I feel genuinely inspired by this afternoon's discussions and will be ordering 'Open Space Technology: A User's Guide' on Monday morning
How can we encourage SEDA to help those who are interested find out more about Open Space Technology and/or explore different facilitation techniques??
Heather
Dr Heather Sears
Postgraduate Training and Development Officer
Staff and Departmental Development Unit
Graduate Training and Support Centre
1.38 Parkinson Building
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
0113 343 7479
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/sddu/ <https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.leeds.ac.uk/sddu/>
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From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association on behalf of Macdonald, Ranald F
Sent: Fri 2/23/2007 3:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session
Thanks for the interest. Firstly, I'd say that this is another technique to add to our repertoire of approaches, not to be used at every chance as participants can get as bored with this as anything. And there will still be those who say "Just tell us what to do!" I'm sure we're all used to resisting that temptation ...
Anyway:
A good place to start is:
http://ho-image.com/Brief%20User's%20Guide.htm <http://ho-image.com/Brief%20User's%20Guide.htm>
or his book Open Space Technology: A User's Guide (easily available from Amazon)
There are plenty of other sites and writers with suggested ways of working, examples of its power, etc (just try Google) - mainly from the US.
The four principles (which are more fully explained in the article) are:
* Whoever comes is the right people
* Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
* Whenever it starts is the right time
* When it's over, it's over
and the one 'law' is:
"The Law of two feet" - if you don't feel that you are contributing to a group or getting anything more out of it, it's ok to walk away - not in a negative way but as a positive response.
The four principles and the law were posted on the wall and participants were reminded of them at the start of the second day.
The theme we worked with was:
How can we be more effective in leading and supporting change in LTA?
This was posted on a blank wall - you will need plenty of space.
We sat in an open circle (not behind tables - the circle is an important symbol to Owen) with some sheets of paper and pens on the floor. Participants came up as they wanted and wrote an idea on a piece of paper, held it up and read it out. They then stuck it on the blank wall, which gradually filled up with issues that they wanted to discuss.
When proposing issues to discuss it's important that people chose ones that they are passionate about and are prepared to take responsibility for and not just that they are vaguely interested in talking about, though the others who chose that group may feel like that. People then sign up for the topics they are interested in and there is a process of negotiating times, perhaps combining topics and, in effect, putting the timetable together for you. Over the 24 hours we had 4 timed sessions with three groups in each, as well as before and after dinner, and discussed 12 issues in some detail. Each group, without prompting from me got a laptop and I produced a template for them to write up their discussion and, perhaps mroe importantly, what action was going to be taken, by whom and by when. (I might resist the temptation to do that in future as it might constrain more imaginative approaches to presenting) By the end of the retreat we had 12 pages of closely typed discussion and actions! For once I didn't have to take lots of posters and postits away and get them typed up!
There were two things going on at this event - social networking by a group who knew each other to varying degrees and being very focused on a theme which was of particular importance to them. Harrison Owen writes of organising a 3-day conference for 250-300 people using this process. No papers, pre-submited workshop topics, or keynotes (though you could top and tail an event with something) - just a general theme which intrigued that many people to turn up and work in a more democratic way. Some of the people at one of my sessions commented that, even with quite senior people there, there was no sense of hierarchy and everyone's ideas were equal and valid, which was quite liberating for some.
But it won't work in every situation - read the literature to find out when and why!
Hope this is helpful - though it's given away the technique which some readers will be experiencing with me in a forthcoming event in New Zealand!
Ranald
ps. at the first event I had just got back from Hong Kong and, as well as still feeling jetlagged, was suffering from an upset stomach - I'll spare you the details. As I walked in the door I told the Head of LTA how I was feeling and he said "you should try Open Space technology. I've been involved a couple of times recently and it's really good." I could have hugged him! Suddenly I felt much more relaxed, though still somewhat apprehensive. The event the following week was surrounded by a whole series of other agendas which changed the dynamic completely. But, hey, that's what we academic developers are all about ...
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From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association on behalf of HEALEY, Mick
Sent: Fri 23/02/2007 14:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session
As I think would many of us. Perhaps Ranald you would post your further
reflections to the list?
Best
Mick
-----Original Message-----
From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development
Association [mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ] On Behalf Of S.A.Fincher
Sent: 23 February 2007 14:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session
Ranald -
> The important feature is that a strong theme is agreed in advance but
=
> the participants decide the specific issues to be explored further. =
> There are a few simple principles and groundrules but I'd certainly =
> recommend it - a colleague used it for a 3-hour workshop with similar
=
> success.
>
> I'm happy to give further reflections if they would be useful.
I'd certainly be interested in hearing more. As you say agenda-driven
formats get quickly stale, but genuine alternatives are hard to come
by.
- Sally
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Sally Fincher, Computing Laboratory, University of Kent,
Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF, UK
http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/index.html <http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/index.html>
'phone: +44 1227 764000 ext.4061 fax: +44 1227 762811
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