Convergence for Group Consensus
Diana Larsen
dlarsen at futureworksconsulting.com
Fri Mar 7 08:13:01 PST 2008
I'm late to the conversation, and this discussion of PASSION hooked
me. I'm also skeptical of group consensus. Particularly with larger
groups; i.e., more than ~10 people.
More and more often, in any kind of action planning (OS or otherwise)
I have abandoned the idea of finding group consensus on the
"important" issues. What's "important" is much too abstract and often
involves what we think _other_ people, the proverbial "they" should
do. So I don't ask about importance anymore.
Instead I've begun to rely more on the group asking itself two fast
rounds of questions, about impact and energy:
First, each person votes on which issues would have the most "impact"
if worked on further. That provides some additional data to the group.
(I usually use some kind of stickers rather than colored dots -
dinosaurs anyone? It just adds some fun. I also like the idea of
tickets instead of dots here...I'll have to try that.)
Then second, I ask each person to put a small number of different
stickers (1-3) on whichever issues they personally have the "energy"
for moving forward (or if there is room, to stand next to where those
issues are posted). We notice where the pattern of energy lies
compared with their overall perspective on impact. And we follow the
energy, which more or less equals passion.
After that, groups of people create action plans on anything someone
has the energy to work on, in another round of OS-style sessions,
complete with Law of Two feet, bumblebees, etc. And each group reports
out 'first next steps'. Not the whole plan, just the first action or
two, because we know the plan will necessarily change as people
implement the first steps and learn more. In the Agile software world,
we say "inspect and adapt" and "respond to change rather than
following a plan." So that's the expectation. People will try a few
things, learn more, adjust the plan, try a few more things, etc.
Diana
**
Diana Larsen
co-author: "Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great!"
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503 288 3550 www.futureworksconsulting.com/blog
On Mar 7, 2008, at 12:45 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
> 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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