juicy convening questions

[Chris Weaver]

Hey Christine,

I'm a week late on the draw in responding to your inquiry, but perhaps it's
still relevant.

You wrote that the sponsor has the familiar concern that people who don't
work together or are not part of an intact group can often come up with
fabulous ideas that peter out quickly or never go anywhere at all.

In my experience, the sponsor's concern is well-founded.  I've participated
in (and facilitated) a number of  community OST events in which the
participants don't have prior connections.  In my observation it is often
the case that most people go back to their lives & business as usual and
don't follow up/follow through on many of the collaborative ideas that
emerge in the OST event.

I believe that the sponsor and planning team can take some steps to maximize
the opportunity for ongoing impact from the event.  These include:
  a.. Taking the time as a planning team to connect with their individual
purpose  in opening space for the event, and sharing this with one another
so that a deeper group purpose emerges.
  b.. Including in the OST event a solid action-planning component, in which
the space is re-opened for specific new initiatives, and participants are
invited to step into leadership for these new initiatives (I use the title
"champions" for these emergent leaders).
  c.. Posting the action planning "Initiative Reports" to the web asap, and
providing options for initiative groups to collaborate online (this is
especially important when the participants do not have regular established
contact with one another).
  d.. Committing to opening space for a follow-up OST event a few weeks or
months down the road (the same theme usually works great).  When
participants know at the first event that there's going to be another one,
this generates a field of positive accountability.  Participants feel a
stronger motivation to move the work forward so that they can share it with
the community at the next OST.
A commmitted ongoing sponsoring team can also take other steps, such as
sending out simple email "newsletters" to the participant list (this works
great when any participant is invited to submit a story about their ongoing
work to be included in the newsletter).

All of these steps are frequently part of the supporting infrastructure for
highly successful OST work within a single organization, because the
communication networks are already in place.  With a community event, the
extra time and effort to create this infrastructure makes a big difference
in the outcomes.  Working with a planning or sponsoring team in this way is
an act of inviting them into deeper more conscious leadership.

Chris

Chris Weaver
Springbranch, Inc.
Asheville, North Carolina USA
chris at springbranch.us
http://springbranch.us




  -----Original Message-----
  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Christine
Whitney Sanchez
  Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 6:49 PM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: juicy convening questions


  Hi Dear OS Friends,

  I'm in conversation with a potential sponsor for a large 1.5 day OS event
next October, the purpose of which is to connect people for self-organized
community action (non-specific at this point).  The crowd is expected to be
folks who live and work in a metro area and who may have a tenuous
connection through one of several sponsoring organizations - but who have
not had such a large scale experience with other members of their community.

  The planning team is meeting in a week or so where the sponsor will pitch
the idea.  She's pretty convinced that OST is the way to go but has the
familiar concern that people who don't work together or are not part of an
intact group can often come up with fabulous ideas that peter out quickly or
never go anywhere at all.

  Among other things, I would like to offer the planning team a collection
of especially generative convening questions from similar events that
resulted in new action groups forming and concrete contributions to a
community.  Any links to similar OS events would also be very helpful.

  I'll compile the responses and feed them back by the end of next week.
Thanks in advance for your help.

  Warmly from sunny, sweaty Phoenix,

  Christine

  Christine Whitney Sanchez
  KAIROS Alliance Inc.
  2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ  85048
  480.759.0262
  www.kairosalliance.com

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