Non-convergence, action planning and strategy

[Chris Corrigan]

Johann wrote:

> How do you "wrap up" in non-convergence? Voting serves me well,
> because at the end I can say to the attendants: "today we have worked hard,
> had fun, and this is the result: those are the issues we care about, and in
> that order". Top managers see the proceedings and the prioritization as an
> useful input to take further action... it means, power -or at least control-
> doesn't goes to the masses; but the people has spoken and IF top management
> is clever, they'll build on that.

Well, you wrap up the same way you do after a more conventional
convergence and action planning session: with a closing circle.  There
are all sorts of variations on that theme, but basically, the
proceedings of the non-convergence groups all get published along with
the other proceedings and everyone gets down to work.  I like to
invite people to take a short "to do" list with them out of the
meeting.  Or, if it's a smallish group, say less than 50, then I'll
invite people to share their actions in the closing circle briefly.
In groups that are less than 30 you can have a more focused
conversation at the end, and before the closing circle, invite
everyone back to a circle and invite brief reports on action steps
only.  Ask anyone in the room to speak first and then invite someone
to speak about actions that connect to what has just been said.  With
a little skill, you can draw an interconnected map of all of these
action plans on a flipchart as they emerge.  That way the whole
organization gets a sense of how all of this action relates to
everything else, and it should help them see their work and
organizational lives in a systems perspective.  After that, have a
closing circle.

But in large groups this is impossible and most undesirable, and so a
quick wrap up with the promise that the proceedings will be available
ASAP is about all you can do.

The trick, of course is what comes next.  It does require clever top
managers, but it also requires careful planning with your client up
front so that the top managers know what is coming and are able to
think about how they will support the results of an OST.  One of the
things I'd like to try soon in a prep meeting is to follow a
presentation about OST's predicted results with a very quick and rough
scenario planning session to help imagine what kind of futures lie on
the other side of the event.  Then we can have a conversation about
how to address the variety of possibilities, including how to cleverly
support lots of decentralized action.


> Putting it this way, OST can be a "massive
> listening of clients" (if speaking on Language Ontology terms) or an
> "strategic planning process that involves the whole organization and
> generates appropiation in the people involved".
>

I would say that this is true.  OST is actually the organization
listening to itself, which we know from the work of cyberneticians, is
how we create healthy systems.  It creates feedback loops which
sustain action, and it seems to provide saftey valves so that positive
feedback loops don't run rampant.  I'm not sure how this works, but
maybe some of the cybernetics folks and systems thinkers on the list
might give this question some thought.

It is a strategic planning process that generates responsibility from
passion.  In other words, it takes what people really care about, and
opens the opportunities for them to pursue that.  As my pal Michael
Herman points out, one thing that is a shock to managers is how easy
management becomes when you do that.

Chris

-------------------------
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist