Re: [OSList] Who Opens the Space?

[Chris Corrigan via OSList]

Inspired by Dee Hock, these days maybe I’ll say that the space is always 
infinitely open and as a host of an Open Space Technology meeting, my job is to 
work with sponsors and participants close it down in a way that allows for good 
work to be done. I use the boundaries of time and space, and the attractors of 
invitation and intention to create a smaller space to do things.  Creating a 
smaller container is the art of holding space and it takes a bit of experience 
and wisdom to learn how to make the space not too big or too small.  

Chris

> On May 17, 2019, at 4:00 AM, Jan Hoglund via OSList 
>  wrote:
> 
> Here's a story about when the group itself opens its own space...
> 
> It's an excerpt from Dee Hock's book One from Many, pp. 205-207 (Kindle 
> edition).
> 
> "Three hours into the morning, an agenda for the remainder of the three-day 
> meeting was proposed. It contained nothing about the failed effort at 
> reorganization other than a brief report at the end of the final day. An 
> annoyed murmur swept the room. A member rose and angrily complained. ... A 
> chorus of “Hear, hear,” “Absolutely,”“ Right on,” immediately arose. ... The 
> hum of discontent grew louder. The chairman of the international committee 
> rose to offer his version of the situation and induce the members to accept 
> the proposed agenda, as did another member of the committee. ... The murmur 
> of discontent grew louder. ... Efforts to continue the proposed agenda 
> collapsed, as members demanded time to meet privately with one another and 
> discuss the situation with their representatives on the organizing committee. 
> ... The agenda was resumed the second day, but few paid any attention to it. 
> Self-organizing discussions continued. By the end of the second day, several 
> people had gracefully withdrawn from the international organizing committee 
> with profuse thanks for their hard work. Others had been appointed. The 
> chairman had withdrawn “to allow others an opportunity to serve.” In the late 
> afternoon of the third day, the newly constituted committee met, firmly 
> committed themselves to a renewed effort, and asked if we would resume our 
> efforts as organizing agent. We agreed, providing only that henceforth all 
> differences should be open, honest, and constructive. All agreed that was as 
> it should be, and from then on, with minor exceptions, so it was. By the end 
> of the meeting, no one had lost face, all those who had served were honored 
> for their efforts, no more was said of the past, and everyone’s energy turned 
> to the future."
> 
> /Jan Höglund, Sweden
> 
> 
> ___
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Re: [OSList] OSList Digest, Vol 97, Issue 13

[gerardo de luzenberger via OSList]

CIao Allie, nice to read you here.
This is what I know

Save the Date! October 25-27, Friday through Sunday

For the World Open Space on Open Space 2019

In Cherry Hill Park, 980 Cherry Hill Road, College Park, Maryland
(30-45 minutes from Washington, DC and both airports.)

Thursday Evening Gathering and Story Telling

ge





*AGILE AND FACILITATION IAF EME CONFERENCE 2019
*
*Milano, 2-4 maggio 2019*

Office: Via A. Volta 6 - 20121 Milano – Italy
Phone: +39 3293281343 -Fax: +39 02 87151318 - Skype: gerardodeluz
*x...@loci.it * - *www.loci.it  *




*Please consider the environment before deciding to print this e-mail*
This e-mail (and any attachment(s)) is strictly confidential and for use
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please notify it via e-mail ati...@loci.it
 promptly



Il giorno gio 16 mag 2019 alle ore 17:45 Allie Middleton via OSList <
oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> ha scritto:

> ola, greetings!
>
> could someone kindly post the DC/October OS on OS registration info here,
> pls?
>
>  thank you
>
> *Allie Middleton *
> *Create it! ...an extra miracle, extra and ordinary: the unthinkable can
> be embodied in action!*
>
> Vimeo short on Social Presencing Theatre: https://vimeo.com/314787723
>
> On May 16, 2019, at 11:31, Chris Corrigan via OSList <
> oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> Wow. Boise. What prompted that move?
>
> C
>
> _
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> www.chriscorrigan.com
>
> On May 16, 2019, at 4:12 AM, Michael M Pannwitz via OSList <
> oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Mark,
>
>
> I assume that its not distraction that prevents people from listening.
>
> My observation is that the reaction time to stuff we hear or observe is so
> short that it can not come from the active brain. Its mostly a reflex,
> sometimes deeply conditioned, that triggers the inactive brain to suggest
> an answer at the speed of light (at least much faster than we can think).
> One might get some control over this mindless, thoughtless reflexive mode
> by  consciously counting to three (slowly), about the time needed for the
> active mind to come up with something other than a reflex which is not
> chosen by the active brain, but forced upon us.
>
>
> have a great day
>
> mmp
>
>
> Am 16.05.2019 um 02:41 schrieb Mark Carmel via OSList:
>
> That is right Harrison Owen it IS in the book.  THE Bible  Of cooperation
> communication and collaboration the highest life forms of the human spirit.
> When I set the world record you know open space in 1993 for convening the
> largest conference in the world at that time of 700 people I was scared to
> death and I followed The Bible. Now 26 years later  Segments of our
> community school system have been transformed  Significantly for the better
> with incredible success stories by the people who acted to step up and take
> responsibility.   One of the problems in our world right now is people are
> so distracted they don't  Listen or try to understand. It's in the book.
>
> On Wed, May 15, 2019, 2:57 PM  mailto:oslist-requ...@lists.openspacetech.org
> >> wrote:
>
>   Send OSList mailing list submissions to
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>   than "Re: Contents of OSList digest..."
>
>   Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: Sample Opening Script for Open Space w/o Time Slots?
>
>  (Anna Caroline T?rk)
>
>   2. Re: Sample Opening Script for Open Space w/o Time Slots?
>
>  (Harrison Owen)
>
>   --
>
>   Message: 1
>
>   Date: Tue, 14 May 2019 23:39:33 +0200
>
>   From: Anna Caroline T?rk 
>   >
>
>   To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
>
>
>    >>
>
>   Cc: Jake Yeager 
>   >, Michael
> Herman
>
>mailto:mich...@michaelherman.com
> >>
>
>   Subject: Re: [OSList] Sample Opening Script for Open Space w/o Time
>
>Slots?
>
>   Message-ID: 
>    >>
>
>   Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>   You can also go to the resource page on boscop.org
>
>    and 

Re: [OSList] Who Opens the Space?

[Jan Hoglund via OSList]

Here's a story about when the group itself opens its own space...

It's an excerpt from Dee Hock's book One from Many, pp. 205-207 (Kindle 
edition).

"Three hours into the morning, an agenda for the remainder of the three-day 
meeting was proposed. It contained nothing about the failed effort at 
reorganization other than a brief report at the end of the final day. An 
annoyed murmur swept the room. A member rose and angrily complained. ... A 
chorus of “Hear, hear,” “Absolutely,”“ Right on,” immediately arose. ... The 
hum of discontent grew louder. The chairman of the international committee rose 
to offer his version of the situation and induce the members to accept the 
proposed agenda, as did another member of the committee. ... The murmur of 
discontent grew louder. ... Efforts to continue the proposed agenda collapsed, 
as members demanded time to meet privately with one another and discuss the 
situation with their representatives on the organizing committee. ... The 
agenda was resumed the second day, but few paid any attention to it. 
Self-organizing discussions continued. By the end of the second day, several 
people had gracefully withdrawn from the international organizing committee 
with profuse thanks for their hard work. Others had been appointed. The 
chairman had withdrawn “to allow others an opportunity to serve.” In the late 
afternoon of the third day, the newly constituted committee met, firmly 
committed themselves to a renewed effort, and asked if we would resume our 
efforts as organizing agent. We agreed, providing only that henceforth all 
differences should be open, honest, and constructive. All agreed that was as it 
should be, and from then on, with minor exceptions, so it was. By the end of 
the meeting, no one had lost face, all those who had served were honored for 
their efforts, no more was said of the past, and everyone’s energy turned to 
the future."

/Jan Höglund, Sweden


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Re: [OSList] Who Opens the Space?

[christine koehler via OSList]

Hi everyone


Long time not jumped into such an interesting conversation - I miss them- but I 
try to catch up from times to times.

I believe that there are different levels of opening space.

In myself first. it took me years to dare open myself to space, and as Michael 
says, sometimes it’s wide open, sometimes only half and at some points 
completely closed. It depends on many factors, including subject, confidence, 
passion, responsability etc..
Right now there is a battle inside me between opening and closing and it’s 
painful. My inner battle speaks about leadership : do I feel confident enough 
in my vision for people to follow me ?

Last year, I co-facilitated 3 open space events for 400 people. I was 
introduced to the client by a colleague whom I respect deeply, a very good 
professional, who participated in one of Harrison’s open space (she said 
training, but as Harrison don’t train people, who knows what she meant). We 
worked together, designed a first workshop for the managers to explain the new 
vision of the company  and prepare everyone for the OS events. I discovered in 
this workshop that I have a big blind spot, which is a tendency to flee when 
there is something difficult going on that I don’t understand . She did handle 
it : it was a logistic question : rooms were not indicated properly so some 
people could not join the team they wanted to join and were upset. it took a 
moment to understand the cause -room not labeled- Everything then went fine. 
But, she would not trust me fully after that and I could understand why. So we 
decided to be 2 facilitators for each OS events. And a team of experienced 
facilitators to handle newsroom, logistics etc. As she wasn’t available for the 
3 events, I co-facilitated with another guy twice.

I loved the co-faciltation process. I hated  the co-facilitation process. It 
was sometimes smooth, sometimes difficult. We had lots of logistic problems for 
the first event to solve : noisy and crowed space, as at the last moment the 
space was smaller than formerly agreed. So we used rooms of some participants 
to add some extra breakout rooms. 
When space opened, I saw that my view of an OS facilitator was different from 
my  co-facilitators : they would intervene much more than I would. They would 
for instance suggest to some groups to split into 2 if the group was big. They 
would suggest to move a bit to find a quieter space etc.. I would tend to be 
available to chat with people who needed a bit of permission to lead a session 
(it was a whole company OS, all from top to bottom, and although the company is 
pretty « flat » and owned by them, assistants were less comfortable leading 
sessions on sensitive topics like salary, bonus etc. than experts).  
Is this important ? Does it talk about opening space and self-organisation ? or 
has it something to do with helping the client achieve his goal ? What should I 
learn form this ? Where do I stand ? Am I open to learn ?
As always in an OS event, no matter what role I have, I had to make space 
inside me for 2 different spaces : my own individual inner space, chaotic as I 
was living all those questions, and my inner space as facilitator , whose role 
is to be present and « keep" space open for the group.

The second one is the space that it opens in each participant. My colleague had 
advised the leadership team not to jump into discussions and do much listening. 
That was very interesting to see the different reactions of each of them. 
No-one of those 17 people offered a session for any of the event. OK, we are in 
France folks, we are supposed to be very top-down (sometimes I agree) so the 
fear is that when the boss says something, they all shut up and agree. Maybe. I 
am not convinced. But what I could see is that this leadership team did not 
dare to open fully. 
For the first half day of the first open space, the leadership team shut up. 
and thought things like «  oh my god, they lack so many information, they tell 
bullshit, we won't get anywhere ». I encouraged them to speak but still some 
didn’t. When the Managing Director finally spread up the word « speak up, 
explain to them everything », they finally did. waooo. 
After the mission was over, when we debriefed everything, the Managing Director 
said : « it has been the most fabulous moment I ever lived in my professional 
life ». waoo again. My belief is that it it opened something inside himself. As 
OS always does.
I won’t tell you about opening from people who were not used to lead, for it be 
biased by what happened after the OS event - the tendency to close space and go 
back to prior state of equilibrium applies here.

And finally the group itself opens its own space. It always opens in a OS 
event, no matter how small the space is of cours you all know that.You see it 
while looking at the fluidity, the movements, the noise up and down, the law of 
2 feet used or not that much. A mediator recently sent me a paragraph he wrote