I too have found, in discussion with Sponsors, that red-dot
prioritising of issues is less important than going straight to
action planning. The Action plans become the 'operational priorities'
in the sense that people act on things that are really important to
them (the "responsibility" issue).
On the web link that Michael provided he described a 'pre-action
planning' phase of some silent reflection time and some talking in
pairs. I've done this too and found it works really well. My theory
is that this is good psychology - introverts tend to find silence
helpful and extraverts tend to find the conversation helpful in
getting their ideas into order.
In relation to Action Planning paper work, I find that people in my
part of Australia almost NEVER use the logical columns on my
carefully designed Action Planning Sheets (What/who/when etc)!! Even
when I've explained this, in advance, it's simply ignored. The words
that a written on Action Planning Sheets often appear to me to be
vague and non-specific. That's a complete mystery to me - has anyone
else had this experience? I can only hope that they know, in
themselves, what they want/need to do.
Something I experimented with a couple of weeks ago for the first
time (for a group of 40) was to NOT provide A4 Action Planning
templates, but rather to put some butcher's paper up on the wall and
invite people to simply write up specific things that they intended
to do, as individuals, as a consequence of the Open Space. And if
they wanted/needed the help of other people, to use the microphone to
announce this.
This resulted in people milling around the wall, watching what other
people were writing - and to my surprise the actions were often far
more clearly articulated than I've ever seen when using A4
action-planning templates. Go figure!!?? Maybe the collective/public
nature of that exercise is an invitation for people to really think
carefully about what they are writing? It might also be that seeing
one person's action statement written up, inspires other people to
add their own.
Michael Wood Western Australia
-----Original Message----- From: OSLIST
[mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Michael M
Pannwitz Sent: Thursday, 22 October 2009 4:09 AM To:
osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: OST 1,5 day: Any
suggestion?
Dear Deborah, you had some great advice. Here is my idea for a
design:
Day 1 16:00 Opening 17:15 Breakout session (they might do something
other than "discuss") 18:30 Breakout session something to eat, have
it available from 19:30 onwards for those that are very hungry or are
already finished with their session 20:15 Evening News with
invitation for more issues to be posted 20:45 End of the day
Day 2
9:00 Morning announcements and one more opportunity to post issues
9:30 Breakout session 10:45 Breakout session 12:00 Reading and
augmenting the reports (for this you post all the reports in the main
room with an A4 augmentation sheet next to each report so that
everyone can read and augment the reports...no printed Book of
Proceedings, yet...your crew sets this up while people are still in
the break out session...its like a second News Wall but now with the
additional sheets for augmentation...being in the main room does
make a community exercise out of this with people reading, walking
around, discussing, asking questions, digesting all the stuff they
produced). 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Action Planning (as Koos suggested,
sometimes also called Action Space, yes, forget the prioritisation,
there is no energy in it, its turned out to be a statistical exercise
that does not promote passion and responsibility and only delays
people to get into the Action act).
17:30 Final cercle 18:00 End of the day
The Reading etc. session at noon followed by lunch has somewhat the
function of "sleeping"...actually, I call the Action Planning the
"third day" on the experience that a 3-day event is optimal, even if
the "third day" is, as in the event you will facilitate, on the
"second day".
While the participants are having lunch and then enjoy Action
Planning your crew can produce the Book in the background, including
the "augmentation sheets". The book will be available to everyone on
their way out as they leave the event (it has become quite a practice
in the events I am facilitating that there no longer is a paper Book
but that the Book appears as an e-Book, pdf, on a website for the
participants or even for everybody interested in the book...it might
go online without the contact list with all the contact data for the
participants).
The advantage you have with a night between "day 1" and "day 2" is
that participants have 2 more opportunities to offer isssues
(especially those also, that arrive only on the second day).
Here are some links to details:
Action Planning, a very detailed description of the process, Koos
mentioned, in English http://en.boscop.org/pages/30-action-planning
Augmentation Form (in German)for the reading and augmentation part
http://de.boscop.org/pages/27-augmentation
Next Step form (in German) for the Action Planning
http://www.boscop.org/pages/28-naechster-schritt
The forms are MS word documents that you can download and adjust to
the details of the event you are facilitating.
By the way, its a good enforcer for sustainibility if the date of the
Next Meeting is known even before the event.
Have a great time mmp
Déborah Maarek wrote:
Hi Koos,
Thank you so much for your answer!
Regarding the time, the participants are part of a group of people
who come every tuesday night (from 18:00 to 21:00) to listen ton
conference about "transition town, energy, climat change, new
currencies...". Each tuesday there is one conference, than a break
with food, then a second conference and food again.
That's why we had the idea to do the first half day until 21:00
with food supply during the 2 last discusisons.
I think your right that it is strange to have a session in the
second morning. It would be better to make them happen all in the
same period.
I am curious about what you call storytelling? How do you
facilitate that? Wouldn't the participants be surprise and maybe
not so happy just to tell or listen to stories?
Can you tell me more about that?
Best regards,
Déborah Maarek
Awareness Consulting
Rue de Toulouse, 15 - 1040 Brussels, Belgique
T: +32 (0) 2 219 33 35 - Gsm: +32 (0) 495 38 98 88
deborahmaa...@awareness-consulting.net
www.awarenessconsulting.com
Skype: deborahmaarek
Le 20-oct.-09 à 22:37, Koos de Heer a écrit :
Hi Deborah,
Looking at your program, the first thing that comes to mind is
that it will work, as Open Space always works when done with good
intentions. The second thing is that it feels a little strange to
have three sessions on one side of the night and the fourth
session on the other side. For me, the night is a boundary and I
usually use it in that way. Usually when I do a 1,5 day Open
Space event, I have a full day first with all the sessions and
then the morning of the second day for convergence and action
planning. The night is the time when everything from the sessions
can settle down and boil and simmer and stew.
In your time frame, with a night and a full day, I would consider
doing just storytelling and sharing on the first day, and
sessions as well as convergence on the second day (sessions in
the morning, convergence in the afternoon, that gives you the
lunch break for printing reports).
My third thougt looking at your program is that folks will get
very hungry when dinner is at 21:00, but maybe that is normal in
France.
By the way, I have abandoned the priority voting. I find it sort
of messy and clumsy. I simply open the space again, with a new
agenda for action planning. Very elegant and powerful.
Good luck
Koos
At 19:17 20-10-2009, Déborah Maarek wrote:
Hello again,
Working on a OST for Rennes City in France, I would like to
have you experience about the timing to propose for a 1,5 day
event!
One of the pb is that the host is afraid that many people will
come only the first day or only the second day. How can we
manage this kind of situation?
Just to give you the context: The OST is about Rennes, post
carbon city. They have to reach -20% CO2 in 2020 and they want
to consult the citizen (around 100 to 160 participants:
inhabitants, companies, politics...)
My idea is to do most of the emergence part during the first
day:
Day 1 16:00Opening 17:00Discussion 1 18:00Discussion 2
19:00Discussion 3 20:00News of the day 20:45End of the day
Day 2
9:00Morning news* 9:30Discussion 4 10:30End of writting the
reports 11:00Reading 12:30Vote of priorities 13:00Lunch
14:00Action Plan 15:30Action Plan presentation 16:15Personal
Action Plan 17:00Final cercle 18:00End of the day
My idea is that after the morning news, I will explain to the
"new" participants the process so that they are not lost and
they can do the 4th discussion. Would it be strange?
I imagine that it is very short for printing 100 or 160 reports
after the 4th discussion... But also if I take more time, what
would the participants do during this "off" time?
If you have any suggestion, ideas or experience, I would love
to hear them!!
Thank you for your help and support
Best regards,
Déborah
Déborah Maarek
Awareness Consulting
Rue de Toulouse, 15 - 1040 Brussels, Belgique
T: +32 (0) 2 219 33 35 - Gsm: +32 (0) 495 38 98 88
deborahmaa...@awareness-consulting.net
www.awarenessconsulting.com
Skype: deborahmaarek
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