Theme Suggestions?

[koos de heer]

David,

Have you considered talking to a few of the people involved
and asking them how they would describe the issue? That
would give you a clue as to the wording that lies close to
their hearts.

It sounds like a great opportunity and I am sure that OS
can be a great contribution in this process. A few extra
questions to consider, maybe unnecessary but I ask them
anyway...

Have you considered inviting other stake holders like
students, alumni, school management (I mean of the schools
that will hire your teachers-to-be after their graduation),
state officials (the ones who demand the new curriculum)?

What is your own position, are you passionate about this
yourself?  That does not have to be a problem, it just might
make it a little more difficult to sit on your hands and
stick to just holding the space.

Success and warm greetings,

Koos

At 13:49 10-03-1999 -0600, you wrote:
>I'd like some help coming up with the appropriate wording for an OS
>theme.  What I have coming up is a high stakes event.  The
>precise theme wording is critical (at least I think it is).
>
>First I need to give some background.  I am a member of a College
>of Education at a university.  We are undergoing massive teacher
>education redesign.  We are under a state mandate to get a new
>program in place by Fall 99.  We have a month and a half left in
>this academic year. Failure to come up with a new curriculum is
>simply not an option. A key group of ten faculty (10 PhD ego's) are
>working on  a new "Core Curriculum."  Deliberations have broken
>down over philosophical issues, content issues, generalist vs
>specialist teacher issues, number of hours, etc., etc. In short
>conversations have become very contentious and heated.  The
>group is going in circles and a couple of people have resigned.
>Emotions are high and acrimony is rampant.  The group is getting
>frustrated, exhausted, and burned out on every-other-day meetings.
>To me the situation meets perfectly the criteria for an OS event:
>high levels of complexity, high levels of diversity, high levels of
>conflict, and a decision is needed yesterday.
>
>I volunteered to hold an OS event with this group. The group may
>be expanded in size somewhat.  I'm going to guess that 15 to 20
>people would voluntarily come together if they believed real
>progress could be made.
>
>I would GREATLY APPRECIATE any suggestions anyone on this
>list might have for the wording of a theme to focus this group.
>Something like "issues and opportunities facing the College of
>Education" just seems too generic for this particular situation,
>which I might go so far as to describe as a crisis.
>
>Thanks  VERY MUCH for your help!!!
>
------------
koos de heer
auryn management advies
utrecht, netherlands
mailto:koosdhr at auryn.nl
http://www.auryn.nl/

>From  Wed Mar 10 21:39:53 1999
Message-Id: <WED.10.MAR.1999.213953.0100.>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 21:39:53 +0100
Reply-To: thomas.herrmann at telia.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: "Herrmann, Thomas" <thomas.herrmann at telia.com>
Subject: Thanks for your answers Michael and Koos
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

I do agree with you Koos. There is something strange about using the
"apply-to" function. Both your (second) and Michaels letters came via the
list. When I tried the "apply-to" function it worked with the letter from
Koos but the one from Michael was addressed directly to him....
I've got the inspiration to try with a real open space in the center next
time. Those with bad knees have to excuse... I'll send on your answers to
two of my collegues who are going to have their first OS events next week.
Two one-day events in a raw. More than 100 persons each day. That's quite a
start isn't it. Actually I think it will be almost too hard. Well, the rest
of us offered them to take one of the days but they want to go for it!
About question nr 2. Last spring we arranged two events where one of the
main purposes was to bring a great variety of people who work in different
organizations but within the same field together. The hypothesis was that
they could gain a lot from cooperating and exchanging ideas. I don't know
but I do think we Swedes are not to good att taking advantage of new
contacts that easy. For example I got the question several times after the
conference: What's going to happen now. Who will arrange a continuation. My
answer was: You do have the chance, take it! Also we had the attandees vote
for what subjects where highest priority (using dotts on a scheme). We then
invited and met some of the conveners and got back to the whole bunch with
invitations. The interest wasn't that great though, although the event was
very satisfactory. The "problem" in terms of evaluation is of course that I
do not know everything that happened afterwards. Actually at one of the
conferences people switched calling cards and made agreements to meet
during the event.
I have another question to you all. I think it would be so much better to
have at least two days time for OS. The problem though is that the cost
rises because of accomodation. That's a pity because I think spending an
evening together makes a difference as well as having some more time to
work. Well, does anyone have the solution for that?? I also noticed that
especially small companies have a hard time to come. We may try an even
from 3pm to 8pm next time or from friday afternoon to saturday.
Has anyone tried OS outdoors? That would be fun to try. A bit hard though
with the uncertainty of wheather.
I hope I don't rush to much with all my questions, I guess you noticed that
I'm excited about it all!
Good night from Sweden


Thomas Herrmann
Pensévägen 4
434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden

Tfn (+46) 0300-713 89 (home)
     (+46) 031-775 13 38 (work)