Michael – Never had a problem with large groups and “Opening Space for Action.” I guess my biggest was 700-800, but regardless, did it the same way. On the morning of the 3rd day I invited anybody who cared to identify Action Points. That could be an issue previously discussed, a combination, or something new. Only condition was that something could and should be done NOW. We had a dozen or so flip charts set up around the edges of the big room (more if necessary). Each Chart was formatted as follows Issue:, Convener: , Immediate Next Steps: , Co-Co-conspirators. Proposers came to the center to announce their issues, and then claimed one of the flip charts wrote their issue in the appropriate space, followed by their name, and remained standing by the chart. Doing all of the above usually took 45 min. For the next hour, EVERYBODY was invited to visit any chart and add whatever information/suggestions they felt relevant under the heading of “Immediate Next Steps.” They could also add their name under “Co-conspirator” if they wanted to be a part of the working team. Pandemonium broke out as everybody went every which way. When things got quiet, I asked each of the conveners to make a SHORT SUMMARY statement – What were they going to do? When would they start?... and I became a walking microphone stand. The conveners were also responsible for creating a 1 page summary to be included in the Proceedings. Worked like a charm and the Closing followed.
Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Herman Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 2:09 PM To: World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: Re: [OSList] is our voting software dead? wow. and this might be the answer to my technical question, chris. i'll check out this new tool and include it in the site updating. specific words, specific tools. this is exactly what i was looking for. as i go off to try to understand the new tool. can you say more here about how it works. you've got 200 or 300 or 50 or whatever folks in the circle, day three, or two weeks after a one-day event, or sometime. you've got a set of proceedings from the first time. maybe you've re-opened the space. or are going to. there is some interest in polling the crowd. now what? in the old days, we numbered the issues and everyone ranked their top ten. how does this new tool make work? what do you ask them to text into the center? what do they send? how is that processed and turned back to the group? does the form of this make it necessary to ask about individual issues? what possibilities are opened by the new form? how does it not devolve into a simple yes/no polling or how does it support ongoing or in-the-moment conversation? i guess i'm really wondering if this is a tool for converging or diverging, or both. and how that works. can you put it in that old familiar context? or is that the wrong way to think about it? thanks, m -- Michael Herman Michael Herman Associates 312-280-7838 (mobile) http://MichaelHerman.com http://OpenSpaceWorld.org On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 12:52 PM, Chris Corrigan <[email protected]> wrote: Yup…Opening space for action is still the best way to get things moving. It has several advantages, the best of which is that it allows people to digest themes and ideas that cross through many many sessions. Often you can have a project come out on the action day that takes care of issues raised in several different sessions. It allows for convergence to happen within the heart, and for those with the passion who are willing to make time to initiate something to call it in. It has always resulted in much better sustained result, in my experience. Sometimes though, there is a need to vote on things, and what I have done recently is to hire a developer called Luke Closs to build a little a tool called SMSHarvest and you can find that at www.smsharvest.com. Basically it allows people to use their phones to send a text to a number. That text can contain any kind of information including preferences, and text….we deliberately designed the tool to be useable without any sign up and to be totally familiar, as almost everyone knows how to text and if you don’t someone can show you or do it for you. Easy. You can use the tool for free, or throw some money Luke’s way as a mark of appreciation. And if you want him to build a tweak for you, he does that well, quickly and directly to what you need. Chris On Aug 28, 2014, at 8:40 AM, Harrison Owen <[email protected]> wrote: Actually I still have the old software, but I agree with Michael. There are much better ways. The problem for me with that software, as with all efforts (including Sticky-dots) to prioritize the issues that were raised on the first day or so of the OS is that it is measurement of “yesterday’s passions.” Very much like the most recent Quarterly Financial Report... all it tells you about is old news. On a standard 2 ½ day OS, when the 3rd day dawns, everybody had had a night to sleep on everything. Almost inevitably a lot will have changed. Hot issues will merge with other hot issues, hot issues will cool, new issues will have been thrown up thanks to the interaction of the preceding two days. There is also the question of Actionable Issues (which is the focal point of the 3rd day) which don’t necessarily include all the issues previously discussed. I believe Chris Corrigan started it all when he talked about “opening the space for action.” Anyhow that is what he did, and I do as well. Very simple procedure which I think I covered in the 3rd Edition of The User’s Guide. Nowhere near as elegant as Michael’s “Praxis” – but it will do in a pinch, and is not in German. J Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Herman Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 5:41 AM To: OSLIST Subject: [OSList] is our voting software dead? hi all, especially those of you who've used the old multi-voting software. i'm wondering when was the last time you used the multi-voting software to do prioritization at the end of an OS meeting? i'm trying to figure out if it's still useful on the latest PCs. i'm a mac guy, so can't test it locally here. and if not using the old software, what are you using on day 3 of os events that are too big for dots? is there a new state-of-the-art when it comes to converging into action with larger groups? many thanks, m -- Michael Herman Michael Herman Associates 312-280-7838 (mobile) <http://michaelherman.com/> http://MichaelHerman.com <http://openspaceworld.org/> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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