I asked, "How many of you know about/have participated in an Open Space event?"  We were surprised to see only about 8 - 10 hands raised in a group of over 150 attendees at the global Association of Change Management Practitioners in Las Vegas this past week, (April 1-4, 2012) where we discussed Success Secrets of Trusted Change Advisors.

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"First people need to know you, then like you, then trust you."

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What a pleasure it was to then offer Open Space following an energized, robust Q & A discussion with this elite group of colleagues pictured below.   You can see the engagement in faces & body language in the full set of conference photos here .

 I'll be sharing the handout via a regular Reveln blog post soon.  You can also access it via LinkedIn.

• We welcome you to the dialog via our new "Trusted Advisors" LinkedIn  group, which is an open, join-able group.  Check out the session Slideshare & photos there.  

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Click here to download:

the-trusted-advisors-with-open-space-event-was-a-hit-in-las-vegas-jhzjpufpcJaymxwHqIjH.zip (394 KB)

Open Space photos by Deb Nystrom, Creative Commons license, taken at the global ACMP 2012 conference.  

Discussion topic:   What really matters now in being a trusted change advisor? ...and in the near future?

Panelists, facilitators, taken after our presentation & Open Space event at the ACMP 2012 global change conference in Las Vegas.  From right to left:  Liz Guthridge - Session Facilitator, Connect Consulting Group; Deborah Nystrom  - Open Space facilitator (me); Reveln Consulting & CMRsite.com; Jim Bohn, PhD., Global Director, CMO - Johnson Controls; Gail Severini, Conner Partners;  Michael Nestor, Vice President, Head of Change Management, Bayer Group

More via flickr.com

And yes, it was Vegas.  

Meanwhile, if any of you are in my consultant & coach, or small business circles, you may be interested in a free webinar I'm doing this evening on LinkedIn.

From the social media side of what I do in the consultant/coach world, I'm offering a LinkedIn free webinar tonight, Thursday, April 5th at 9 p.m. ET, including new LinkedIn updates geared to consultants, coaches & small business owners.  More information about tonight's free webinar is here.

Scott Allen, from LinkedIntelligence.com also recommends using this popular "People You May Know" feature at least once a month.  He ALSO recommends clearing out people you don't know as well.  

I see the result of doing this = a robust, more accurate networking list that helps create attention and traction among those who best know you.  This then helps create the ultimate result, referencing one of my favorite sayings in building trusted, mutually beneficial connections:  the know, like, trust quote above.

LinkedIn is a great test of trust, as there are many decisions I make about who I will and won't link to on this platform.  Do you agree?

Thanks for the read through, stopping by, and, as always, your comments.  

Warm regards,  ~  Deb

The quick, transforming power of community has been evident with increasing frequency, it seems, in several high profile events in social media.  Here are several examples:

• The Susan B. Komen Foundation social media debacle is a cautionary tale of news-jacking and a slow response to public concern in social media.

• In contrast, JCPenny and the Ellen Show were timely, direct and clear in response to a One Million Mom's Facebook page protest of  Ellen's selection as a spokeperson for the department store and featured good examples of the deft art and science of sensing and handling public opinion.

The organic nature of how social media speeds communication is also akin to ways that events, conferences and meetings have changed to include Open Space style formats.

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Open Space is about using self-organizing principles for gatherings organized around a clear purpose, deliberately stepping back from control of the topics discussed...

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Open Space is mostly used for quick, large scale action events.  It has also influenced related self-organizing forms of learning events such as Unconferences and Unconventions.  These are further illustrated on my UnConventional Pinterest collection of posts here.

Open Space and UnConferences have been depicted in recent films and are now used for more than tech gatherings, where the UnConference format first gained traction:

What is Open Space?   

Open Space Technology is about using self-organizing principles organized around a clear purpose, while deliberately stepping away from control of the topics discussed.  It relies on the power of community interest in the purpose of the gathering. It is usually used for action-oriented meetings and events.  

In the cases above, its self-organizing nature is akin to social media infused movements and events, inspiring exchange and learning without overtly "expert mode" formats.   Open Space four guidelines illustrate this:

There is one law for Open Space, the "Law of Two Feet."  This law ensures the most imporant issues and learning will get needed attention and action:

The video below shows an open space event in action:

A brief, comprehensive overview of Open Space here describes it as:

an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task—but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.

There's much more to Open Space than this.  A useful resource is the wiki, available at Open Space World here.

I'll be sharing a handout that describes the Open Space process after I serve as a panelist and facilitator of Open Space for our conference topic, Success Secrets of Trusted Change Advisors at the April 2012 Association for Change Management Professionals conference described here.

The registration deadline is March 12.  I'm curious to see the reaction of those choose to attend and participate in Open Space within a traditional conference format.  The audience members are primarily change practitioners, a number of whom may favor a project management oriented history.

I will be tweeting from the conference using the twitter hashtag:  #ACMP2012 and one of my four twitter handles, @changetools.

What does it mean to be a trusted change advisor in today's turbulent times?

My colleague, Liz Guthridge, has written a helpful post about the Trusted Advisor role in supporting the work of leaders, outlining what we'll be covering in our session at ACMP Las Vegas.  An excerpt:

[Liz] re-read quite a few of David Maister’s tips, primarily from his book, The Trusted Advisor...[a] 2000 classic.  ...Some favorite things:

• “I am not the center of the universe.”

• “A point of view doesn’t commit you for life.”

• “Reach out to notice, and acknowledge, something that has been held back in or about the other person.”

• “Who am I serving by my present approach?”

• “Assigning blame will trap me; taking responsibility will empower me.”

Liz's full post is here.

Our conference program is listed on the Association of Change Management Practioners (ACMP 2012) global conference speakers page here (and excerpted below as well.)

I'm delighted that we have an opportunity to present, offer Q & A time for the large group expected AND create a robust peer learning space using an Open Space format. 

If you are attending, consider joining us for an extraordinary interaction experience, with social media follow-up.

By the way, that's me in the middle, in red (brochure snapshot.)

Along with the theme:  What does it mean to be a trusted change advisor?

Other questions that will help guide our program include:

• How to balance different approaches, including evidence-based management and visionary

• How to earn trust quickly and help time-pressured leaders navigate the discomfort of change

• How to deal with being lonely in the change manager role while your leaders are lonely at the top

The second half Open Space is an activity that is about choosing where you want to be and what you want to discuss of interest to you around the theme of becoming a trusted change advisor in today's world.

Feel free to browse additional conference offerings here.

We hope to see you there as well as on-line.  Twitter tweet tag:  #ACMP2012

~  Deborah

John U. Bacon, author, writer, keynoter, and Jack's pub hanger-outer said they set a record at the Michigan HR statewide conference in Traverse City.

Johanna Wilberding, group reporter, at the MISHRM conference in Michigan describes how her table DID it.

How did they set the record?

Originally sent from my Reveln iPhone, updated with YouTube.

The full presentation is on Slideshare either here or on the new Reveln peer learning and social learning page.

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• Deb has begun to curate the topic here:   Current, curated list of Social Learning articles, resources & trends.
  

Social Media is providing platforms to accelerate peer learning as a competitive advantage.  

Here are two sample slides from our presentation tomorrow for the statewide MI-SHRM (Human Resources) conference, with more to be added as this blog post is updated after the presentation.

I'm heading up to Traverse City in just a few minutes.  Tomorrow Ron Koller and I will be presenting on Loose - Tight:  Peer Learning in an Era of Social Media Expansion and Information Overload. 

Peer learning is a key aspect of many current e-learning business systems based in gaming and social media.  The popular Geek Squad of Best Buy was started in a gaming community and has been central to its success.  

Peer learning has also been around a long time, before this current age of systems thinking, complexity, and social media channels and hyper-communication.

A quote that illustrates it's classic nature:

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support? ~ James Madison

and even:

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. ~ Bill Gates

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage. ~ Jack Welch  

MI-SHRM, for registered conferenced goers (registration is closed, the event is full!)

We'll be covering the elements of 

• Peer Learning 
• Social Media
• Talent Development / Talent Management

and demonstrating it using an open-space format where we'll learn from each other, MI-SHRM peers in action.

If you are new to Open Space, a great peer learning opportunity which instantly removes status and title barriers when launched, here's a few elements of this peer learning process to give you a taste of its usefulness:

Sample Open Space Guidelines

Start the topic you wish to work on. The person who posted the topic will be there and will begin the dialogue. You should use these guidelines in deciding how to behave.

• Hummingbirds:  Feel free to flit from topic to topic.
• Bumblebees:  Take ideas from one topic to another and cross pollinate.
• The rule of two feet:  When the discussion is no longer of interest, use your two feet to move on.

Open Space principles 

1. Whoever comes are the right people.
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
3. Whenever it starts is the right time.  
4. When it’s over, it is over.

What is your experience of the benefits, and any distractors in  peer learning?

Here are a few videos & photos of what makes Detroit, an entrepreneurial mecca, so great!  Capture is via a Lumix HD camera.  Below, you'll also see an iPhone4 video clip and a Flickr photo set.

Below is a sample of TEDx awesome via iPhone4. This at the end of session 4 in the afternoon. I'm still amazed by what you can capture on on iPhone.

Sent from my Reveln iPhone

And by accident, unplanned, and BEFORE 9 a.m. at TEDx, I found myself taking a video testimonial about reserving social media names in Facebook, twitter and the like for @LookUpDetroit.  More about that will be shared on Reveln Social Business soon!

Sample TEDxDetroit tweets:

@TEDxDetroit Go Lions. Go Detroit. So many of the Michiganders are pulling for the D. You prove again, "You can't measure heart!"

RT @robjray: Another @TEDxDetroit lesson: embrace your passion. Don't just exist. Do something. Make a difference. Believe it is possible.

RT @tagibson: Upon reflecting on @TEDxDetroit , I find myself moved by things that are hitting me now, more than they did at the moment. 

RT @joshlinkner: Some thoughts from my talk yesterday @TEDxDetroit - http://t.co/T5Ff3owI 

Big thanks to everyone who attended #TEDxDetroit this year. We're bringing #Detroit back.

RT @ElenaWollborg: I was a part of something BIG Wednesday. My experience at #TEDxDetroit: http://t.co/RhXpmOuv   (DN:  Read Elana's post.  She has a a comprehensive view of TEDxDetroit. She's friendly with that one guy, Charilie...ya.)

RT @techtowndetroit: Moving talk by @landlessness at #tedxdetroit. Appreciate the show of emotion.   (DN:  Look for the photos in the Flickr set above that relates.)

We now have @rowdydad on stage #TEDxDetroit

RT @sylviahubbard1: Taking a moment for David Blair, poet, who passed away earlier this year @tedxdetroit #tedx #detroit #tedxdetroit 

Q & A with 9 year old Sebastian from Sebastian's Gourmet Lemonade #TEDxDetroit

Now performing @ChrisBathgate #TEDxDetroit Wed Sep 28 16:19:16 +0000 2011

"it is now the role of k-12 education that will break the chains of poverty"- @BobbycSmith #TEDxDetroit Wed 

"Money is not the biggest thing in the world, the biggest thing is giving back" - speaker @TaraMichener #TEDx #Detroit Wed Sep 28 14:09:57 +0000 2011