Voting

[Thomas Herrmann]

Dear friends in Open Space
I have followed the postings regarding voting, democracy and so on and
thought I would like to make a try to find myself in all of this. I have not
yet looked into the discussion at meta Network, but will after a good nights
sleep and some rest.

This evening I returned home, after facilitating two OST events. The first a
two day event and the second a one day event, both ending with "voting".
Usually I try to get at least half a day off between facilitations but this
time a arrived at 8.30 pm to this second event. Well, I made most
preparations, had a good nights sleep and today we had a great day. Next
what do I do? Read 50 postings to the OS-list! (Well, I did meet my wife and
put my kids to bed first)

Anyway, a few thoughts regarding voting.
So far I have worked from, that an event should last for at least a day to
make a simplified voting procedure, to get a picture of where the energy
runs high. In larger groups we vote (on these occasions)only out of the
topics headings not the actual reports, since there is not time to read
them. I normally prefer most of the day  to be used for dialogue. Today I
used one hour for convergence, before closing. We had 3 sessions á 1,5 hours
and really nice, deep and open conversations.

The group I facilitated today (50 persons) raised 17 issues. After voting
and grouping related issues together, there were 6 top priority
issues(groups of topics) and three topics left "outside". I am always really
careful to make it very clear that this voting procedure is not about
excluding any issues, they are all in the "book" and may all be brought
forward.

A question that only involves one or two persons may be of high importance
to them and also important for the organization. The purpose of the voting
excercise is to focus activity on those issues where there is most energy at
the moment, and come to action. I do not talk about the most important
issues.

I had a meeting with the management team around mid-day giving them the
opportunity to reflect on how to give their final words (during closing) for
the continuing process after the event. They decided to invite the ones who
raised the top priority issues, to a follow up meeting, to decide on how to
continue the different processes. They are not yet ready to really let go,
but are open to more participation than before, which is good. They also
pointed out that all issues are important to the organization. Initiatives
were welcomed and it was made clear how the work that is being done is to be
reported back at their regulair meetings.

I like that the voting procedure gives each and everyone in the organization
equal vote. It also makes it very clear to the management, what is to be
done, by them all together. I think this is congruent all through an OST
event, that everybody has an equal opportunity to participate and make him
or herself heard.

I do see a shift at voting. A bit like back to business. I do also see that
almost always in the closing there are expressions of hopes that "this time"
things will start moving. I think convergence and voting is one way, at
least in an organization/company to make sure further focused activity is
taken on.

Is it possible to leave it all up to the individuals, without converging? I
don´t think so, yet. If working within an "Consious Open Space Organization"
maybe, but over here in Sweden it is not that common YET!
Best regards
Thomas Herrmann         Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81
Open Space Consulting   Fax   +46 (0)300-713 89
Pensévägen 4
434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden
Email: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
www.openspaceconsulting.com

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