Dear Michael Thank you for your detailed response. There’s a lot of valuable suggestions and explanations in there I’ll use in future.
Stuart On 3 Feb 2016, at 1:17 am, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpannw...@gmail.com> wrote: Dear Stuart, in my facilitation practice and that of many others, there were always preparations made for more issues than would be held by the places and timeslots. Almost always, there were additional breakout space planned and could quickly be set up when the need arose during marketplace or later. Beginning times are more limited but regularly participants would creat additional beginning times before, during and after the "regular" beginning and ending times of the day. In a multiple day event which then also has several gatherings of all participants for evening news and morning announcements (in a three day event that would be 4 occasions: first evening, following morning, second evening, second morning... not (officially) on the last evening before the third day which is reserved for Action Planning (also called Action Space)... ok, in a multiple day event pariticpans are invited to post additional issues at each of the 4 occasions in this example AND throughout the entire event (this would require the posted issues to all remain on the bulletin board throughout the event). In this way you might have many more isssues and the need for spaces. When you have a "regular" planning process before the event with a "planning group" including the sponsor, questions such as number of spaces, length of breakout sessions (sometimes these are of different lengths and since they are not from lets say 10 to 11:30 but only have beginning times such as 10, 11.30, 14, 15:30 etc leaving it up to the specific requirements of the breakouts)... ok, if you have a planning phase, lots of these details are worked on in the planning group and noty "set" by the facilitator all by him- or herself. (For issues coming up after all the published space is used up, typically extra postits for additional spaces are published after all the published space is used up... this always worked but it needs to be planned for so everyone involved can quickly arrange/set up the spaces... a good example is the large os with 2000+ participants back in 2003 in Wuerzburg where we had "predicted" 150 issues spread over three time slots requiring 50 "spaces"... it turned out there were 220+ issues requiring 75 spaces... fortunately the whole spaces set up was done with numbered balloons spread all over the venue (in an "orderly" way), so we just added numbers 51 through 75 and let the participants set up the additional spaces (the large team on the premises did not have to help other than blowing up the balloons and numbering them and attaching them to 1kg sand bags to keep them from floating wherever). Over the years, the bulletin board has changed from earlier versions (such as the one your tried) to a version that only has times across the top and no room slots, the room slots arranged through postits that have the time and room symbol and can be stuck to the issues (and, of course, easily moved to other issues... or the issues being moved from one beginning time to another), That provided for more flexibility doing away with any need by anyone to rearrange a structure, the structure itself bein easily modiefied by the participants. This might all sound pretty complex... once you are into it you will notice, or at least I have, that participants thrive in that kind of environment: Space and time are theirs, and it seems to provide just the right conditions for the force of selforganisation to have a balle: No or very little control. In your example your move to just let the participants figure it out is the best thing you could have done and as far as I know its also the only thing you could have... you would have never figured it out yourself for them. I would not have predicted that they would do what they did in your case BUT when they ran into some trouble (at least to the observer) they were already well advanced into the field of selforganisation and solved it in some unpredictable way (be prepared to be surprised) which was their structure that nobody could have thunk up for them. Greetings from Berlin and keep having productive fun! mmp PS: Even if you dont read German you might profit from looking at "Meine open space Praxis" which is also available as ebook with loads of bright colour pictures showing a myriad of bulleting boards, market place and such esoteric stuff. Go here hardcopy > https://www.westkreuz-verlag.de/de/Meine-open-space-Praxis ebook (pictures really come well as compared to the printed version > https://www.westkreuz-verlag.de/de/Meine-open-space-Praxis-E-Book On 02.02.2016 17:20, Stuart Turner via OSList wrote: > Dear Harrison > > Thanks for the suggestion. It being the facilitator’s decision to > decide the number of spaces and the number and length of the > time-slots when creating the marketplace has never felt comfortable > whether I was facilitating or watching someone else. It seemed the > facilitator needed to do more than minimal thinking and could > actually be considered planning/predicting, when who knows what would > happen, how many sessions would be identified, etc. > > I know people facilitate this in different ways, and my experience > might be considered an invitation for others to share their > experience of doing this. I haven’t seen anyone invite people to > create more spaces or time slots on the agenda before but have seen > them emerge without being on the marketplace. > > I did consider whether to have another space when creating the > initial marketplace but once I opened it to the group I didn’t think > of facilitating making an adjustment. > > I also haven’t seen many additional topics be created after the > initial marketplace has been created. > > I’m wondering if anyone will share when else, acting as a > facilitator, they might invite a modification to the marketplace. > > Stuart > > > > > On 2 Feb 2016, at 10:51 pm, Harrison Owen <hho...@verizon.net> > wrote: > > Small suggestion Stuart... next time you find yourself cramped for > time/spaces just invite everybody to create more time/space. No > hassle. No haggle... Just announce your issues, take a blank post-it > (you will need some blanks) describe a time, choose a space (the > Piano, patio, bar for examples) and post it on the wall. No sweat and > you will have plenty of time for a break. > > ho > > Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 > > Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 > > Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, > unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go > to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > -----Original Message----- From: OSList > [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Stuart > Turner via OSList Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 4:33 AM To: > oslist@lists.openspacetech.org Subject: [OSList] Whatever happens... > > Yesterday I facilitated a two-hour open space at the end of a > training course for 30 people. I explained the principles, the law, > etc. and described the marketplace. The marketplace had four time > slots across the top and four locations down the side. After they had > filled the marketplace with about 25 sessions, they asked me what > they should do. I said “It’s up to you”. They started swapping the > headings so times now went down the side and locations went across > the top. > > Thinking of the many suggestions to "get out of the way” and “make it > obvious you’re not an authority”, I decided to take a bathroom > break. > > On my return I approached one of the spaces to find several of the > sessions pasted on the wall. I turned to look at the marketplace to > discover only the time slots and locations remained. Each location > had all its sessions stuck on the wall. > > Whatever happens, I thought. > > After noticing there was some confusion about trying to discuss all > sessions at the same time, conversations moved to become about a more > defined topic (at least of few of which were not one of the topics on > the wall). > > The closing circle had about half the participants speak, with many > sounding quite enthusiastic about their experience and what the theme > meant for their organisation. I noticed many of the people were > directing their summary to the most senior person in the room. Some > even referred to that person specifically “I don’t know if I should > say this while the boss is here”, and similar comments. > > I wondered whether the space was beginning to close at that time. > > Perhaps I could have done a better job of facilitating or explaining, > during the introduction. Regardless, it’s probably the only thing > that could have happened. > > Stuart _______________________________________________ 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 > > > > _______________________________________________ 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 > -- Michael M Pannwitz Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany ++49 - 30-772 8000 Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 402 resident Open Space Workers in 67 countries working in a total of 143 countries worldwide: www.openspaceworldmap.org _______________________________________________ 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
