Greetings all. The latest OST I did was a single day, jam packed with divergence and convergence fit into a 7.5 hour period. I realize that one day is supposed to be only good for an airing of the issues, but this group needed to get to action planning, so, after an analysis of where they were at (as individuals and as a team) I decided to see what OS could do if we really "opened her up". The core members of the OS event (10 participants in total) had previously decided on the three dimensional "size" of the solution space, and had very clear permission (from the company's COO) to create success, but they did not know how to get from here to there.
Do you ever tire of showing a bunch of smiling, disbelieving faces an almost-blank wall with the single word "AGENDA" on it? Telling them that, 20 minutes later, they'll wonder "how will we possibly ever get through all this stuff?"? Watching the process as the issues go up? I always wonder, will it start with a trickle or a downpour? An insightful facilitator who mentored me recommended starting them off on writing items with the single command word "Go" - it does seem to release them and give them the permission we seem to need (at least in Canada). This event started with a bang - at least six of the participants were down on the floor with markers, writing away within two seconds of the word "go" being spoken. And the wall...ten people put 43 issues on the wall within fifteen minutes. They knew why they were there, alright, and they thoroughly enjoyed being able to discuss EVERYTHING - not just the politically correct things. The first discussion ran 45 minutes over. By the end of the second discussion they were over an hour over time - but they were doing what they had to - they prioritized the issues and ran the big discussions first, so that by the time they got to the third and fourth discussion rounds, the discussions were relatively short with quick conclusions. By the time we were ready for prioritization and action planning, they were back within three minutes of schedule! For action planning itself, 7 issues quickly melded into two key issues that needed detailed plans of attack, and a third issue that a small subgroup agreed to take away and solve. Thus, the group split into two according to their passion and spent 2 hours action planning the two key prongs of their push for success in their marketplace. In the closing circle, OS was roundly praised as being far more "useful" than any other techniques the participants had seen (and five had been in a sales-related GE WorkOut session two weeks previous) for kick-starting action in the right direction. As an added bonus, one personally challenging issue was solved: in the two weeks previous to the OS event, the topic under discussion had gone through several "owners" - and the afternoon before the event, the then-owner told me that he had sought and received permission to transfer ownership of the responsibility for success on this initiative to me(!). Knowing this was not the right answer and hoping that OS would sort it out, I agreed and let the ownership issue lay quietly. As these things seem always to happen in OS, someone posted the question "Who Owns This?" on the board. The group met, and the person with the greatest passion for, and knowledge of, the activity came forth and claimed it as his own, to a general round of applause (and one sigh of relief) from the room. The talking stick is fascinating. We aren't so far from our ancestors sitting around a campfire (and I say this with respect and love) as we sometimes think. Watching the way individuals go about choosing the stick, holding it, and speaking to the group while holding it is my favourite part of the entire process. That's the one place where, prepared as I think I am, I'm continually surprised. Any thoughts on talking sticks?? Best wishes, Phil Culhane * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
