I have been seeing this process come up as "Open Space" among come of the people I have been working with. It's obvioulsy not Open Space, but people who have been there seem to think it is. This occaisionally presents problems, but Open Space always sells itself, once people have been through it. I'm sure the KC does what it does well...
I have used another technique in the past to explore issues where everyone gets to talk about everything. It's called the Interview Matrix and it works this way. 1. Prepare with the sponsor a list of four open ended questions relating to the topic at hand. Number them 1 to 4. 2. Begin the meeting by introducing the process and having the gropup number off by counting out 1,2,3,4. Each persons number gives them "ownership" over the corresponding question. 3. Small groups form, each containg a 1,2,3 and 4. Each person interviews every other person on their question for four minutes. This means that Person 1 interviews the other three and is interviewed by the other three. the interviewer keeps notes while the interviewee is talking. Everyone gets four uninteruppted minutes of talking about the issue at hand. This takes 24 minutes. 4. All of the 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s gather together for 45-60 minutes to compare answer and throw in their own two cents about their questions. These groups then take 10 minutes or so to report back to the whole for further refinements etc. It's a good process for getting everyone a chance to speak about everything on the table in a way that the dominant group members and the shy ones all have equal time. And it really compresses the "round table"`portion of brainstorming. It's not OS either...but it is what it is... Chris -- CHRIS CORRIGAN 108-1035 Pacific Street Vancouver BC V6E 4G7 Phone: 604.683.3080 Fax: 604.683.3036
