Well said Brendan! These are the kind of questions people new to OS who plan on
offering, organizing or facilitating an event, want to be ready to answer.
Thank you for that brief and effective way of sharing your informative
answers.
Diane
________________________________
From: Brendan McKeague <[email protected]>
To: OS Listserve <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 12:32:33 AM
Subject: [OSList] Sponsor PreWork Conversation (long)
Hi folks
I've recently completed a one-day OST meeting with around 150 participants. It
went very well and the sponsor was delighted (and much relieved) as he had 'put
his neck out' with his 'higher-uppers' all along the way in order to have the
event in the first place. One of the hoops he had to jump through beforehand
was to to present a business case and justification for using OST in this
context....I've recorded some of the email conversation that we've had as we
progressed the discernment towards decision - over about three months. I
thought some co-learners might be interested in parts of the to-ing and fro-ing
dialogue - and would love to hear your comments around the questions this
first-time user of OST is asking....or rather, being compelled to ask.
Cheers
Brendan
Q: Does OST work with bigger numbers - the work shop will be large with an
estimated 150+ diverse state and local government, industry, NGO and possibly
some citizens attending.
R: Open Space Technology (OST) is applicable regardless of numbers and
diversity - indeed, we often find that the more stakeholder complexity, the
better it works. I have worked with up to 350 participants and colleagues
elsewhere with over 2000.
The workshop is part of the finalisation of the Draft Strategic Plan and is
being held to respond to the various propositions and issues raised in the
public comment phase early this year. I have very briefly outlined the draft
objectives and role of the selected facilitator below:
Objective:
The Strategic Plan is a new format for xxxxxx planning that challenges the
current status quo of planning. Further consultation is required to provide a
greater level of understanding of the ‘systems’ concept, and seek input on
content and implementation issues. Main objectives include:
· To build a collaborative environment ;
R: OST certainly creates the opportunity for this - with the benefit of no
predetermined agenda, all participants are invited to collaborate in
co-creating the agenda around what's really important to them.
· provide a greater understanding of the legislation impetus;
R: OST allows participants to diverge and engage with others who have similar
questions/issues in order to clarify understandings and pursue ideas that
matter to them
· genuine input and actions to assist in the finalisation of the
Strategic Plan
R: OST invites those who wish to contribute according to interest (passion) and
responsibility - and then to offer to be part of ongoing actions beyond the
event itself
Main role for Facilitator:
· Organisation of 150 stakeholders – some groups will be considered
high risk.
R: In OST, the participants self-organise and self-manage around what they care
about - its a marvellous, fluid way to enable genuine/transparentcollaboration,
participation, inclusivity and emergence - thereby diminishing the likelihood
of distraction by the disgruntled or a hi-jacking by the heavies
· Creating a strategic, dynamic and collaborative process in and out of
the workshop
R: OST is a world-leading technology for this type of process
.memorable, positive, inspiring – has to have the same takeaway as previous
(Deliberative Democracy) forum i.e. participation was worthy of time, feel
inspired, have made a difference -
R: no process (or facilitator) in the world can guarantee these outcomes -
unfortunately for me! OST can create the space where they are most likely to
show up, provided that the sponsors have done their preparation properly - i.e.
asked the right question, issued the right invitation, created the right
space....then, the folks who care to show up in response do the rest by
themselves. The power of a great OST mtg comes from the release of passionate
energy when people are given the freedom to do what they really care about
· Participants must go home with a greater more positive understanding
(including impetus for use) of the SPS and systems thinking
R: its very difficult to enforce the 'must go home with' aspiration when
working with a group of mature (and diverse) adults. I can however say, from my
experience of facilitating over 250 OST mtgs around the country in the last 15
years, that OST does provide everyone with the opportunity to participate at
the level they chose, to ask the questions they bring with them, to engage with
others who care about similar issues, to record their conversations, to
contribute to action outcomes and to learn more about the topic about which
they're meeting. And in all of that, they usually have a lot of fun too!
· Defining clear objectives and parameter of discussion
R: Once again, this is the work of the sponsors beforehand - we call these 'the
givens' that form part of the invitation in OST - the container in which 'the
space is open' - then let the people get to work around what they came to do
· Day round up
R: OST usually finishes with a Closing Circle for comments from participants
and sponsors
Dear Brendan,
In an attempt to manage stakeholders expectations and ensure effective
facilitation of diverse ~150 stakeholders within the broad scope (theme: Making
the Planning Strategy a Success) , could you please kindly advise based on the
desired outcomes (below) as to whether any other facilitation method would
achieve the same outcomes as Open Space Technology (OST).
· Time and labour efficient
R: I know of no other process that will get 150 people working on what they
want to work on together as quickly as OST; with the opening explanation and
agenda creation taking about 45-50mins, the whole 150 participants can get down
to work quickly on issues that are important to them.
· Memorable and inspiring
R: This is a product of participation on the day. The participants will create
their own agenda around what's important to them and so they are invited to
take responsibility for what they offer and engage with i.e. if it is not
memorable and inspiring, then it may be that they have not responded fully to
the invitation and they are in the wrong place - they can use the Law of
Mobility to move elsewhere - or even leave if what's on offer is not why they
came. Hence the importance of creating a clear, transparent and irresistible
invitation for those who wish to make this Strategy a success. It is extremely
important for the Sponsors to be familiar with, and endorse, the guarantees of
an OST meeting - see attached explanation.
· collaborative
R: There are many levels of collaboration. Mature collaboration is about
engaging with others - who may have very similar or very different views- and
taking time to listen well, to speak truthfully about issues that are important
and to be open to what emerges. Lesser forms/models of collaboration adopt
coercion, compliance and competition as a container for obtaining predetermined
desired outcomes. OST provides a container for self-organising around what is
identified as important by those who wish to (or even, 'have to') do something
about implementing this strategy. The OST process models the intention of
seeking more mature collaboration around complex issues involving multiple
stakeholders.
· Enables strategic thinking
R: The Planning Strategy has been developed - i.e. the diagnostics have been
completed - based on various previous consultations. Now is the time for moving
into implementation and operationalising the outcomes. This requires a
dialogical process - where those responsible for implementation have
opportunities to interpret, clarify, be creative, innovative and consider how
they are going to do this within their own circles of influence. As I
understand it, it's exploratory and open - there is not one uniform way of
making this work successfully - it there is, then OST is not needed - people
are told what to do and resourced to do it. OST provides space for creativity,
diverse views and novel ideas to be named and explored. This cannot be
legislated in advance - it needs to emerge from the confluence of energy,
knowledge, skills, experiences and potentially contentious views of those who
show up. OST is the most transparent process for this, with
inbuilt principles of self-determination that enable high levels of passionate
energy, high levels of learning and high levels of 'fun' to show up on the day.
· Rapid consensus
R: This is another question entirely. In a one-day meeting of 150 diverse
stakeholders, what are you seeking 'rapid consensus' on?
I would need to hear more from you about your purpose and intentions here. In
my experience, when consensus is an expectation in such a short time-frame with
so many people, there are too often 'winners and losers' and people can easily
get bogged down in detail around language interpretation, aggressive
defensiveness and even destructive competition to try to force a neat outcome.
There are other, often more appropriate, ways of creating and sustaining
alignment with the Strategy into the future (e.g. by creating and supporting
'communities of practice' around key themes emerging from the OST meeting)
R: Thanks for asking these key clarifying questions. I realise how important
this conference is in terms of creating a platform for implementation of the
Planning Strategy. I agree that the process on the day needs to be the best
match for your purpose.
I have inserted a few comments and attached a brief 2 page explanation of OST
and its 'guarantees'.
In a nutshell, OST is not driven by 'predetermined outcomes' (my words) - it is
about creating space for engagement and emergence with those who will be doing
the work of implementation. It is a self-organising dialogical process that, in
my opinion, is most suitable for this stage of your Planning Strategy.
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