Dear Chris,
for some time I have been wondering how I ever felt got stuck on the
notion that there is a linear sequence such as first we talk and then we
plan in the context of OST gatherings (what sometimes has been described
as divergence followed by convergence).
Theory but more so experience in some 200 OST events (and more
importantly in zillions of everyday life experiences) I have been
involved in seems to indicate that its not a linear sequence but
productively chaotic with action and action planning and discussion and
story telling and whatever else we are engaged in happening
simultaneously throughout the process.
Having discussed this with colleagues and clients over the last weeks we
will try the following in a one day event with 130 participants this
coming Monday in Berlin (participants from various agencies connected in
a network with a focus on counselling immigrants searching for a job),
an event where I would not have suggested or suggest a separate action
planning:
Parallel to the design with 4 timeslots and 9 breakout spaces (time and
space for at least 36 issues)and the usual report sheets posted at the
newswall a "Next Step" sheets will be available from the very beginning
(usually employed in a seperate action planning phase at the end of the
event).
The "Next Step" sheet has the following structure:
-Vorhaben (which is the german for "something that I want to do" and a
broader term then project, close to "intention" but a bit more towards
something that actually will be done)
-people taking part (participants can enter their names)
-Next Step (who,what,when,where, how)
-Contact person
During the introduction to the process I will point out that the Next
Step sheets are available on a separate section of the newswall, so that
everyone will be able to see the emerging Next Step sheets with the
possibility of adding ones name or other Next Steps on the sheet. These
sheets will simply become part of the Book of Proceedings (high speed
copying machines making it possible to hand out the Book after the
closing circle even in a one day event).
Will let you know how this went.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
Chris Corrigan wrote:
In my continuing quest to find ways to support action coming out of OST
events, I put together a little thought for a client today which I
thought I'd share with you folks...
The conference we are doing is two days of talk and networking on Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome. A couple of hundred people will be coming together to
discuss what they are doing and to find others interested in their
work. It is a learning conference with no expectation for anything
concrete, like a strategy opr a statement, but rather the importance is
on maximizing face time between practitioners. Something like an OSonOS.
Some of the folks on the planning committee though want to support
action that does flow from the conference and they have asked for the
container to hold some energy and intention for this without the
conference becoming about 200 people trying to come up with one action
plan. No need for prioritising or even a non-convergence type reopening
of the space. I think this is a very real need and a very realistic
expectation.
So today we started playing with two ideas, one new and one old. The
old one is to simply add to the small group summaries form a place for
people to record next steps. The new idea is to create an action market
place next to the news wall. This is no more complicated than a
community bulletin board, in that people can feel free to post any bits
and pieces of action that they want to invite others to join. The
advantage of this system is that it allows a finer grain of action to
come forward, so for example, while there may be some conversations that
emerge in the event about what to do next, the action market place could
hold much smaller pieces that would otherwise be lost. Action around a
follow up conference would stand alongside an invitation to join one or
two people in writing a new brochure, or meeting for coffee next week to
continue a conversation.
I think this approach could work in all OST gatherings, and might even
be especially useful in gatherings where action planning is a part of
the process. Then you end up with action planning taking the group in
one large general direction, but the individual passion and
responsibility for little things also in play.
Cheers,
Chris
--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de www.michaelmpannwitz.de
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