Convergence for Group Consensus

Michael M Pannwitz mmpanne at boscop.org
Fri Mar 7 00:45:04 PST 2008 

After working for a while "by the book" and doing the 55 dots 
convergence followed by action planning around the 7 most highly voted 
issues I came to the conclusion that I, clients,the real business issue 
at hand, the world, etc. dont benefit much from consensus (especially by 
voting) but get real mileage out of PASSION.
Since then I have successfully convinced clients/sponsors to move 
directly from the divergent phase closed by reading the book of 
proceedings to action planning.
Open Space Technology from where I stand is an action orienting (not 
"action oriented")process that runs on passion and responsibility. Of 
course, following that course seems risky to many, lets have consensus 
first. My repeated experience in OST events has been, however, that 
regardless of what "consensus" processes produced, action required 
needed passion and responsibility. Projects evolved independent, outside 
of, in contrast to the "consensus" apparently found in "convergence" and 
the issue with the highest number of dots led to no direct action ...and 
that has to do with letting go of control. So one of my suspicions has 
been that the call for consensus is also fed by control needs that close 
space rather than keeping it open.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp


Harrison Owen wrote:
> Marty said: Here are my two questions:
> 
> a)  In the Users Manual, you say that "with a sizable group (fifty and
> larger), electronic tallying is infinitely preferred."  But in this email,
> you say that "with small groups (<100) Sticky dots do the job."
> 
> b)  In the Users Manual, you recommend the use of 55 sticky dots per person,
> but in your email, you recommend just 5.  In the quest for simplicity, it
> seems you have removed about 5 per year!
> 
> My Answer --
> 
> Consistency was never one of my virtues. And when it comes to closure
> (consensus or otherwise) I recommend Sniffy. Works every time, but you may
> not be asked back! But I never was a real fan of consensus. Moving the
> business seemed more important.
> 
> Harrison  
> 
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20854
> Phone 301-365-2093
> Skype hhowen
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> Personal website www.ho-image.com 
> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
> archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Martin
> Boroson
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:34 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Convergence for Group Consensu
> 
> Harrison
> 
> I checked the Users Manual (always next to my desk) on convergence, as you
> suggested.
> 
> Forgive me for quoting you back to you, but there are a couple of
> differences between what you said in the Manual and what you've written
> below, and I'm really interested in understanding how your thinking/practice
> has evolved in the last ten years.  (I'm also planning a couple of 3-day
> events where formal convergence and voting is very important to the
> clients.)
> 
> Here are my two questions:
> 
> a)  In the Users Manual, you say that "with a sizable group (fifty and
> larger), electronic tallying is infinitely preferred."  But in this email,
> you say that "with small groups (<100) Sticky dots do the job."
> 
> b)  In the Users Manual, you recommend the use of 55 sticky dots per person,
> but in your email, you recommend just 5.  In the quest for simplicity, it
> seems you have removed about 5 per year!
> 
> :)
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Marty
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Harrison
> Owen
> Sent: 04 March 2008 13:15
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Convergence for Group Consensu
> 
> Pretty simple -- Sticky dots or voting. (Details all in the User's
> Guide)With small groups (<100) Sticky dots do the job. Just give everybody
> the same number of dots (5 works well) and invite them to past their dots on
> the Issue(s) they love. They can place all the dots, a few or none. Then
> count the dots or just eyeball it.
> 
> Harrison 
> 
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20854
> Phone 301-365-2093
> Skype hhowen
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> Personal website www.ho-image.com 
> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
> archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Kimberley
> Willing
> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 11:09 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Convergence for Group Consensu
> 
> Does anyone have any experience or advice in 'converging' open space, in 
> such a way that the emerging consensus of the whole group is identified?  
> Specifically, I have a 2 day event coming up - the purpose of which is to 
> develop a best practice framework for reporting on the topic, and at least 
> to develop a check list of issues to be addressed in preparing such a 
> reporting framework. 
> 
> Day 1 could be spent diverging (in Open Space) and I am wondering how best 
> to converge on Day 2, given that one outcome mine host would like to see, 
> is an articulation of the level of agreement of the whole group on certain 
> matters.
> 
> With thanks,
> 
> Kim.
> 
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>From  Fri Mar  7 11:20:52 2008
Message-Id: <FRI.7.MAR.2008.112052.0100.>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 11:20:52 +0100
Reply-To: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Thomas Herrmann <thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
Organization: Open Space Consulting
Subject: SV: Invitation to say hellow and leave good wish for growing OS
 community in Korea
In-Reply-To: <LISTSERV%200803061012098502.C959 at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Dear Open Space community in Korea, dear Park
Congratulations to you for all your achievements and warm wishes of good
fortune from me and I dare say the whole Swedish Open Space community. 

Open Space Institute of Sweden has been around for 5 years now. Our yearly
meeting is expanded to a Scandinavian OSonOS where Danish, Norwegian and
occasionally guests from all over meet. Great!

I know our Chairwoman Eva P Svensson(OSI Sweden) sends her regards - she is
busy opening space right now (as it should be;-)).
Warm regards
Thomas Herrmann, Treasurer OSI Sweden



-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] För Stanley Park
Skickat: den 6 mars 2008 18:12
Till: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Ämne: Invitation to say hellow and leave good wish for growing OS community
in Korea

With ongoing monthly OS forum started from this year and Open Space
Institute of Korea  ready to open early next week, I would like to invite
all of you who have time to spare to warm the OS community house- the
habitat OS community- by saying hellow and leaving good wishes.

Here's site address for previews needing more content to fill in before
opening. 

http://www.openspace.kr/zb

For many of you who find Hangeul (Korean language) rather uncomfortable,
please just enjoy viewing two OS events at
http://www.openspace.kr/zb/UCC/147 and http://www.openspace.kr/zb/UCC/140 .

When the site becomes fully in operation, it will have a section in upper
right that serve our friends whose language is not Korean.

Wishing you the best,

park

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