Reopening space for convergence

[Viv McWaters]

Hi all

A few reflections on a recent OS event where I tried a new approach (for
me) to converegence. It was a short OS - 3 hours on the first evening
and 7 hours on the next day. There were about 60 people from all over OZ
exploring the future of Farm Management as a profession. The sponsor was
a major university that provides tertiary education for farm managers
and wanted to identify issues and future directions. There were three
1.5 hrs time slots.

Lots of diverse topics were posted on the first evening - reports came
rolling in - it all worked as it should (except for some folk held up
because of road closures as a result of the horrible bushfires around
Sydney)

At OSonOSinOZ Peg Holman mentioned opening the space again for
convergence and although i never actually found time to get any details
I thought this sounded like a neat way of ensuring that convergence
maintains the sprit of OS. I've always been a bit uncomfortable with
up-front facilitation of the convergence process.

Anyway, the sponsor was keen for real actions to emerge - not just talk.
So I put together a new reporting sheet with the headings: Action;
Champion: Helpers; Why this action is important; Immediate next steps

When participants were  seated back in the circle after lunch - and had
had time to read the enlarged reports on the wall - I reopened the space
by introducing the need for action, reinforcing passion and
responsibility, and talking a bit about what happens (or doesn't happen)
when recommendations are made for other people to follow up (nothing,
usually!)

I invited anyone who wanted to announce an action and post it on the
wall (with the usual sticky announcing the space) and when they were up
invited others to take part in the discussion to develop the action. In
the end there were six key actions that emerged with reports completed.
Everyone eventually took part in this process.

But the process of getting any actions posted was VERY SLOW - agonising
in fact!!!! I thought that maybe I'd made a horrible mistake, but in the
end the sponsor was happy etc etc

However during the closing circle a few people mentioned that they would
have like to hear back from the other groups. Apart from this being
something they are familiar and comfortable with, it got me thinking
about what I had done and if I could have done anything differently.

My conclusions are:
1) people probably didn't have enough time together to feel really
comfortable with each other and OS, hence the reluctance to commit to
actions
2) I probably should have used the sticky dots for prioritising, simply
to allow people to become more familiar with the content of the reports
before inviting actions to be posted
3) I felt good (even if a bit scary) and i would try this approach
again - particularly with an intact group from an organisations and in a
longer OS event

Cheers

Viv

***************************
Viv McWaters
Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd
PO Box 665 Torquay 3228
Australia
(03) 5261 9498
0417 135 406

"Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to
think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. "
Schopenhauer

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