The Ginger Mumbly

I was late getting there (Southern Railways) and they were already sitting around in a big circle. There weren't any other places to sit. Just two seats between two guys in suits. I had to sit next to one of them. From his age and from the suit, my guess was that he was the second or third most "important" man in the room. He didn't acknowledge me. He sat knees apart, wide-legged not even giving my due of knee space in front my own chair.

The whole day was being organised using a method called "Open Space". There was no agenda for the day. We had to make it up. There were paper and pens in the middle of the room and two microphones. The idea was that if you thought of something that we needed to talk about, you walked into the middle of the room, wrote it on a piece of paper and then announced it to the room using a microphone. My be-suited "friend" hesitated. People who weren't in suits, people who *were* in suits were rushing to the middle, writing down their ideas and announcing them full-throated over the microphone. Finally he got out of his seat and made for the middle. He came back with piece of paper and wrote his name at the top of it and underlined it. Then... Hesitation again. The "agenda wall" was nearly full. The knot of activity was beginning to loosen. If he didn't go now, he'd have missed his chance. He scribbled something down and walked into the middle to find a microphone. For some reason he couldn't get it to work. He announced what it was he wanted to talk about, but even I, just a few feet away couldn't hear what it was he said.