Dear Marty,
the latest stage in the development of my practice regarding going from
the "divergent" mode
into action planning in a regular (3 day, sleep twice, 16 hours event
which almost always means Day 1 is half a day, Day2 is a full day and
Day 3 is half a day)open space event especially in the light of
sponsors/clients moving away from paper documents to electronic pdf
style documents:
-Day 1 with usually three beginning times for break out sessions
-Day 2 with usually four beginning times for break out sessions
-Divergent phase on Day 2 followed by gathering in a circle with an
introduction into what I call "reading and augmentation phase" where
participants can read all the reports posted on pinboards placed around
the large main room with an "augmentation sheet" right next to each of
the reports to record further ideas, augmentations, questions, etc....so
that in the final book of proceedings you can have "augmentation sheets"
follow many or even all reports (report 3 is followed by augmentation
3A, etc.).
-Evening News at the end of Day 2
-Day 3 begins with morning announcements with either no "reading of the
books of proceedings" or, in case a paper documentation was prepared
during the night, having a quick look at the book (reading and
augmentation having already happened the evening before and now clearly
a thing of the past with the focus shifting on action)
-Outlook (before projects are looked at) under the question "What does
all that we did in the last two days mean to me, my work, my
organisatioin...?" (7 minutes individually, 13 minutes in consultation duos)
-Call for projects that are posted around the room on the pinwalls
-Planning and agreeing on the concrete next step for each project
-Recording the next steps on A4 sheets (this will be done in one
session, or, when there are more than 7 projects, in 2 rounds, when
there are more than 15 in three rounds of 20 minutes each)(in case there
are 21 issues, 14 are not shown in the first round so that participants
can focus on the first 7 projects, then on the second set, etc.)
-Walk around when the next steps have been posted for all projects so
that everybody has a chance to add her or his name to a project, etc.
-Gathering in the circle for last this and that
-Closing Circle
During Closing Circle the support team copies the "Next Step" sheets
once so that the "conveners" of the projects get a copy of their sheet
and the original can be used to prepare copies for everyone else to be
sent either in the mail or incorporated into the electronic book of
proceedings.(If there are fast copiers on the premises often a set of
all next step sheets can be produced for everyone to pick up as they
leave after closing circle, even if there are 200 participants...)
Here some links to the various things I have mentioned:
-3 day event with action planning on Day 3 with three planning rounds in
German
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/102
-2 day event with reading the proceedings and action planning including
two planning rounds on second day
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/97
-report form in English
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/60
-augmentation form in English
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/61
next step form in English
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/62
All the forms are available for downloads in MS Word so one can adapt
them to the needs of other events.
Eventually, we will also have english language designs in our website
(russian is already available,showing a 2 day event with action planinng
on the second day including reading the book of proceedings and one
round of planning, look here
http://www.boscop.org/page/show/100
Here is also the Action Planning Design we used in the training in Pakistan:
9:30 am Break
10:00 am Morning News
10:15 am Reading the Documentation
10:45 am Outlook
What does the experience of yesterday mean for my work, my
organization, my life….
Individually 7’
In pairs 13’
11:30 am Action Planning
Collecting Projects on A3 sheets 15’
Planning in Project Groups 30’
Recording the Next Step on an A4 form 5’
Reporting the Next Step in Plenary 10’
12:45 Closing Circle
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
Martin Boroson wrote:
Great discussion. I'm very interested in this evolution of our
understanding, and thanks to everyone for sharing your experience and
wisdom.
I assumed that the ability to facilitate 'natural convergence' is one of the
most wonderful, magical, and marketable features of OST, and that the voting
process, far from forcing consensus on a group, is just a way to reveal that
convergence in a more obvious way (if it wasn't clear already).
But on a more practical note, let me ask:
- Harrison, I'd still love to know how you use five dots!
- Michael, I'd love to know you facilitate a group in moving from reading
the book of proceedings 'directly' to action planning.
Thanks .
Marty
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Michael M
Pannwitz
Sent: 07 March 2008 08:45
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: Convergence for Group Consensus
After working for a while "by the book" and doing the 55 dots
convergence followed by action planning around the 7 most highly voted
issues I came to the conclusion that I, clients,the real business issue
at hand, the world, etc. dont benefit much from consensus (especially by
voting) but get real mileage out of PASSION.
Since then I have successfully convinced clients/sponsors to move
directly from the divergent phase closed by reading the book of
proceedings to action planning.
Open Space Technology from where I stand is an action orienting (not
"action oriented")process that runs on passion and responsibility. Of
course, following that course seems risky to many, lets have consensus
first. My repeated experience in OST events has been, however, that
regardless of what "consensus" processes produced, action required
needed passion and responsibility. Projects evolved independent, outside
of, in contrast to the "consensus" apparently found in "convergence" and
the issue with the highest number of dots led to no direct action ...and
that has to do with letting go of control. So one of my suspicions has
been that the call for consensus is also fed by control needs that close
space rather than keeping it open.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
Harrison Owen wrote:
Marty said: Here are my two questions:
a) In the Users Manual, you say that "with a sizable group (fifty and
larger), electronic tallying is infinitely preferred." But in this email,
you say that "with small groups (<100) Sticky dots do the job."
b) In the Users Manual, you recommend the use of 55 sticky dots per
person,
but in your email, you recommend just 5. In the quest for simplicity, it
seems you have removed about 5 per year!
My Answer --
Consistency was never one of my virtues. And when it comes to closure
(consensus or otherwise) I recommend Sniffy. Works every time, but you may
not be asked back! But I never was a real fan of consensus. Moving the
business seemed more important.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Martin
Boroson
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:34 PM
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: Convergence for Group Consensu
Harrison
I checked the Users Manual (always next to my desk) on convergence, as you
suggested.
Forgive me for quoting you back to you, but there are a couple of
differences between what you said in the Manual and what you've written
below, and I'm really interested in understanding how your
thinking/practice
has evolved in the last ten years. (I'm also planning a couple of 3-day
events where formal convergence and voting is very important to the
clients.)
Here are my two questions:
a) In the Users Manual, you say that "with a sizable group (fifty and
larger), electronic tallying is infinitely preferred." But in this email,
you say that "with small groups (<100) Sticky dots do the job."
b) In the Users Manual, you recommend the use of 55 sticky dots per
person,
but in your email, you recommend just 5. In the quest for simplicity, it
seems you have removed about 5 per year!
:)
Many thanks,
Marty
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Harrison
Owen
Sent: 04 March 2008 13:15
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: Convergence for Group Consensu
Pretty simple -- Sticky dots or voting. (Details all in the User's
Guide)With small groups (<100) Sticky dots do the job. Just give everybody
the same number of dots (5 works well) and invite them to past their dots
on
the Issue(s) they love. They can place all the dots, a few or none. Then
count the dots or just eyeball it.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of
Kimberley
Willing
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 11:09 PM
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Convergence for Group Consensu
Does anyone have any experience or advice in 'converging' open space, in
such a way that the emerging consensus of the whole group is identified?
Specifically, I have a 2 day event coming up - the purpose of which is to
develop a best practice framework for reporting on the topic, and at least
to develop a check list of issues to be addressed in preparing such a
reporting framework.
Day 1 could be spent diverging (in Open Space) and I am wondering how best
to converge on Day 2, given that one outcome mine host would like to see,
is an articulation of the level of agreement of the whole group on certain
matters.
With thanks,
Kim.
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpa...@boscop.org
www.boscop.org
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