is it still open?

[Larry Peterson]

Kerry

How do you determine the "theme" with a sponsor?  Are your themes always
about creating the "future" from a blank piece of paper?

I do think that "givens" are a myth, a social construction, at least at
one level of consciousness.

However, most of my clients have some substantial social constructions,
including the "theme", which gives shape, direction and boundaries to
the self-organizing they want to accelerate or engage with OST.  They
also have some personal and organizational "karma" that will still be
around after an OST event and will affect what is done with the
resulting ideas and cultural changes.  I find that some articulation of
these ahead of time makes it more, not less, possible to move forward
with what emerges during and after an OST event.  I have found that it
frees people up to know where the sponsors are.

Many clients would prefer not to identify these things in such a way as
to give permission for OST participants to take action on what they
learn or discover.  They would prefer to micro-manage the results after
- have everything come to them for approval.  I do my best to work with
them to get beyond that and see the advantage of clarifying boundaries
or givens if they require them.  If you get permission from clients that
whatever folks come up with can be pursued - no matter what the cost or
impact - then your clients are at a different place than most of the
ones I've experienced.  I've had one senior executives working with
their upper level team that gave them $100,000 worth of freedom on any
topic they chose to pursue.  Her trust of her team was substantial.

I agree that getting there is part of the journey - minimizing the
givens and maximizing the trust - when the sponsor is willing to take
the risk.  But I still find it helpful to ask the question before an
event.

Larry

Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
Toronto, ON, Canada
416.653.4829

 <mailto:larry at spiritedorg.com> larry at spiritedorg.com
 <http://www.spiritedorg.com> www.spiritedorg.com


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