Convergence Design

[Birgitt Bolton]

Hi Chris,
I'm aware that it is easy to give advice, and yet I know I am not walking in
your shoes. So please ignore this if it doesn't fit.

I think it is important to include everyone who cares to be involved from
the original group in your next step. Those directly involved already moving
into action, the folks from government and so on. I would like to put in a
good word here for folks from government. So far, I've met a number of
highly committed deeply passionate individuals and I see them as part of the
US, not a THEY. All people involved with your Open Space had their own
personal experience and for some, their own personal and unique
transformative moment.

I also know the requirement of the people representing their various
goverment ministries to move things forward within their ministries and like
it or not, they will need to distill the richness created from the Open
Space and write about it in ways that those they report to can get enthused
about (I think of this as meeting people where they are at and not judging
them). One never knows, they might just show up at future open spaces
themselves, be prepared to be surprised, and playful.

My advice in your current situation is that it would be helpful to move your
actions now into Two Steps. ASAP have an Open Space for convergence into
clear action. A time for taking what happened in the first Open Space and
using that "book of procedings" as "the givens" having everyone who cares to
show up (and I agree with Harrison that they should be given the choice)
given the opportunity to move things from that Open Space into action. Their
are variations of what could be done here and the one I would use would be
to initially do voting to get items prioritized and then use these
prioritized items as "the givens" of what will be acted on and then Open the
Space to figure out HOW. You'll need to think through your other givens so
that you know the constraints and supports for moving things into action and
communicate this to the participants right from the beginning.

During this Open Space for action planning, it makes sense that a government
rep would put up the topic of creating what is necessary to move this
through government. And of course whoever wants to attend is exactly the
right people. And assuming their are follow up meetings to actually write
things, in keeping with Open Space, those responsible should invite all
participants of the original open space and get even more inclusive by
inviting anyone else who should be involved, and then get on with the task.
I see that the task needs to be done. The how you get there is critical.

Hope you can understand this. Was hard to make it succinct in e-mail.

Kindest regards,
Birgitt

Birgitt Bolton
www.openspacetechnology.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Harrison
Owen
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 6:13 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Convergence Design


At 12:27 AM 1/27/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Harrison wrote:


>"Chris -- I suggest being a little careful here. If it was true that all
>the issues were posted by the Planning Committee members
>(could have happened) there is no issue. But since that was probably not
>the case (never has been, in my experience) you are
>running the distinct possibility that the actual conveners will feel
>disempowered. That would be a major loss. If there is still time,
>I would suggest that (at the very least you invite all the conveners of
>the several issues to join the committee. That is where your
>energy is -- with the conveners. Use it!"


Chris Replied:


.  This exercise is primarily for the government folks to develop some
>personal committment around the issues the community elucidated.  They
>have a deep well to drink from (45 sessions and a lot of concrete
>action) and my intention is to set them loose on the work and figure out
>what role they can play to be supportive.
****************************************
Further Thoughts from Harrison:


Chris -- Not to add to your workload, but it occurs to me that you actually
have TWO very important groups that need to get together. One, of course is
the Government Folks who need to get their stuff together. I guess they are
called The Planning Committee, and you probably can't change that now. But
it seems to me that they are no longer the Planning Committee (It has all
been planned and happened) -- They are in fact just one other sub-group from
the meeting who now have to get their stuff together in response to what
happened. That sounds like a good and necessary undertaking. BUT there is at
least one other group (The conveners) who are in a siimilar situation. I
understand your hesitance to invite them to come together because of all the
other things that are happening. But maybe it would be wise to let them make
the choice? It could be they don't want to come -- in which case they won't.
Or they might...


I guess the center of my point is that there are two different needs and
functions here (at least). The Government folks have to get their heads
screwed on right. And -- ALL the people involved (or certainly the
conveners) should be given the opportunity to take responsibility for their
thoughts leading to action.


At the end of the day what I would be most concerned about is that a very,
very, very old paradigm is re-enforced. BIG BROTHER KNOWS BEST AND ALTHOUGH
HE WILL TAKE YOUR THOUGHTS INTO CONSIDERTATION (MAYBE), IN THE FINAL
ANALYSIS, HE WILL DO WHAT (HE PERCIEVES) IS BEST FOR YOU.


I am sure that is not your intention, and I believe you that the excitement
generated by the Open Space is such that much good has and will occur.
Never-the less I would be doing my damnedest to make sure that there is at
least the opportunity for all the folks to own their creation and take
responsibilty for its realization. It seems to me from what you have said
that even though the Government folks may have initiated the whole effort,
they are now off center stage. They have their own issues to deal with and
they should so that -- but everybody (as represented by the conveners and
anybody else who cares to show up) should be involved in the "What-Next. I
think.

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website
www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute websites
www.openspaceworld.org

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