documenting for ripple effect

[Michael Herman]

Hi All,

Just back from a "senior executive forum" for a company in South
Africa, 1.5days in OS, where we did something new and different with
documentation.  We
tweaked the notes reporting template to help start a weblog with the
proceedings, as soon as the corporate IT guys can get the tech side of
things together.

This Forum was top 60 people in the company.  600 others report to them.
The 60 have been meeting semi-annually for several years, and know
themselves to be a circle.  The 600 are the beginning of the rest of the org
(of 12,000 total) all of which currently knows itself as a set of silos
rather than circles.

So with the proceedings, we asked the usual... issue, convener,
participants, summary.  To satisfy the corporate yearning for action, we had
a space for 'immediate next steps' in the template.  Then we added to other
fields:  Summary for 600 direct reports (if not same as above) and Summary
for Whole Organization (if not....).

On most issues, scribes said share with all.  On a few issues, qualified
summaries were written.  On all issues, this will provide the necessary info
to establish a weblog that can be open to at least the next largest circle,
with the thought that this new view of "strategy" might be offered to the
600 and ultimately "leaked" out to the rest of the organization.

The hope is that we might use these proceedings and followup news in weblog
form to help turn the 600 into a circle of conversations, that might
eventually also be convened periodically, in whole or in parts, in open
space.  It helps, as well, that these 60 will continue to meet and generate
news in semi-annual gatherings.

I thought there might be other places where we are working where it would
make sense to ask participants to craft directly and immediately their
messages for some larger circle of colleagues or stakeholders, with or
without a blog structure as the delivery/conversation vehicle.

Anybody else documenting events in weblogs these days?

On our way from "meetings" to "practice."

Cheers, MichaelH



-- 

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Ave #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA

phone: 312-280-7838
email: michael at michaelherman.com
skype: globalchicago

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.openspaceworld.org
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org

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