Summary of a recent single-day event

Phil Culhane pculhane at magma.ca
Mon Apr 26 11:08:43 PDT 2004


Greetings all.

The latest OST I did was a single day, jam packed with divergence and convergence fit
into a 7.5 hour period. I realize that one day is supposed to be only good for an airing
of the issues, but this group needed to get to action planning, so, after an analysis of
where they were at (as individuals and as a team) I decided to see what OS could do if we
really "opened her up". The core members of the OS event (10 participants in total) had
previously decided on the three dimensional "size" of the solution space, and had very
clear permission (from the company's COO) to create success, but they did not know how to
get from here to there.

Do you ever tire of showing a bunch of smiling, disbelieving faces an almost-blank wall
with the single word "AGENDA" on it? Telling them that, 20 minutes later, they'll
wonder "how will we possibly ever get through all this stuff?"? Watching the process as
the issues go up? I always wonder, will it start with a trickle or a downpour? An
insightful facilitator who mentored me recommended starting them off on writing items
with the single command word "Go" - it does seem to release them and give them the
permission we seem to need (at least in Canada). This event started with a bang - at
least six of the participants were down on the floor with markers, writing away within
two seconds of the word "go" being spoken. And the wall...ten people put 43 issues on the
wall within fifteen minutes. They knew why they were there, alright, and they thoroughly
enjoyed being able to discuss EVERYTHING - not just the politically correct things.

The first discussion ran 45 minutes over. By the end of the second discussion they were
over an hour over time - but they were doing what they had to - they prioritized the
issues and ran the big discussions first, so that by the time they got to the third and
fourth discussion rounds, the discussions were relatively short with quick conclusions.
By the time we were ready for prioritization and action planning, they were back within
three minutes of schedule!

For action planning itself, 7 issues quickly melded into two key issues that needed
detailed plans of attack, and a third issue that a small subgroup agreed to take away and
solve. Thus, the group split into two according to their passion and spent 2 hours action
planning the two key prongs of their push for success in their marketplace.

In the closing circle, OS was roundly praised as being far more "useful" than any other
techniques the participants had seen (and five had been in a sales-related GE WorkOut
session two weeks previous) for kick-starting action in the right direction.

As an added bonus, one personally challenging issue was solved: in the two weeks previous
to the OS event, the topic under discussion had gone through several "owners" - and the
afternoon before the event, the then-owner told me that he had sought and received
permission to transfer ownership of the responsibility for success on this initiative to
me(!). Knowing this was not the right answer and hoping that OS would sort it out, I
agreed and let the ownership issue lay quietly. As these things seem always to happen in
OS, someone posted the question "Who Owns This?" on the board. The group met, and the
person with the greatest passion for, and knowledge of, the activity came forth and
claimed it as his own, to a general round of applause (and one sigh of relief) from the
room.

The talking stick is fascinating. We aren't so far from our ancestors sitting around a
campfire (and I say this with respect and love) as we sometimes think. Watching the way
individuals go about choosing the stick, holding it, and speaking to the group while
holding it is my favourite part of the entire process. That's the one place where,
prepared as I think I am, I'm continually surprised. Any thoughts on talking sticks??

Best wishes,
Phil Culhane

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