Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
Thank you so much for coming back on this Christine :-) Hege 7. juli 2015 kl. 23:33 skrev Marie Ann Östlund via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org: Thank you Christine, that was a brilliant learning! Inspiring. Marie Ann tisdag 7 juli 2015 skrev Catherine Pfaehler via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org: Ah, Christine, c’est trop beau – merci de l’avoir partagé! Meilleures salutations de Berne (très chaud aussi…), Catherine Catherine Pfaehler Burckhardtstrasse 2 CH - 3008 Bern +41-(0)31-536 05 31 Von: Suzanne Daigle via OSList [mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org] Gesendet: Montag, 6. Juli 2015 04:29 An: Christine; World wide Open Space Technology email list Betreff: Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ? Christine You rock. Thanks for posting! Thanks for sharing! Suzanne On Jul 5, 2015 9:11 AM, christine koehler via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org wrote: 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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
Ah, Christine, c’est trop beau – merci de l’avoir partagé! Meilleures salutations de Berne (très chaud aussi…), Catherine Catherine Pfaehler Burckhardtstrasse 2 CH - 3008 Bern +41-(0)31-536 05 31 Von: Suzanne Daigle via OSList [mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org] Gesendet: Montag, 6. Juli 2015 04:29 An: Christine; World wide Open Space Technology email list Betreff: Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ? Christine You rock. Thanks for posting! Thanks for sharing! Suzanne On Jul 5, 2015 9:11 AM, christine koehler via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org wrote: 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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
Thank you Christine, that was a brilliant learning! Inspiring. Marie Ann tisdag 7 juli 2015 skrev Catherine Pfaehler via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org: Ah, Christine, c’est trop beau – merci de l’avoir partagé! Meilleures salutations de Berne (très chaud aussi…), Catherine Catherine Pfaehler Burckhardtstrasse 2 CH - 3008 Bern +41-(0)31-536 05 31 *Von:* Suzanne Daigle via OSList [mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','oslist@lists.openspacetech.org');] *Gesendet:* Montag, 6. Juli 2015 04:29 *An:* Christine; World wide Open Space Technology email list *Betreff:* Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ? Christine You rock. Thanks for posting! Thanks for sharing! Suzanne On Jul 5, 2015 9:11 AM, christine koehler via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','oslist@lists.openspacetech.org'); wrote: 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 javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
OK Christine, you made your point. What did I know? It always works. I think I heard that somewhere before. Well done! Harrison 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 From: OSList [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of christine koehler via OSList Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2015 9:11 AM Cc: OSLIST Subject: Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ? 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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
Christine You rock. Thanks for posting! Thanks for sharing! Suzanne On Jul 5, 2015 9:11 AM, christine koehler via OSList oslist@lists.openspacetech.org wrote: 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,
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
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
[OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
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 -- ___ 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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
Does sort of put you in a hard place, Christine! J It never fails to amaze me how people create situations bound for failure, and then try to throw the responsibility to somebody else. Frankly there is no process on earth, of which I am aware, which would enable 90 disparate people to achieve the results expected, all in three hours. Of course if you cut the time further by adding a few speakers you can pretty well guarantee total frustration. If it is worth while doing, it is worth while doing well, I do believe. And doing what seems to asked for is not only an exercise in futility, but demeaning/insulting to the participants as well. Oh well, I guess it is really fortunate that I am several thousand miles away. I am sure I would create a whole mess of trouble. Harrison 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 http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: OSList [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of christine koehler via OSList Sent: Monday, June 29, 2015 2:33 PM To: OSLIST Subject: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ? 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 -- ___ 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
Re: [OSList] urgent need of your wisdom : how to reassure a political guy who fears that the OST format will not be inclusive enough ?
Hi Christine, thank you for sharing! As the time is short, I will simply launch some ideas over to you and trust that you will use or discard them if they match or don't match your situation: christine koehler via OSList wrote: (...) 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… I see two options here: 1) Go with his suggestion: build a meeting process in which first there are the speeches that he wants, and then open space. (Advantage: probably easy to move along with the client. disadvantage: loses space for the open space. people might leave if the speeches are boring. participants angry if they were invited with a different expectation setup?) (funky middle way option here: put the timing in the agenda, so that sneaky people can skip the speeches and arrive when the open space starts.) 2) Invite the client to put all of his needed speeches in the open space, possibly encouraging him to get up very early after the space was opened, to post his and the other speaker's talks. (Arguments: People are probably interested in what the sponsor has to say. This makes a more powerful invitation than forcing people to listen to talks.) (This is something I did once, when I was a sponsor: I had gotten people to help me with a project, and an important early session was to actually tell people more about the project. So there were a number of speech-type sessions to convey information to those who needed it.) I hope this helps - good luck! Martin -- Martin Röll, mar...@roell.net, +49 1784984743 Twitter, Skype: martinroell | http://www.roell.net Company news (Feb 14th): http://eepurl.com/baTiRr ___ 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
