SV: Non-convergence, action planning and strategy AND Follow-up practices

Chris Corrigan chris.corrigan at gmail.com
Thu Nov 11 14:20:51 PST 2004 

Great stuff Eva...thanks for this design!

Chris


On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 21:05:37 +0100, Eva P Svensson
<eva at epshumaninvest.se> wrote:
> Chris wrote:
> My question is, what follow-up practices have you used to help leaders support the emergent leadership and energy and spirit that comes from
> OST, while remaining good stewards of their organization's resources and vision?  I'm obviously looking for approaches that are open, and
> that continue to work with the dynamics of OST.
>
> Well here is a way that I have found working:
> After an OST with action planning, groups forms to continue to work on the tasks. After due time ( in one case after 3 months, in another after 3 weeks) we had a day which I call a "Dialogday", (or half of a day)  it is a way to involve the rest of the organization/department or whatever. The design is more or less like this:
> The action groups present - in not more then 5 minutes - the topic and HOW they have worked since the OST meeting. They have also been asked to lift forward 3 - 4 questions or areas that they want to discuss and get feedback from their co-workers and the also presents these areas. After the presentations the working groups goes to different rooms and then the participants move around in a kind of self-organizing way. We have about 30 - 45 minutes per group and then they shift and goes to another. (This is difficult to explain in English I do hope that you can follow..) So the working groups stay put in the same room talking about their issue several times as new groups arrive, and the rest of the people move around. And by this everyone have a chance to get familiar with and give his or her input on the work that has been going on so far. The purpose of this dialog day is as the name says to keep the dialog going and to involve as much and to get as much input as possible. T!
> he participants take responsible for attending all groups after their own choice. In the end we gather together again and each of the working group says a few word of the input or most discussed questions.
> After this day the groups usually continues to work. And then it depends on the task if there is a continuation or not. In one case we stopped there and the groups implemented the work in daily life. In another case we had a follow up meeting with the "project leaders" and then we had one new day with all people again. This time it was more of a "kick off" when the work was finished from the working groups and was presented to the rest of the people. In this case it was about values and in the "kick off" we had a creative workshop where the task was to make a collage, or paint the way that they live the new values. Incredible creations I can promise.
> I hope that it make sense what I had written, it sure is hard to explain in another language if it doesn't - ask me to be more clear because I have found that this is really working and put the energy out in the organisation and not just with the management team.
> All the best
>
> Bästa hälsningar
>
> Eva P Svensson
> ...................................................................
>
> EPS Human Invest AB
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> -----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
> Från: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]För Chris Corrigan
> Skickat: den 9 november 2004 23:45
> Till: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Ämne: Re: Non-convergence, action planning and strategy
>
> Sorry I hit send too soon...
>
> On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 14:30:12 -0800, Chris Corrigan
> <chris.corrigan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 13:55:20 -0500, Harrison Owen <hhowen at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > > FS will certainly work - but it is also a lot of work to prepare for. I
> > > think you would get the same results (better? J) with the process of simply
> > > opening space once again around the dominant issues. Chris Corrigan has some
> > > material on how to do that.
> >
> OK...I'll bite...but I'm changing the name of the thread because I
> have a practice question that goes along with this, the answers to
> which will probably be useful in this context.
>
> The basic non-convergence process is this:
>
> 1. Participants receive a copy of  the proceedings with the
> instructions to review them and note pieces of action which stand out,
> things that must be done, projects and patterns that seems to want to
> emerge from all this work.
>
> 2. Participants are asked to reflect on which of those pieces of
> emergent action grabs their attention and passion to the extent that
> they feel like they could take responsibility for moving it forward.
>
> 3. Open Space, as per usual, and with comments about how this is a
> space for action planning, and that anything that happens in this
> space wants to find a way out of the room.  So invite maximum
> responsibility.  The resulting bulletin board represents an agenda for
> action.
>
> 4. The recording form for the discussions should have spaces for
> things like "Next steps"  "Who/when"  "resources needed"  "Other
> people we need to bring into this project."
>
> 5. The results are posted or added to the proceedings.  In the closing
> circle people are invited to share their next steps as well as their
> reflection on the process.
>
> The theory behind this is straightforward:
>
> * Divergent OST represents passion, convergence represents responsibility.
>
> * Moving from OST to voting feels to participants like we are going
> from something amazing to "business as usual."  Not always a bad
> thing, but my experience says that once people taste OST they want
> more of it.  Creating categories of action based on proceedings from
> the previous day (the traditional convergence process) limits the
> patterns that might emerge as people step up to take leadership.  Also
> it often happens that things become so converged that there is no real
> target for responsibility.  It seems like there is often a group or
> two which everyone agrees is important but not important enough to
> champion.  That never happens with non-convergence.
>
> * Non-convergence therefore IS convergence, except that instead of the
> convergence process happening outside of individuals, it happens
> within individuals, as people each perceive patterns and feel the pull
> to realize them collectively.
>
> * Voting doesn't always tell us where the action commitments will
> actually lie.  But using your two feet to move to the groups that are
> creating next steps is a very concrete and personal statement of
> commitment.
>
> There's lots more theory, but that's the basic take on it.
>
> Now for my question to practitioners.  Whether you have used
> convergence or non-convergence, in OST you end up with lots of people
> wanting to do lots of things.  In organizations where there is a
> vision or a leadership that wants to be sure that all of these pieces
> of action are somewhat aligned, there is often a time when the
> leadership needs to examine what has been committed to and make
> decisions about, for example, assigning resources to these action
> groups.
>
> My question is, what follow-up practices have you used to help leaders
> support the emergent leadership and energy and spirit that comes from
> OST, while remaining good stewards of their organization's resources
> and vision?  I'm obviously looking for approaches that are open, and
> that continue to work with the dynamics of OST.
>
> Any answers are much appreciated, and might find their way into a
> paper on "Life after OST" in which it may be gently suggested that the
> genie cannot be put back into the bottle, and so organizations may do
> well to pay attention to strategy and process in the spirit of what
> has just happened.  Anyone wishing to collaborate on a paper like this
> should let me know too.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> -------------------------
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Consultation - Facilitation
> Open Space Technology
>
> Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
> Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>
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-------------------------
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

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

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