Mixing action planning and

Beverley Neff bev at cariboolinks.com
Fri Feb 23 19:27:22 PST 2007 

Thanks, Chris, this is very helpful. And I'm glad you will be holding 
space with us. I'll let you know how it goes... it has certainly been a 
journey so far—I'm looking forward to the actual event!

Best regards,
--Beverley

On Feb 23, 2007, at 4:08 PM, Chris Corrigan wrote:

> 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 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 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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