Concluding Open Space

[Michael Herman]

hello everyone,

just catching up with e-things after being gone...

special thanks to diane for taking action on our conversations re:
converging and for reporting it...i'd add a couple of little details by
way of question, suggestion, concern....

1.  the notion of priority setting and the question you used to open the
last day seems to have the potential to allow an escape into planning
mode and out of passion+responsibility mode...what do think of the more
blunt question..."what are you going to do now?" or "what can you do
now?"...still intending that these individual actions would be lead to
the emergence of priorities?

2.  recently was present for a dots-voting session...i questioned the
strength of the passion+responsibility link in this particular session i
was in and thought the link could be tightened by asking folks to take
dots in proportion to the amount of time they expected to invest in
doing the actions being voted on....for example, at my meeting (about 30
volunteer leaders at my church) i would have suggested taking one voting
dot for every hour per week a person expected to work on these projects
over the next six months.

as you can see, my concern is to get the most honest view on day three
of what can really happen going forward, what people are really ready to
do and not just what would be nice...that said, i also really like the
idea of going through the opening process again, to demonstrate that the
opening/questioning process is an everyday working thing, not just an
annual planning thing.

thanks again,

michael herman