Facilitating With Confidence in NZ & Singapore

Following our successful launch of Facilitating With Confidence in Australia, we’re now branching out to New Zealand and Singapore.

The New Zealand (Wellington) dates are September 9 & 10, October 7 & 8, and November 11 & 12.

The Singapore dates are October 13 & 14, November 17 & 18, and December 8 & 9.

The New Zealand registration form is here, and the Singapore one is here.

Chatting with Larry Peterson & Chris Corrigan

Geoff has done his magic on the chat I had at WOSonOS in San Francisco with Larry Peterson and Chris Corrigan. Go listen here.

OS principles through the eyes of improvisers

At  OSonOS in San Francisco, Yeal Schy and I co-convened a session to explore the Open Space principles using improv games. We were ‘encouraged’ (!) by Michelle Howard, and joined by Becky Peterson, Anne Feehan and Fabulous James.

We wanted to explore the principles of Open Space: Whoever comes are the right people, Whatever happens is the only thing that could have, Whenever it starts is the right time, and When it’s over it’s over. Plus, The Law of Two Feet (taking responsibility for your own experience and learning) and passion and responsibility, and ‘be prepared to be surprised’.

We played a few warm-up games then Yael suggested ‘Yes Let’s’. This one game seems to embody all of the above. Brilliant!

Folk mill around until somebody calls out ‘let’s (any activity)’, for example ‘let’s fly a kite’ – then everybody mimes that action, until somebody else makes another offer, for example ‘let’s roll on the floor’. The game continues in this fashion until it’s over. In Keith Johnstone’s version of this game, you can choose to NOT accept an offer and sit out the rest of the game when something is called that is not to your liking. We modified that slightly by saying you could sit something out AND you could come back in when something that is to your liking is called.

So – this game provides a rich way to debrief all of the elements of open space described above, especially the Law of two Feet, and in a fun way it replicates the ‘offers’ made in an open space opening when the agenda is created, and the choices made about where to go, when to leave, when to join in again. We also talked about surprising ourselves with the offers we made and/or accepted/rejected.

While that particular game was over, the session wasn’t. We wanted a way to bring our learnings together in a fun way. We played ‘True for You’ and then Anne introduced us to a closing game that I’ll call ‘Wisdom’ (not sure what the real name is).

In this closing game we stood in a circle with our hands in the prayer position in front of us. Then using one word at a time we made up simple statements about what we had learned. Anyone could start.When each statement was completed (over) we would bow and whisper yes, yes, yes. It was so much FUN! Very Open Space.

Thanks to my improv buddies for playing with open space – literally and figuratively.

Surf’s Up!

I love arriving home after being away for more than a few days. Today I arrived home from San Francisco, via Sydney, flight delays and a 1.5 hrs drive. It was especially good to arrive home today because it’s my birthday – and this is what was waiting for me! Especially apt given all the surfing metaphors this last week. 

What are we noticing about open space?

Chris Corrigan hosted a session today about our biggest ah-ha! moments around open space. There were some great quotes as we warmed up to the topic:

Web 2.0 is relationship technology. IT is being replaced by RT (Chris Corrigan) and Content is the means; community is the ends (Peggy Holman)

The focus of the sessions seemed to coalesce around the question of how our learning was changing our practice. I captured the diverse thoughts of the group using a wave metaphor that I’ve used often with groups to explore the shifting ground – and I guess it’s particularly apt considering Harrison Owen’s use of the wave metaphor the other night.

Briefly, it consists of analysing changes around established norms (on the crest of the wave), emerging trends (where the wave is developing), dying practices (where the wave expires on the shore) and new edges (where the wave is still developing way out on the horizon).

So here’s my take on the discussion using this framework (in no particular order)

Established Norms

The circle and meeting in a circle; naming the intention; welcoming disturbance; being in relationship with each other; we’re no longer passive consumers of media any more; technology allows for real-time course correction; OST not so risky any more.

Emerging Trends

Using the principles and language of OST in business; building internal capacity with OST; connection to passion; tuning and adapting mechanisms as an organisational metaphor; Wikipaedia as a metaphor for OST; people are willing to play at a higher level and take more risks;bearing fair witness; willingness to embrace messiness; we value what happens at the marging; organisations unable to deal with chaos get left behind; willingness to sit with feeling bad – messy is normal and part of being human.

Dying Practices

Traditional media; can no longer retreat into isolation;the usual suspects turning up;printed proceedings; evaluation; the need to be seen as perfect;industrial economic development; individualism and the culture of ‘I’; separateness; taking a pill to fix things if we feel bad; stability is good – change is bad; the hero leader.

New Edges

The Joker/difficultator role of the facilitator; collaborative facilitation practice involving a core team that contributes to sustainability; bringing together ‘accidental, unlikely allies to identify common ground;and  diversity.

A haiku reflection

After Day One of WOSonOS:

Through the mist and haze, sunlight

emerges, as my thoughts

waken, bloom, question anew

An international collaboration brings you Harrison Owen

Harrison Owen is best known for his association with Open Space Technology. He’s just released the third edition of the User’s Guide – in fact, it was launched on Tuesday night in San Francisco as a prelude to the 16th Annual World Open Space on Open Space (WOSonOS) gathering that’s happening right now. Harrison explains in his talk why he can’t be at the WOSonOS, and makes some interesting observations about the 20+ year journey of Open Space, and a couple of challenges.

So there was Harrison Owen, who’d flown in that morning from the east coast of USA, speaking to a crowd at the Fort Mason Center; me with my trusty voice recorder as part of the crowd (and I’d flown in from Australia); and Geoff Brown at home in Airey’s Inlet (Australia). Between the three of us we’ve managed to record Harrison’s words and post a podcast on WinkiPod.

(Apologies for the sound quality – it’s not real good. One of the limitations of recording someone speaking through with a microphone. But it’s worth persevering to hear what Harrison has to say.)

And it’s particularly apt being on WinkiPod – named for the local surf break that Geoff and I live near called Winkipop – as Harrison talks about complexity and self-organising systems in relation to surfing and wave riding.

Listen to the 20-minute talk here. Enjoy!

Footprints in the Wind – gotta love that!

I can’t believe I’ve never looked at Doug Germann’s blog before. What was I thinking? Go there right now and have a look. Here’s a taster:

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 874

People talking are people doing
People talking are taking responsibility
For our world

Thanks to Chris Corrigan for introducing me – in person, too! We’ll all be doing a lot of talking over the next few days.

P is for passion

At tonight’s launch of Harrison Owen’s latest version of the Open Space User’s Guide, here in San Francisco, I was reminded of the power of passion.

Harrison spoke for about 20 minutes, to about 150 or so people gathered in (how else?) a circle. He challenged us to take open space and make it better. I’m wondering how something as simple and elegant as open space can be improved – something I may explore over the next few days. Harrison has never claimed ‘ownership’ of open space – he calls it a world process, an ancient approach at being that we rediscovered after all the false starts of managerialism and attempts to control self-organising systems.

I was struck by his comments about being in ‘open space’ – the experience of participating in an open space event and then returning to the ‘real world’. If we acknowledge that the whole world is self-organising, and open space is self-organising in action, then we are always in ‘open space’, 365 days a year – even if we don’t acknowledge it to ourselves.

And I was delighted with his wave metaphor – even though he talked about some local surfing break obviously inferior to the Bells Beach and Winkipop break! His comments about surfers understanding self-organising and knowing that you can only ride a wave, not control it, resonates with WinkiPod.

I was struck – yet again – by Harrison’s passion and enthusiasm. I hope some of it rubs off.

Sleepless in San Francisco*

It’s always a bit hit or miss booking a hotel room from afar. And believe me, Bells Beach is pretty much a long way from anywhere! So that’s how I found myself at La Luna Inn (really!) in San Francisco. It’s on Lombard Street – and if that sounds familiar it’s because Lombard is famous for being the ‘twistiest street in the world’. That’s at the other end. Down my end there’s the Presidio – a huge park that I’m yet to explore – wide streets and lots of traffic. Lots and lots of traffic. My room – number 301 – had a view, sort of, of the Golden Gate Bridge. A bit like the views they advertise in Sydney of the Harbour Bridge. A glimpse. And then you have to crane your neck in an odd angle to see it. Closer still was the petrol (gas) station right opposite my window and the traffic that drove down Lombard shining their lights directly into my window. And then there were the cars coming from the other direction. That’s right – my room was on a corner. A main road going this way. And another going that way. Did I mention it was noisy? Noisy at Bells Beach is a frog croaking – 500 metres away. 

So I asked nicely for a room change. Not possible until today so I had to endure one night there. I felt 19 again, staying in the cheapest, and inevitably, noisiest, room, usually opposite the train station. Backpack propped in the corner which I’d have to leap over every time I wanted to get out to go to the shared bathroom down the corridor. That was then. This is many decades later.

Luckily I was jet lagged – and I had those squishy orange ear plugs. Sleep came pretty easily despite the NOISE. Then it was 4 am. That’s what time I usually wake when jet lagged. It was 9 pm at home so a good time to skype – and to check emails. And I just knew I would suffer if I didn’t get more sleep. So I gathered the squishy orange ear plugs from amongst the bed clothes and tried to get back to sleep. I was hot. Then cold. Got up again. Had a glass of water. I could still hear the traffic through the ear plugs. Maybe they weren’t in properly. Try again. Toss. Turn. Grumble. Where are all those trucks going at 4 am anyway?

It’s no good. Can’t sleep. Time for the heavy duty approach. It works on planes. Sennheiser noise reducing headphones. Tick. iPod shuffle. Tick. Ear plugs. Tick. Three hours later I wake. Ears sore from lying on the headphones, but it worked. So then I was ready to hit the pavement and walk to Union Square. But that’s another story.

* Sorry – my excuse is I’m still jet lagged!