Trip Description

Australia and New Zealand have had a long history with Open Space Technology. Fr. Brian Bainbridge was a very early adopter and has attended more international OSonOS’s than anyone. Harrison Owen, Birgitt Williams and michael herman have all visited there. They hosted an international OSonOS (Open Space on Open Space) in Marysville (near Melbourne) in 2002. The Open Space Institute of Australia and New Zealand (OSI Au & NZ) has been active and has hosted many internal OSonOS events.

I was delighted when Brian invited me to visit for the month of October 2006 to support the networking of OSI Au & NZ. He proposed, with support from other active OSI folks like Viv McWaters, Andrew Rixon, Brendan McKeague and Anne Pattillo visiting the following cities: Wellington (NZ), Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Sydney. We also took a side trip for R&R to Cairns (near the Great Barrier Reef). York University gave my wife, Becky, the freedom to come for the month.

It was an amazing gift to go and be hosted there. It was great to have Becky as part of the conversations as she added substantially from her experience as an OST practitioner and a professor who teaches facilitation methods in the context of environmental studies. It was a pleasure to support local networks and OST practice development through workshops, conversations and presentations (11). I both learned and shared some of what I have been trying to understand. A couple of presentations seem to go well, but it was the conversations that I loved the most. Some were free flowing with smaller groups from 20-25. Andrew Rixon and I played with using OST principles and the fishbowl for some large group, short time frame, conversations – it worked really well twice. We have co-authored a description which will be available soon in pdf format.

Before I left for Australia and New Zealand, I had asked my hosts by e-mail or skype what ideas or presentations they thought would be of most help to their OST practice or initiatives. Each request was somewhat different. Some wanted workshops on leadership, other wanted help in legitimizing OST in their organizations. Some were focused on the practice of OST. Some were interested in theory or evidence. I developed some presentations before I left and modified them as I went along. Two of the Power Point sets are provided below. More stories and pictures about the trip are on the following web page.

For more story of the trip and my learning click here.

Open Space Fishbowl:

Andrew Rixon and I discovered a way to use the Principles and Law of Open Space Technology to take the traditional fishbowl facilitation technique to another level. We co-wrote the description which is available here as a pdf file. It really works in situations where some expertise is being brought to a larger meeting where spirited conversation and learning are the primary goals.

Click here for the pdf file.

Some Presentation Materials

I prepared some Power Point pieces for Anne Pattillo’s arc masterclass. They re-presented the ideas in a handout format for the day long class. I revised, slightly modified, and I hope improved, those slides for other presentations. I have included two sets of slides below. It is important to remember that the slides are not the presentation, only markers for some of the ideas.

Leadership Beyond Boundaries:

This was presented as part of the content for an arc pattillo masterclass, organized by Anne Pattillo in Wellington, NZ, on October 2, 2006. It was then integrated into some larger presentations in other cities. It is largely based on the publication Bridging Boundaries: Lessons from Leaders Sharon King & Larry Peterson. 2006. Starfield Consulting. That report is available at the Starfield Consulting site by clicking on its title.

The Power Point presentation of Leadership Beyond Boundaries is available in pdf format by clicking here

Working with Complexity to Grow Spirited Organizations:

Unleashing the Drive to Self-Organize.

These Power Point slides were presented to an evening gathering of 40-50 consultants, practitioners and academics at the University of Western Australia, in Perth, on October 17, 2006. It was organized by Brendan McKeague and by Shelda Debowski and Vivienne Blake of U.W.A. The content integrates a number of perspectives, including complexity theory and Spiral Dynamics Integral. It is a lot of ground to cover, but the presentation seemed to work for a number of those in the room. I regret we didn’t think to use the fishbowl for the conversation after, but the huge chairs and oblong room didn’t lend themselves to that approach.

For the pdf version of the Power Point presentation, click here.