the goal is « long" term with something that > will be created and will last even after the COP21 event. > > I believe that OST s the only way that may reach all those goals in such a > short time frame (at least set the first step) but obviously there is no > control enough for him and now he want a few discourses speeches from a > variety of actors before opening the space so that everyone knows about all > this and that… > > What would help me is what you did in similar situation.. because I don’t > know what to tell him (« trust the process obviously does not work…) My > appointment (by phone of course, such a busy man) with him is in a few hours > > > > Christine > -- > > > > -- [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/>
_______________________________________________ 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