Issue:How to deal with matters like 1/3 of the participants not being interested in being at the OST. How to deal with the matter, that their needs are not being met ?

Convenor:Inge, Denmark

Participants:Eva, Bodil, Anna, Britt from Sweden. Eddy, Scotland, Michell Canada


Summary of the meeting:

  1. Be very specific in the opening with the leaders given, with the participants responsibility to having said yes to being at the OST.
  2. The meeting with the sponsers are crucial. The need to make them understand the full meaning of the law of the two feet: Like, some may not turn up at all. Some may leave within 30 minutes. Some may hang around doing nothing.
  3. It might be supportive for the sponsers, that you formulate the invitation yourself and send it to the sponsors for approval. And of course they send it out.
  4. !!!! At a school they used the law of the two feet this way. Kids couldnt just leave the school. A question of security. So a Butterfly Cafe was set up. A set up like that, might help for the adults as well. Some adults need more time to say yes to something new.

Follow up:


Online Comments:

I really like the fourth point - a great idea to set up an area that can be a butterfly/bumblebee cafe. While many people seem to intellectually 'get' the idea of the Law of Two Feet, they often seem to not apply it - maybe not kn owing what to do if they do leave. In my experience, when OS is new to an organisation, many people turn up to find out what it's all about. Any way of engaging them more fully must be good. VivMcWaters?

Two thoughts... first, whoever comes is the right people, especially if they come voluntarily. If they come just to look and then they leave, that's fine. If they're not going to help move things forward, their leaving is good information for those who stay. Second... the times when i've had the most trouble with expectations is when we deviated from the standard form of OS. in one case i absolutely could not prevent a keynote speaker from being asked to lead off. he spoke to 200 ppts but only to a subgroup's major issue. this set up a tension and those not spoken for took to whatever soapboxes they could find later on. made things more difficult than they needed to be, but in the end, that particular movement continues, even though OST became the scapegoat for some. --MichaelHerman