Chris;
I'm glad you are biting... Until now, I have always ended the closing circle with a vote... and it is, indeed, as getting "back to normal" or, as you say it "put the genie back into the bottle". In never occurred to me that I could manage the closing circle in other way... feels like an unaccomplished task. How do you "wrap up" in non-convergence? Voting serves me well, because at the end I can say to the attendants: "today we have worked hard, had fun, and this is the result: those are the issues we care about, and in that order". Top managers see the proceedings and the prioritization as an useful input to take further action... it means, power -or at least control- doesn't goes to the masses; but the people has spoken and IF top management is clever, they'll build on that. Putting it this way, OST can be a "massive listening of clients" (if speaking on Language Ontology terms) or an "strategic planning process that involves the whole organization and generates appropiation in the people involved".
Greetings,
Johann
>From: Chris Corrigan <chris.corri...@gmail.com>
>Reply-To: ch...@chriscorrigan.com
>To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
>Subject: Re: Non-convergence, action planning and strategy
>Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 14:44:50 -0800
>
>Sorry I hit send too soon...
>
>
>On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 14:30:12 -0800, Chris Corrigan
><chris.corri...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 13:55:20 -0500, Harrison Owen <hho...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > > FS will certainly work â but it is also a lot of work to prepare for. I
> > > think you would get the same results (better? J) with the process of simply
> > > opening space once again around the dominant issues. Chris Corrigan has some
> > > material on how to do that.
> >
>OK...I'll bite...but I'm changing the name of the thread because I
>have a practice question that goes along with this, the answers to
>which will probably be useful in this context.
>
>The basic non-convergence process is this:
>
>1. Participants receive a copy of the proceedings with the
>instructions to review them and note pieces of action which stand out,
>things that must be done, projects and patterns that seems to want to
>emerge from all this work.
>
>2. Participants are asked to reflect on which of those pieces of
>emergent action grabs their attention and passion to the extent that
>they feel like they could take responsibility for moving it forward.
>
>3. Open Space, as per usual, and with comments about how this is a
>space for action planning, and that anything that happens in this
>space wants to find a way out of the room. So invite maximum
>responsibility. The resulting bulletin board represents an agenda for
>action.
>
>4. The recording form for the discussions should have spaces for
>things like "Next steps" "Who/when" "resources needed" "Other
>people we need to bring into this project."
>
>5. The results are posted or added to the proceedings. In the closing
>circle people are invited to share their next steps as well as their
>reflection on the process.
>
>The theory behind this is straightforward:
>
>* Divergent OST represents passion, convergence represents responsibility.
>
>* Moving from OST to voting feels to participants like we are going
>from something amazing to "business as usual." Not always a bad
>thing, but my experience says that once people taste OST they want
>more of it. Creating categories of action based on proceedings from
>the previous day (the traditional convergence process) limits the
>patterns that might emerge as people step up to take leadership. Also
>it often happens that things become so converged that there is no real
>target for responsibility. It seems like there is often a group or
>two which everyone agrees is important but not important enough to
>champion. That never happens with non-convergence.
>
>* Non-convergence therefore IS convergence, except that instead of the
>convergence process happening outside of individuals, it happens
>within individuals, as people each perceive patterns and feel the pull
>to realize them collectively.
>
>* Voting doesn't always tell us where the action commitments will
>actually lie. But using your two feet to move to the groups that are
>creating next steps is a very concrete and personal statement of
>commitment.
>
>There's lots more theory, but that's the basic take on it.
>
>Now for my question to practitioners. Whether you have used
>convergence or non-convergence, in OST you end up with lots of people
>wanting to do lots of things. In organizations where there is a
>vision or a leadership that wants to be sure that all of these pieces
>of action are somewhat aligned, there is often a time when the
>leadership needs to examine what has been committed to and make
>decisions about, for example, assigning resources to these action
>groups.
>
>My question is, what follow-up practices have you used to help leaders
>support the emergent leadership and energy and spirit that comes from
>OST, while remaining good stewards of their organization's resources
>and vision? I'm obviously looking for approaches that are open, and
>that continue to work with the dynamics of OST.
>
>Any answers are much appreciated, and might find their way into a
>paper on "Life after OST" in which it may be gently suggested that the
>genie cannot be put back into the bottle, and so organizations may do
>well to pay attention to strategy and process in the spirit of what
>has just happened. Anyone wishing to collaborate on a paper like this
>should let me know too.
>
>Chris
>
>
>--
>-------------------------
>CHRIS CORRIGAN
>Consultation - Facilitation
>Open Space Technology
>
>Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
>Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>
>*
>*
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