Help! Client's Three Week Worries

glory ressler on.the.edge at sympatico.ca
Wed Feb 5 15:04:47 PST 2003


Hi Doug!
I agree with Laurel, Dennis and Ralph... No data, hard sell, etc...
necessary. Just calm confidence in the face of their wavering. I might
ask if they are in the habit of 'anticipating' future problems and
trying to head them off..., which is usually OK unless it is to the
point of creating their own unecessary worry and work. I might ask them
what ramifications they are afraid of with regard to this process and
unexpectedly high numbers...
We did an OST meeting last week where 16 people were expected and 70+
showed up - lots of conflict and passion... In the moment, we decided to
1/2 the time allotted to discussions - thereby increasing number of
topics for discussion by twofold. Ah, the beauty of this process...The
thing still worked and the participants and sponsor are looking at
future OSTs... So, worst case scenario, shorter discussions and a clear
mandate for more OS.
I hope this helps in some way!
Best wishes,
Glory

Douglas D. Germann, Sr. wrote:

>Hi--
>
>Help, please!
>
>My client is getting jittery over how their OST will work. This is the one about "Influencing Senior Healthcare and Well-Being," which starts 2 weeks from today. 3 Wednesdays, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm each day.
>
>Their main worry seems to be, What if 50 people show up and post 30 topics? We only have space for 9-10 breakout sessions, and they fear people will be disappointed if their session got "bumped" to the next week's time slot.
>
>Their solution? Have the opening be "You 8 people go to this space, you 8 go to that space. Everybody gets 5 minutes to say what their issue is,
>around the circle. Then the group leader reports back to the main group." Sounds like a sure way to get *everybody* frustrated, to me.
>
>So what would you tell them? What documents would you download and e-mail to them to show that they really don't have anything to fear, that the good people they have invited will handle it very well?
>
>Please help me reason with these people, so we have a good event.
>
>                              :-Doug. Germann
>
>

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