What to do while the proceedings are being printed? [long]

[Wendy Farmer-O'Neil]

Hi Greg and Welcome!

I've done a number of these one-day-with-convergence recently. I don't
usually attempt to get the reports into the hands of the participants before
the convergence activity.  I invite the convenors, in addition to their
report (which gets printed and put up on the newswall for folks to read
throughout the day)to summarize the three key points from their conversation
on a large piece of flip chart paper and put it up in a gallery.  

There is an energy issue to be sure: folks are usually really deep and also
tired by the end of the third conversation. I have found that taking a 15
minute break for folks to gas up, stretch, read the gallery and finish off
their notes is helpful and not too long.  I then reconvene the circle and
introduce the concept of convergence/action planning--as not a ranking of
importance--all of the topics are important or they wouldn't have come
up--but rather an indication of the passion in the room.  This follows the
idea that nothing important ever got done if nobody cared about
it--importance doesn't equal mattering.  This is really helpful for the
leadership--as they get a very clear picture of where the energy in the
organization lies.  

I like to use the sticky dot method for convergence.  People find it fun--it
brings out the kid in everybody--who doesn't like stickers???  It changes
the energy by getting everybody up and moving around.  I give everyone ten
to fifteen sticky dots.  The only rule is that they can't put all 10 or 15
dots on one topic. I invite them to put the dots on the gallery notes rather
than the topic sheets--this seems to help folks get a better sense of what
the topics were really about.  Once all the dots are on, we sit back in the
circle and look at what has emerged.  There are usually about five topics
that really stand out as the biggies and then a lot of the others are
usually related to one of the big five.  Together we group (converge) the
topics into their larger areas.  This process takes about 45 minutes total
including the break.  I then invite topic champions for the hot five or so
topics to step forward and convene a quick 15 minute action planning session
to document the very next step for each topic (can be as simple as compiling
a list of who's interested, how they will stay in touch, and when they will
meet next).  I find this extra step really helpful in grounding the OS.  We
reconvene, folks give a lightening report in so everyone knows how to get
connected to other groups they might be interested in and then we do a
lightening round closing circle.  Using a talking object, I invite each
person to speak one word or one phrase or one sentence that captures what
they learned, or what they noticed, or what moved them, or what challenged
them during the day.  

I usually get the proceedings to the sponsors digitally for distribution the
following day. (You could distribute the books as folks leave if you have
been able to pull off the Kinko's thing. If you try this, be kind to
yourself and have some skilled helpers with you in the newsroom to let you
focus on holding the space.) This has worked well for everyone I have used
it with so far.

One of the things I notice with this type of day, is that the breathing
spaces present in a longer OS are missing. In order to create the time for
the convergence/action planning, the time slots are often shortened to
one-hour and fifteen minutes and this tends to have folks moving directly
from one conversation to the next, without milling and swirling back in the
centre.  

I want to acknowledge all of those who contributed their knowledge and
experience that I have learned from: particularly Chris Corrigan, Michael
Herman, Peggy Holman, and Lisa Heft.  Their contributions in the list
archives and to the resources at Open Space World helped me immensely in
creating this format.  I have played with and tweaked this design a fair
bit, and this is what has worked best for me so far in what is admittedly a
bit of a stretch for the one-day format.  

Best of luck!  Have fun! And just keep breathing!
Cheers,
Wendy     

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Greg
Vaughan
Sent: July 24, 2006 4:29 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: What to do while the proceedings are being printed?

Hi All,

New member here, so treat me kindly.  I'll be conducting a one-day open
space for a fire department.  
We are expecting about 100 participants. I need some advice on two issues:  

1)   I'm curious to know what you consider the best approach for getting the
proceedings book 
printed in the shortest time, and what to do with folks while that happens.
I'm a bit worried about 
100 task-oriented firefighters hanging out for 30 minutes while Kinko's
prints the books.  Do we just 
consider this a break and let whatever happens happen?  Or, do we structure
an activity?

2)  We'd like to have participants do a high-level ranking of the report
topics and recommendations 
so the leadership team has some idea about what the group considerss to be
key issues and high 
priorities.  So, folks have already been on a 30 minute break waiting for
the books, and now need 
another block of time to review them.  I'm worried about a substantial drop
in energy level at this 
point late in the day.  Any suggestions, including to chill?  

Thanks for your help.

Greg Vaughan

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