First OS in Sofala Province, Mozambique

Tue Jan 8 13:21:22 PST 2002

Dear oslist,

I am proud to announce that the space was opened in the province of
Sofala in Mosambique:

----------------
(0.1) 19th november 1999 Beira
TrainConsult Inc. Vienna:
Intro-Moderation "Strategic planning, simultaneous change & large
group facilitation" , Moderation: Bernd Weber & Patrizia Bitter
21 participants, mainly national representatives of projects of the
Austrian Development Cooperation

(0.2) 2nd of december 1999 Maputo
TrainConsult Inc. Vienna and LINK Forum of NGOs of Mozambique:
Intro-Moderation "Strategic planning, organizational transformation &
Large group facilitation" Moderation: Bernd Weber & Patrizia Bitter
22 participants, mainly representatives of big national NGOs but also
of national consultancy enterprises

Intro-Design:
After the presentation of ourselves and of TC Inc. we did some
on-the-spot-analises of the human resources coming together there by
projecting differences in gender, nationality, organizationality,
sectoriality, topic related knowledge & know-how into the space.
After this exercise the folks knew each other better in relation to
our topic, everybody was part of the subgroup-system, the idea of
micro-cosmos and stakeholder-representance was then easy to
introduce. This exercise ("Our richness in differences") also
activated the perception of physical and metaforical space in
planning processes and group facilitation. We then gave two highly
(visually) concentrated lectures:
1) "Simulataneous change: a new paradigma for strategical planning &
organizational change processes
2) "Three examples: Open Space Technology, Future Search Conferences
& Real Time Strategic Change Interventions"
Then the participants worked in "stake-holder" groups on questions
like:
"Are OST, FSC and RTSC-Interventions compatible with our actual
socio-cultural system? Where do we see limits?
Which of the presented concepts, aproaches, values, methods and
instruments" am I personally most interested in?
Which ones do we need, because they seem to be util in our everyday's
praxis?
Our questions are..."
The results were fixed on pinboards building an info-market &
cafetaria. Then the participants did some priorization with coloured
points (the colours diferenciating different stake holder groups,
there was a final round with talking stick and a rapid collective
evaluation/feedback about contents & methods experienced in the
intro-moderation.
Basic texts from OS, FSC & RTSC had been translated, every
participant got a copy of these handouts.

Results:
The 'most interesting' aspects:
*Marv Weisbords idea of getting the whole sistem into the room
(mainly womens votes)
*The visualization of the different strategic planning approaches
*The RTSC-concept of leaving the concretization of the general lines
which are given by the top management to those who have to live them

The 'most important' aspects of the intro for their everyday
professional life:
*RTSC (but only men voted for this concept)
*The basic idea of OST to focus on the passion of individuals (mainly
womens votes)

OST found generally great sympathy because of its "african concept".
But there are doubts, if such an anti-hierarquical approach can be
sucessful in todays african cultures
Comment: Since we only talked about OST ...

-----------------
(1) 12th of april 2001 in Beira:
26 participants representing a micro-universe of the stakeholder
system of the intended integrated, participative and sustainable
district development in the Districts of Gorongosa and Cheringoma
(district administrators, directors for health education and
agriculture, chiefs of local communities, NGO members and national
community development specialists)  meet in the circle. They post 21
issues related to "my biggest concern ("tema de paixao") for the
development in our district" which are then reduced to 14 by
fusioning. The groups plunges into work for three one-hour OS
sessions and produces 11 results for the 'gallery', where these
results are discussed and enriched by written comments of the
visitors. A first step of convergence produces 7 'most urgent
actions' (they are 'bought' in a market situation), which are then
-in a second step - interconnected by cause/effect-relations. This
second step causes then a re-priorization because one of the issues
which has not been priorizised before turnes out to be an important
input for several of the others. The convenors of the priority issues
and other interested people who are prepared to engage themselves in
the implementation of the central issues are invited to define an
action plan with responsabilities & milestones for immediate steps to
inicialize the implementation. 6 action plans are publicly presented
by the iniciative groups. Digital fotos of each of them are taken. In
the final circle each participant receives - instead of the talking
stick - an orange from the moderators hand, symbol for the necessary
work and the juicy fruits it can bring in the future

The central issues dor district development in G. & Ch. are:
I) How can we improve the bad nourishment situation of the
communities in Gorongosa and Cheringoma?
II) Sustainable ressource-management by the communities (fauna &
flora)
III) Electrification of the two districts
IV) Rehabilitation of the secondary & tertiary street system of
Grongosa and Cheringoma
V) Promotion of associations
X) Gender, especially: how can we get more girls into the schools?

Since then the status of the implementation of the action plan is
regularily monitored. I, III & IV were inicialized until 12/01

--------------
(2) 19th of april 2001 in Buzi
70 participants  (micro-entrepreneurs and their clients from Buzi,
representatives of the district government of Buzi, members of APIS
Association for the Promotion of Small Industries in the Sofala
province, BCM Banco Comercial de Mocambique, local, national and
international consultants) post 28 issues related to the question
"How can we promote young entrepreneurs in Sofala?" which are then
merged to 15 issues. 9 results are worked out in thre OS sessions,
recorded and put at the walls. These are
1) bakeries
2) How can I garantee, that my product will be delivered at the right
time?
3) Legal aspects
4) How can I better promote my product/service?
5) How to get creative business ideas?
6) How to realize a project for animal breeding?
7) How can we establish a sustainable collective transport
enterprise?
8) How to survife with our business?
9) Business plan for our repair-shop and our mill

There is no normal convergence process. The OS-facilitator (WB)
looses his nerves and lets the space collapse, because he could not
get rid of the strong impression that neither the principles nor the
one law was followed, so that the energy stayes permanently at a very
low level and the results are of 'no quality at all'. People sit in
their chairs, then follow their leaders, sink again into their chairs
and wait that somebody will show them out of their lamentable
situation, which they continue to conjure by repeating that nothing
can and will work out "because of lack of this, deficiency of that,
shortage of ..." whenever somebody has a good idea. Neither bodies
nor souls move. The facilitator holds back until he gets white ankles
but then he resolves his problem by jumping in, changing his role and
giving a lecture about "THE foundamental law of the market: whoever
waits for future opportunities looses those at hand" critisizing the
'deficiency discourse' by showing that they have thrown away the
access to their own ressources which OST has offered them. He then
gives them exactly 10 minutes for analizing all the products on the
walls, starting with a countdown" ..3,2,1, Zero:Go!" Folks jump up,
start to push their products...  After 10 minutes the market is
interrupted, the bank opens, each one gets 7 coins (sticking points
as monetary units) and they can buy the product with most value for
them.  Of course the decisions can not be very informed one, but the
energetic situation has improved drastically. The facilitator/trainer
leaves it at that. He invites everybody to a final plenar session to
reflect what has happened. This reflection is then very rich and
deep. The facilitator does not speak a lot, but the participants
produce a very energetic dialogue which brings up serveral severe
problems within APIS which have not been adequately treated for
years. Finally a basic conflict between the APIS central and its 4
district extensions is unveiled and a strategy for the further
conflict management designed.
Comment WB: very directive and not OST-facilitator-style at all, but
I felt a lot better afterwards and APIS moved ahead in the following
months.

--------
(3) 13th of dec. 2001 in Manga
45 participants (members of APIS central and the 4 district
extensions, APIS employees, representatives of 2 donor organizations)
meet for a 3-days planning workshop for the next year. The second day
is reserved for an Open Space about "What kind of services should we
offer to our members?" 36 issues are posted, then reduced to 31.
There are four 1h-sessions of OS during which 18 results are
recorded. Convergence produzes 11 issues which are further explored
to prepare their integration into the activity plan of 2002. These
are:
1) vocational training in 6 areas *
2) fund raising for APIS *
3) credits for APIS members *
4) management training *
5) new regulations of APIS
6) product fair "APIS 2002" *
7) marketing support
8) costs of membership
9) information system *
10) contact with the institutional ambiente
11) consultancy in 3 areas
The issues with * were integrated into the activity plan of 2002
which was on the folowing day finalized for the first trimester

General observation: Convergence was always tricky. Folks here like
to produce action plans by filling in responsabilities of not-present
people with the argument "these are the officially responsible
persons for such actions". I usually have to let them do it in 2
rounds, asking "What kind of strategy do have to apply to get those
'officially responsible persons' to action?

Questions:
(1) Any comments to my intervention of 19th of april? What would you
do in such a situation without any passion emerging? Was the general
topic not adequate?
(2) Did others who worked with OS in african contexts perceive the
same attitude to find others who should do the work, when it comes to
action planning? Did we just invite the wrong people?

Bernhard

-----
Bernd Weber wb-trainconsult at gmx.net, on 08.01.2002 at 23:08:33
Organization Development Consultant

"DEVELOP YOUR CAPACITIES - MATERIALIZE YOUR VISION"

C.P. 1462, Beira, Sofala, MOZAMBIQUE
fone: +258-3-32 98 59, cellfone:+258-82-43 79 77

-----
WB-TrainConsult
management- & human resources
training, consulting & development
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fone & fax: +431 596 86 57
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