Hiya Julie: What a thrill to hear about OST up your way!
Anyway, for basic prioritizing at the end of a short meeting, I have done the following: 1. Ask people to record their sessions on flipchart paper 2. Post a news gallery 3. Reconvene people in a circle 4. Tell them they are amazing, look at all this stuff, can you believe it? etc. etc. 5. Point elegantly to a pile of sticky dots in the middle of the circle. 6. Invite people to get up, grab some dots, go read the news wall and place a dot on the posters they think represent the most pressing/important/intricate/helpful (your choice) ideas. In my experience, if people know they are going to be doing this up front, and the invitation for the whole day is pitched as one that helps determine priorities, then this little exercise runs pretty smoothly. Chris --- CHRIS CORRIGAN Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology Bowen Island, BC, Canada http://www.chriscorrigan.com [email protected] > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Julie > Smith > Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 2:34 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: convergence (again) > > I need some help designing a convergence plan for an OST next week. So > far, the OST's I've done haven't required this, so I'm treading into > (for me) new territory. > > Here's the scoop: Our three local mayors are holding a Youth Forum from > 8:30 - 1:30 next Friday. Their goal is to learn what community issues > are most important to youth and to weave those concerns into the > community's comprehensive plan. The planning committee loves the idea > of OST, and they want to end up with a clear list of priorities at the > end of the day. > > Just as I was getting ready to pose this question here, I read Lisa's > message, which includes this: > > >>>And on a more event design note, shorter OSs are perfectly fabulous, > I've found. Thanks to dear Jeff Aitken for first stretching my mind on > this. I think it's important to know that if the goal is networking, > needs assessment, raising issues, spotting trends, airing concerns, > noticing what works, getting a snapshot, sharing passion, and so many > other things that come from emergence of thoughts, issues and intuition, > the swirling of ideas and bubbling up of topics is amazing, even in > short timeframes. > > But my experience is that if you want to then stuff people back into the > shape of linear thinking to get to a 'therefore' (or a vote, or action > items) you want to give them more time. And when passion is high which > might include pain or grieving (either overt or hidden issues), I find > that people need first to tell the story (as many times as they need to) > and to have others witness it...before they can move on to solution > thoughts.<<< > > So...... looking for help figuring this out. The core issue for the > mayors is to learn how our community could become a place more young > people would want to live in into their adulthood. They would like the > event to end with a prioritizing of the top 10 concerns youth have about > our community. > > I haven't done a prioritizing/voting kind of convergence before. Given > our short time frame, will it work? If so, how do I facilitate it? How > much time will it take? (I don't think Michael's re-opening the space > idea works here, except there IS talk about continuing this group if > there's a desire to do so (and I expect there will be)..... and on some > level it doesn't feel right to simply take input and send them on their > way...... it seems like the participants should have an opportunity to > express what they want to do with what they've created, regardless of > what the mayors or anyone else wants to do with it......) > > OST is taking off like a wildfire here. Our local community is home to > about 80,000 people. I know of 1 - 3 OST events happening here every > week, many of them with youth. I assume there are others I don't know > about. A substantial percentage of our population is quickly gaining > exposure to (and loving) the OST process. Every time an OST event takes > place, new events spring up from people who want to use it somewhere > else. The Youth Forum is a particularly important event because many > people will be watching both the process and the outcome. There will be > many opportunities for OST to spread even further, especially if we can > identify an appropriate convergence process. Any help thinking this > through will be appreciated. > > As I got ready to press the send button a new thought occurred to > me..... we've seen OST work for events and beginning to see how it can > become part of organizations...... how about an entire COMMUNITY that > embraces the concept...... ahhhhhh, sweet dreams..... > > Julie > > * > * > ========================================================== > [email protected] > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of [email protected], > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
