Michael, I was thinking something similar for a conference that a friend of mine is planning to hold. The question in my mind was "if discussions can be made upon survey results rather then theories".
you say; "my idea is that these surveys, which are always done anonymously, could be very effective invitations." What i suggest is "the surveys should be invitations to discussions, dialogue, assumption of responsibility, change, and transformation" Otherwise what's the meaning of doing surveys and collecting results? Funda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Herman" <mjher...@gmail.com> To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 6:11 AM Subject: your thoughts on really big invitations? hi all, i've got an interesting situation emerging here and i'd appreciate some design thoughts. i'm in conversation with a firm whose business is surveys for big companies. they poll 10s of 1000s at a time on engagement, leadership, alignment, innovation type issues. they've been at it a long time and are very good at what they do. my idea is that these surveys, which are always done anonymously, could be very effective invitations. that would require putting a one-paragraph 'invitation' at the end, directing anybody who would want to be (and the wording here is an open question, but essentially...) in conversation with their colleagues about the issues raised, the survey results delivered, and any things that individuals and small groups might do directly for themselves (passion bounded by responsibilty) to address these things. the idea is that they could be directed to a new page where they could enter their contact info, without it being connected to the survey response, and thus add themselves to the 'invitation list' for the conversation(s) about issues and survey results. now, in one organization they are about to survey 100,000 employees. if even a very small fraction of people say yes, and these folks are scattered around the globe, it gets to be a very big conversation to have. certainly we can handle this, but how? we know that we could handle as many as 2108 in one place, if we wanted to, but at what point (how many people) would we have to shift from event mode to remote, self-facilitated, self-convening mode? how might we set up the deputizing of many conveners/hosts throughout an org and around the world? could we do some things to raise the passion/responsibility bar in the sign-up process? could we lower the activation hurdle? how much would need to happen to make good on this invitation, how much of a conversation do you suppose we can and should be able to offer? is this a good job for open space? i'm just beginning to wrap my brain around this and would be glad for any thoughts from you. initial contacts on this are in europe, just in case that makes any difference to how we think about this. i'm hoping to raise this possibility in conversations later this month and can report back on progress then. many thanks, michael -- Michael Herman Associates http://www.michaelherman.com ...inviting organizations into action Small Change News Network http://www.smallchangenews.org ...blogging giving flourishing * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
