Hi everyone, At a recent training workshop I facilitated in Ottawa, some participants suggested an adaptation to the process of action planning for priorities set by the group after discussions.
This option - One Market Place Per Priority - offers a convergence process with more space for self-organization, which is the fundamental intent of Open Space. Participants choose which of the priorities they have passion to work on and regroup accordingly. Then each priority group opens space by itself and creates its own action market wall in relations to its specific priority. Among the action topics posted, nothing precludes that someone may propose a discussion of the priority itself. This "one market place per priority" method is still a more structured approach that the option of opening space again for action with only one market place for everybody as they express their passion for actions on any of the identified priorities. For those organizations who prefer to structure the action identification a bit more, this new option still opens more space than having groups come up with only one action per priority which is what ends up happening in most cases despite the invitation to identify more than one action - at least this is what I have seen over many years of OS events. To provide some guidance to the various priority groups who will self-organize to open space and create their own market place for action, I added a few simple guiding steps on top of the Action Planning Guide which is usually in their kit or distributed on chairs before the start of convergence. I share them with you in case you may find it useful. A. Create a market place of actions that will contribute to realize the priority you have chosen. - Post the priority title at the top of a wall. - Each participant can post on that wall, an action title with his/her name. - Then, combinations of action sheets can be made if desired, by participants initiating the actions. B. Participants form groups around actions of their choice Action Initiator role – with help from the group: - Posts high on the wall the action title so it is visible to bumblebees. - Circulates a sheet to create a list of participants. - Notes key points (the group may want to use the planning guide provided). - After the discussion, prepares and posts a summary on one or two flip chart pages on the plenary wall for all participants to read during a walk about that will follow. - Registers at the News Room and enters the action plan on a computer. Maybe some of you have already used this method of "one market place per priority". If so, learnings from your experience would be most welcome. Gifts come from everywhere in Open Space, as it is a circle of people open to possibilities. Thank you to the participants of the Ottawa training group for bringing to light this different way of doing which is full of possibilities. Diane * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
