your thoughts on really big invitations?

Funda Oral fundaoral at ttnet.net.tr
Fri May 13 00:51:55 PDT 2005 

i liked the 8th.
funda
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Herman" <mjherman at gmail.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: your thoughts on really big invitations?


thanks to all who've considered tis request so far...

lots to think about, therese.  your first bit about the survey is a
good reality check in this.  and i like the bit about interviewing.
more and more we are in this open appreciative cafe world inquiry
space.

funda, the invitation would definitely be to deal with survey results
(and all the underlying issues, too) not some theory.  agreed.  and
agreed on the direct responsibility bit too.

lucas, your questions start to surface some interim levels for me...
yes, there is do open space, full blown circles/events, where anyone
who signs up would be invited to attend.  then there is the other end
where folks could be invited to interview others one on one, perhaps
logging responses somewhere.  in the middle these folks could be asked
a typical sort of 'opening' theme question, an invitation to name
issues.  seems this middle ground is most tenuous for them... safer to
show up in a big group or go deep with one-on-one.  showing up
individually might be tough.

approaches so far then...

1. could do one-on-one interviews, respondents interview each other,
questions focused on what individuals and small groups can do to
improve these numbers
2. could invite respondents to go out and interview some others
(latter being akin to what national dialogue and deliberation group
did during US election).
3. could poll for issues, but this seems just more surveying
3. could hold cafe type short events
4. could hold short or longer open space events
5. could prepare some sort of brown bag or larger os toolkit and
invite folks to convene meetings and post notes
6. could suggest some thresholds up front like, any location where at
least ___ people respond to invitation will have an event.
7. could provide interview questions and offer os summit meetings to
anyone who did 5 interviews and submitted one-paragraph summary of
each, then post them all on the wall.
8.  could ask folks to register their level of interest, i.e. would
like to attend a discussion/workgroup, would like to convene a
discussion/working group
9. there's always the lottery approach, but that's kind of a turn-off here.

other thoughts or options?

i'm flying back to london on friday and mostly unplugged through
monday, but will check back here on tuesday/wednesday to see what else
is coming up here...

many thanks, michael




On 5/11/05, Harrison Owen <hhowen at comcast.net> wrote:
> Michael -- Interesting idea! Seems to me there is the possibility of real
> value added for your survey people. Doing a survey is a great start. Doing
> something with the results is a different issue. Standard approach of
> "referring the results to the Management Committee" is, more often than
not,
> the kiss of death. Opening some space around the relevant issues would be
> much more productive. And I guess that is where you already are!
>
> Probably useful to keep in mind that "Doing a Survey" is an ancient and
> honorable way to avoid doing anything, or at least doing anything useful.
> But if the clients were offered (at the very start) a meaningful way of
> moving from survey to useful action -- that would at least smoke out the
> folks for whom the Survey is nothing but a smoke screen (hiding inaction).
> More to the point, some clients might actually move forward! And to do
that
> you clearly have to open some space to move forward in -- or something.
>
> Harrison
>
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20845
> Phone 301-365-2093
>
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
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> Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael
> Herman
> Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 11:12 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: your thoughts on really big invitations?
>
> hi all,
>
> i've got an interesting situation emerging here and i'd appreciate
> some design thoughts.  i'm in conversation with a firm whose business
> is surveys for big companies.  they poll 10s of 1000s at a time on
> engagement, leadership, alignment, innovation type issues.  they've
> been at it a long time and are very good at what they do.
>
> my idea is that these surveys, which are always done anonymously,
> could be very effective invitations.  that would require putting a
> one-paragraph 'invitation' at the end, directing anybody who would
> want to be (and the wording here is an open question, but
> essentially...) in conversation with their colleagues about the issues
> raised, the survey results delivered, and any things that individuals
> and small groups might do directly for themselves (passion bounded by
> responsibilty) to address these things.   the idea is that they could
> be directed to a new page where they could enter their contact info,
> without it being connected to the survey response, and thus add
> themselves to the 'invitation list' for the conversation(s) about
> issues and survey results.
>
> now, in one organization they are about to survey 100,000 employees.
> if even a very small fraction of people say yes, and these folks are
> scattered around the globe, it gets to be a very big conversation to
> have.
>
> certainly we can handle this, but how?  we know that we could handle
> as many as 2108 in one place, if we wanted to, but at what point (how
> many people) would we have to shift from event mode to remote,
> self-facilitated, self-convening mode?  how might we set up the
> deputizing of many conveners/hosts throughout an org and around the
> world?  could we do some things to raise the passion/responsibility
> bar in the sign-up process?  could we lower the activation hurdle?
> how much would need to happen to make good on this invitation, how
> much of a conversation do you suppose we can and should be able to
> offer?  is this a good job for open space?
>
> i'm just beginning to wrap my brain around this and would be glad for
> any thoughts from you.  initial contacts on this are in europe, just
> in case that makes any difference to how we think about this.  i'm
> hoping to raise this possibility in conversations later this month and
> can report back on progress then.
>
> many thanks, michael
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman Associates
> http://www.michaelherman.com
> ...inviting organizations into action
>
> Small Change News Network
> http://www.smallchangenews.org
> ...blogging giving flourishing
>
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--

Michael Herman Associates
http://www.michaelherman.com
...inviting organizations into action

Small Change News Network
http://www.smallchangenews.org
...blogging giving flourishing

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