Thank you Chris for such a thorough response. Another wonderful OS story. Susan
Chris Corrigan wrote: Oh Yeah...I did do that didn't I? > > I have been REALLY busy of late, so apologize for not > getting back to everyone on this. > > Okay..the story in brief... > > Ran a 1.5 day OST conference (actually .75 and .5, but > who's counting?) for 200 Aboriginal youth from across > Canada who were meeting to discuss their priorities for a > National Aboriginal Youth Strategy. The youth were > selected from 6 national Aboriginal organizations. The > focus of the meeting was both to provide input to > government on the Strategy and to do some "in-house" > planning for each of the organizations -- give them a > chance to set their own priorities. > > Lots of politics and expectation from government, but all > were overcome by opening space. In the end 41 groups met > and reported. > > The night before the convergence, I gathered one rep from > each organization and briefed them. Their job was to > facilitate the convergence by a) explaining how people > were going to use the dots and b) ensuring that topics > that needed to be converged were converged and c) making > sure there were champions who could take responsibility > for action and move the process forward. I told then that > I was going to give out these instructions anyway, and > that they simply needed to hold the space. There were no > questions. > > The next day was a chance for the groups to prioritize, > converge and action plan. I gathered all 200 in a circle > and explained the process. > > 1. Each group has their own breakout room to go to. > Within each room was a flipchart with a grid on it. One > box on the grid for each report in the proceedings. > > 2. Take a copy of the proceedings from the centre of > the circle, and five dots. > > 3. Go to your break out rooms and spend some time > reading the proceedings and then indicate where your > passion lies for moving issues forward by using your dots. > > 4. When the dot votes have been tallied, a facilitator > from your organization will call for champions to take > responsibility for the top three issues. She will > distribute report forms to the champions for you to > capture your action plans on. > > 5. Meet in groups, the laws and principles apply, and > work over your top three priorities, strategizing about > how to make them come to life within your organization. > > 6. Gather back in the plenary room after two hours for > a report out. > > We spent about an hour allowing the youth to report back > to the plenary. > > The overall effect was pretty positive. It really gave > some meat to the challenge of leadership when we asked > folks to strategize about how to make their issues come > alive. Natural leaders emerged and took the bull by the > horns and a lot of confidence was in evidence. This was > more than just a gab fest on a government strategy: these > youth were set to go home and bring this stuff to life. > > A few complaints about the "stove piping" nature of the > exercise. Some youth felt it would more valuable to have > met in regional caucuses instead of organizational ones, > because the organizational caucuses reinforced the > politics of the adult world. On the other hand, many youth > told me about how cool it was to be putting their minds to > the challenge of getting their adult leadership to take > youth issues seriously. > > Another advantage of doing it this way was that Metis, > Inuit and Aboriginal women got to meet separately. This > is important because they all have quite different issues > from the larger Aboriginal community and also they have a > different way of meeting, especially the Inuit. Their > sessions were conducted in Inuktitut which allowed for a > proper expression of the cultural issues at hand. Also, > they met together on all three issues, with different > conveners taking over, rather than breaking up into small > groups. Furthermore, Inuit folks have a very high context > culture, full of silence and reflection and imbued with > very very subtle body language. Allowing them to meet > separately allowed them to do what they needed to do in > the way in which they needed to do it. > > The organizational facilitators did a marvelous job...six > really great and promising youth, and the reports back to > the main plenary were lively and spirited. Lots of humour > and joking around even as we heard about plans for raising > the awareness around issues like suicide and sexual abuse. > > In short it worked fine, primarily because I trusted the > process and the people to organize in a way that suited > them. We needed to allow more time than originally > scheduled, but this was no big deal. I always pad my > agendas with tons of slippage for exactly this type of > eventuality. They ate lunch late, but it was sandwiches, > and therefore nothing could get cold -- although I stayed > away from the egg salad. > > Cheers, > > Chris > -- > CHRIS CORRIGAN > Consultation - Facilitation > Open Space Technology > > http://www.chriscorrigan.com > cor...@interchange.ubc.ca > > RR 1 E-3 > 1172 Miller Road > Bowen Island, BC > Canada, V0N 1G0 > > phone (604) 947-9236 > fax (604) 947-9238 > -- Susan Lilley 7 Canterbury Place Dartmouth NS B2Y 4J5 Tel: (902) 463-1837 Fax: (902) 469-0833 http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~LilleyS/Profile.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
