Mixing action planning and

Chris Corrigan chris at chriscorrigan.com
Fri Feb 23 16:08:47 PST 2007


Hi Bev:

When I reopen for action, new stuff always comes up, that's actually the
beauty of it.  I'm not really opening for a distillation of the previous
day's conversation, instead I am reopening for what wants to go forward
right now.  Sometimes that might be a completely new emergent insight that
someone raises and that they can get out of the room.  In fact I often use
the phrase "think about how we can get this stuff out of the room" as a way
to focus the invitation for action planning on the next first step.

I find that it takes very little time to do this.  Have people read the
harvest of the previous day's work (be it in a book or a gallery of
flipchart summaries posted around the room) invite them to "converge in
their hearts", in other words notice the things that want to be born and
that they can help give birth to.  Then open space with the focussed
invitation to convene short (no more than one hour) conversations to talk
about how to get it out of the room.  Give them an action planning form like
this one<http://www.chriscorrigan.com/openspace/Convergence%2520Report%2520form.doc>to
fill in which encourages them to at least commit to one place where
the
conversation will continue.  Invite people to show up for action planning
with day timers and even materials to make a poster to advertise the next
conversation.  Then set them to work, have the short session and convene a
closing circle in which the action planning teams make their invtations to
the larger group about what comes next.

I keep reading in Island Tides <http://islandtides.com/index.htm> about your
upcoming gathering.  You guys have done some much great work in getting the
invitation out there, I can't wait to hear the results.  I think it would be
a great story to write up, especially how you carried the invitation so
widely around the community.

I'll be there in spirit, one Gulf Islander to another.

Cheers,

Chris

On 2/23/07, Beverley Neff <bev at cariboolinks.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Gerard,
>
> Thank you so much for your comments.
>
> I've never done action planning before and convergence is way beyond me!
>
> Michael Herman and Chris Corrigan have written about non-convergence
> and I can resonate with that. So I'll try Michael's News/Now/Next/Nuts
> approach. I am going to invite people to read the Book of Proceedings,
> especially the conversations they did not attend. Did they notice any
> patterns in the discussions, anything that kept coming up again and
> again no matter what the topic? This is what we have done here so
> far—now how do we get it out of the room? What needs to happen next?
> What part of all this do you feel willing to take further? Then I will
> reopen space with an invitation to post action topics about what needs
> to happen next: who is interested, who else to invite, when to meet,
> what to do first.
>
> That's what I think so far, any way. Am I on the right track here?
>
> Feedback is most welcome!
>
> Best regards,
> --Beverley
>
> On Feb 23, 2007, at 10:13 AM, Gerard Muller wrote:
>
> > Hello Beverly,
> >
> > Could you say a bit how you intend to do your action planning ?
> >
> > Reading your story I thought about a pattern I have observed in quite
> > a number of Open Space meetings,
> > which is that a limited number of topics seems to be discussed in many
> > groups, no matter the topics these groups
> > "officially" have on the agenda.  And these recurring topics often are
> > not mentioned as such on the agenda at all.
> >
> > If I have a day and a half, as the first step on the second day I
> > often ask whether there are any really important topics which we have
> > forgotten on the first day, or which have been discussed but are not
> > mentioned as such on the first day's agenda.
> > These are then added.
> >
> > The alternative I sometimes use is to simply reopen for action
> > planning.
> >
> > In both cases new topics may be put up that people feel like
> > discussing, even though the invitation is to move
> > towards action planning - and the new ones may never reach the stage
> > of becoming an action plan - but then,
> > that's the only thing that could happen.
> >
> > Greetings from a snowstorm in Svenmark,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Gerard Muller
> > Open Space Institute Denmark
> > Phone: (+45) 21269621                                 Skype: openspace1
> > Mail: gm at openspace.dk
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Feb 23, 2007, at 6:10 PM, Beverley Neff wrote:
> >
> >> Hi folks,
> >>
> >> With the help of a good team, I am hosting and facilitating a day and
> >> a half OS next weekend here in my own community. (Send your prayers!)
> >> The theme is "Living Together on Saturna Island: Issues and
> >> Opportunities". I am expecting about 40-50 people. Saturna has about
> >> 300 residents, even more part time residents.
> >>
> >> Saturday is a full day with three breakout session. Sunday is a half
> >> day, with distribution of the Book of Proceedings, reopening for
> >> action planning (one session) and then a closing circle.
> >>
> >> Sunday we meet from 9 AM to 2 PM. And here is my dilemma: I love the
> >> idea of the Book of Proceedings on each chair when people come in
> >> early for coffee. And yet I still want to ask if there are any other
> >> topics that have come up after a night's sleep. If so, we could have
> >> one more time slot for breakout sessions before we reopen for action
> >> planning and one shorter session for immediate next steps, followed
> >> by a half-hour lunch break and closing circle.
> >>
> >> If there are no further topics, then we'd have the option of going
> >> right into non-convergence and finishing early. Nobody would mind
> >> that!
> >>
> >> What do you think? Should I include that first Sunday time-slot in
> >> the time/space matrix on Saturday or just offer it on Sunday? Should
> >> I drop the whole idea?
> >>
> >> Any feedback will be deeply appreciated by this relative newbie to
> >> facilitating OS.
> >>
> >> Many thanks for being there!
> >>
> >> Beverley Neff
> >> Saturna Island, BC Canada
> >>
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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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