I think a first question to ask is, "What is meant by Strategic Planning?" If the answer comes out something like, a brief consideration of outside opinion regarding the environment and future possibilities, it doesn't sound to me like there is much space, open or otherwise. On the other hand, if the intention is to work together in a collaborative manner to architect the future directions of the company - space gets a lot more open. And OST can be very useful. In fact it has been useful in multiple similar situations. But you do need time and a few hours at the end of a day of speeches does not qualify.
Parenthetically, if I were one of the invited corporate executives I would feel pretty demeaned. Either I and my colleagues possess the necessary smarts and experience to guide the enterprise or we should all be fired. Assuming we do possess the essentials, give us the time and space necessary to do the job. If we don't then just have the experts write the strategic plan and tell us what it is... Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Susan M Kerr Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 8:36 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Introducing OST for strategic planning - Question Hi Everyone, Does anyone have experience with using OST for strategic planning for an organization? If so, how did you would you introduce it to the leaders of the organization in order to use it for this? I'm not new to this list but still new to using OST. While I've experienced it Harrison, Michael H, and others, I haven't experienced it within an organization for problem solving. My role in my company is to manage training for one small section of the company (700 employees out of 26,000) and I have only used parts of OST or on a very small scale. Yesterday out of the blue, the VP of Org Dev called me to ask me if I thought OST could be used at their upcoming strategic planning meeting where 20 - 30 strategic leaders will be meeting for 1 day I believe. He asked me if I would be willing to meet with himself and one other leader responsible to plan this meeting to explain what OST is and how it could be used for this. He specifically asked for: What OST is How OST can be used What could work for strategic planning What might not work The "wrench" he threw into it that I don't quite know what to do with is that they are considering bringing in "experts" in social trends and healthcare/business trends to present to this group of strategic planners and allow them time for Q&A of these experts. Then there would be time for priority setting/developing the strategic plan. He was thinking of OST for the latter phase. I welcome any thoughts or coaching from this group! I followed some of the recent conversations on "experts" in OST sessions and understand that purpose of holding two day open space (I think I do, anyway) but am not sure if it could be accomplished in one day and if this is a situation to use it in or not. Thank you! I look forward to hearing from you. Peace, Susan _____ See what's new at AOL.com <http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170> and Make AOL Your <http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169> Homepage. * * ========================================================== 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
