Dear friends, I'm working at the moment on a short-term contract for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan), helping the Central Asian Red Crescent Societies to overcome the difficulties they face in the changing environment since independence from the Soviet Union. Open space provides excellent opportunities for that! So, in each country I facilitate a one-day open space meeting in Russian with 30-35 people: staff members, external partners, beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The design is simple: 09:30 opening 11:00 1. Group 12:00 2. Group 13:00 3. Group 15:00 planning next steps 17:00 closing circle 17:30 end
I have done it already in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and it worked! In Tajikistan 16 issues were posted and I got 11 reports in, in Uzbekistan 23 issues were posted and 17 reports were produced. Due to the lack of a copy machine, computers and sometimes electricity I arrived at a very low-tech design. Thanks god that Post-its are available! I do not produce the book of proceedings in the meeting it will be done after and the planning next step sequence is as simple as this (I picked up some ideas from Michael M Pannwitz - thanx Michael!): I put all reports on the wall and reading the proceedings is held as a visit to this gallery. Than I put a blank A3 paper near to each report, which carries the headline: "open questions and further recommendations". People visit the paper and put in their additional ideas. Than I put up a next A3 paper with two headlines: "Who is doing What, When and with Whom and which resources are needed". Participants visit the wall again and discussing these questions the agreements on the paper. The participants In Tajikistan agreed something about next steps nearly on all 11 issues - only on one issue the next steps paper remained blank. In Uzbekistan I got three blank papers by the end of the planning sequence. On Wednesday this week I have to facilitate the open space meeting here in Turkmenistan. Does anybody heard about an open space technology meeting in Turkmenistan or is this the first? Greeting from Ashgabad Jo Toepfer -- Jo Toepfer Tel: +49-30-42018000 Fax: +49-30-69088159 http://www.joconsult.de/ * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html