i know that so many people have never had the experience of receiving
notes after discussions - and that some people use the notes for
deeper reflection post-event.
Some organizations turn them into work-sheets for projects, some
return six months later to re-convene a group of people who cared
about something.
Some groups give everyone their Book of Proceedings and then a smaller
sub-group has fun going over it to look for patterns and new ideas
inspired by the notes.
Some individuals do not look at the notes at all - but I have found
that many people do - especially if it is in the form of a Book of
Proceedings rather than individual posted notes on wiki for example.
And yes, some people do not feel they need to take notes at all, and
that is fine.
When I see multiple people taking notes I invite them to add their
notes together, or I take a photo of their mind-maps and put that into
the Book - and even if someone creates poetry or a drawing during the
meeting I feel that is 'the work' as well so I put that into the Book
as well.
I am always seeking (with Open Space and with other processes) easy
ways for participants to self-document so that the wisdom shared in
one little group is shared across all the groups - so that if one
little discussion group has a discovery that knowledge is not limited
to that small group who went to that particular discussion, but
instead informs the whole.
That is why I appreciate people having written up notes as much as
they have from the WOSonOS and other events where I have been a
participant. I want to learn from more than the little groups I was
able to get to.
And I want to see who attended each group - because possibly I may
want to invite people interested in a topic to explore further post-
event (when I am a participant) or when I consult with an organization
sometimes the client sees topics in the Book that had high interest
and wishes to re-convene people interested in it. And so on.
I have found that it is useful to put a live Newsroom in the Open
Space meeting room (as happened at the WOSonOS - gracefully
coordinated by Kirsty & Company) - and wonderful Kas has improved my
understanding of how to show in the room what notes are outstanding
and which are completed - so participants can see that as they go
throughout their discussions. I find that giving participants back a
Book of Proceedings - with some photos to remind them of a body-sense
of their passion and engagement - is something many participants
really like. I am not always the one who does the documentation with a
client and of course documentation design always depends on how much
overall meeting time there is, as well as ways of inviting non-
burdensome / collective co-responsibility documentation. Sometimes
documentation - especially for a short meeting - is as simple as a
list of what topics were posted and who attended each discussion plus
a list of participant contact / networking information.
Yes - the notes are as detailed as whomever takes the notes. But I
like the co-responsibility of participants actively sharing what they
are learning and as Harrison says - most notes give the general thrust
and content of that session.
And for example a science conference I facilitated was a great
opportunity for people to share knowledge across disciplines and they
are very interested in reading each others' notes - and surprised that
so much information comes into an informal writing as they are so used
to academic papers. And at another conference I facilitated,
participants really appreciate a Book of Proceedings because they can
show their funders about their retreat or conference and can use the
Book to generate conversations back at the office. It also can give
people in organizations some leverage in showing what convening groups
in dialogue can be and how productive such a convening can be - so
they get a bit more support for doing more of that in their
organization.
Just some things I have observed about session notes...
Lisa
On Oct 24, 2012, at 8:11 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:
Kari – It has always seemed to me that the real value of the notes
from various sessions was/is just to alert anybody-interested in the
general thrust and content of that session. Any similarity between
OS Reports and formal, edited, officially sanctioned minutes is
purely co-incidental. I always tried to label the “Proceedings”
DRAFT, back in the days when we had hard copy – just to make the
point that it is all a work in progress. But the good news is that
-- should you be interested, but not quite understand – you have the
name (and usually email) of the author. Talk to themJ
Harrison
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