Novel action planning design

[Susan Lilley]

Thank you Chris for such a thorough response. Another
wonderful OS story.

Susan

Chris Corrigan wrote:
Oh Yeah...I did do that didn't I?

>
> I have been REALLY busy of late, so apologize for not
> getting back to everyone on this.
>
> Okay..the story in brief...
>
> Ran a 1.5 day OST conference (actually .75 and .5, but
> who's counting?) for 200 Aboriginal youth from across
> Canada who were meeting to discuss their priorities for a
> National Aboriginal Youth Strategy.  The youth were
> selected from 6 national Aboriginal organizations.  The
> focus of the meeting was both to provide input to
> government on the Strategy and to do some "in-house"
> planning for each of the organizations --  give them a
> chance to set their own priorities.
>
> Lots of politics and expectation from government, but all
> were overcome by opening space.  In the end 41 groups met
> and reported.
>
> The night before the convergence, I gathered one rep from
> each organization and briefed them.  Their job was to
> facilitate the convergence by a) explaining how people
> were going to use the dots and b) ensuring that topics
> that needed to be converged were converged and c) making
> sure there were champions who could take responsibility
> for action and move the process forward.  I told then that
> I was going to give out these instructions anyway, and
> that they simply needed to hold the space.  There were no
> questions.
>
> The next day was a chance for the groups to prioritize,
> converge and action plan.  I gathered all 200 in a circle
> and explained the process.
>
> 1.    Each group has their own breakout room to go to.
> Within each room was a flipchart with a grid on it. One
> box on the grid for each report in the proceedings.
>
> 2.    Take a copy of the proceedings from the centre of
> the circle, and five dots.
>
> 3.    Go to your break out rooms and spend some time
> reading the proceedings and then indicate where your
> passion lies for moving issues forward by using your dots.
>
> 4.    When the dot votes have been tallied, a facilitator
> from your organization will call for champions to take
> responsibility for the top three issues.  She will
> distribute report forms to the champions for you to
> capture your action plans on.
>
> 5.    Meet in groups, the laws and principles apply, and
> work over your top three priorities, strategizing about
> how to make them come to life within your organization.
>
> 6.    Gather back in the plenary room after two hours for
> a report out.
>
> We spent about an hour allowing the youth to report back
> to the plenary.
>
> The overall effect was pretty positive.  It really gave
> some meat to the challenge of leadership when we asked
> folks to strategize about how to make their issues come
> alive.  Natural leaders emerged and took the bull by the
> horns and a lot of confidence was in evidence.  This was
> more than just a gab fest on a government strategy: these
> youth were set to go home and bring this stuff to life.
>
> A few complaints about the "stove piping" nature of the
> exercise.  Some youth felt it would more valuable to have
> met in regional caucuses instead of organizational ones,
> because the organizational caucuses reinforced the
> politics of the adult world. On the other hand, many youth
> told me about how cool it was to be putting their minds to
> the challenge of getting their adult leadership to take
> youth issues seriously.
>
> Another advantage of doing it this way was that Metis,
> Inuit and Aboriginal women got to meet separately.  This
> is important because they all have quite different issues
> from the larger Aboriginal community and also they have a
> different way of meeting, especially the Inuit.  Their
> sessions were conducted in Inuktitut which allowed for a
> proper expression of the cultural issues at hand.  Also,
> they met together on all three issues, with different
> conveners taking over, rather than breaking up into small
> groups.  Furthermore, Inuit folks have a very high context
> culture, full of silence and reflection and imbued with
> very very subtle body language.  Allowing them to meet
> separately allowed them to do what they needed to do in
> the way in which they needed to do it.
>
> The organizational facilitators did a marvelous job...six
> really great and promising youth, and the reports back to
> the main plenary were lively and spirited.  Lots of humour
> and joking around even as we heard about plans for raising
> the awareness around issues like suicide and sexual abuse.
>
> In short it worked fine, primarily because I trusted the
> process and the people to organize in a way that suited
> them.  We needed to allow more time than originally
> scheduled, but this was no big deal.  I always pad my
> agendas with tons of slippage for exactly this type of
> eventuality.  They ate lunch late, but it was sandwiches,
> and therefore nothing could get cold -- although I stayed
> away from the egg salad.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris
> --
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Consultation - Facilitation
> Open Space Technology
>
> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
> corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
>
> RR 1 E-3
> 1172 Miller Road
> Bowen Island, BC
> Canada, V0N 1G0
>
> phone (604) 947-9236
> fax (604) 947-9238
>

--
Susan Lilley
7 Canterbury Place
Dartmouth NS B2Y 4J5
Tel: (902) 463-1837
Fax: (902) 469-0833
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~LilleyS/Profile.html

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