Why is a grid sometimes useful?

Larry Peterson larry at spiritedorg.com
Tue Aug 4 06:58:25 PDT 2009


The only "grid" I use is the one I put the post-its on.  I prefer the free
form posting of topics on the wall, and maybe some splitting of Day 1 and
Day 2.  For me, the chaos at the wall is intentional and if its not there,
then the benefits of being at the "edge of chaos" are not achieved.  People
have to use their intuition as well as logic when deciding what topic to
pursue. It is clearly not a traditional agenda.

Larry


Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
larry at spiritedorg.com   416.653.4829 http://www.spiritedorg.com



-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jon Harvey
Sent: August-04-09 4:48 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Why is a grid sometimes useful?

Erik

I have mostly created grids using making tape which certainly looks more
like a 'standard' agenda - rows for time slots and columns for places. That
is their main value I think...

However I have experienced several difficulties:

1) Merging and combining discussions becomes a bit constrained
2) You need a big wall - which is often not available
3) I was always left wondering why we had the post-it notes and the
scheduled box on the grid - as they duplicated each other - in effect.
4) If a balloon popped (or escaped - see by blog for a pic!
http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/ ) all the sheets for that session
had to be moved. 

So now I favour the freeform - but slightly organised - approach. I choose X
wall spaces (where X is the number of time slots) and ask people to post
their discussions there - attaching the appropriate sticky note (11.00ish
and balloon G). People can consult the wall space at any time and see laid
out, the various sessions that are happening at that time. This can apply to
new people also - if they helped, as need be, to understand what it all
means - which takes 10 seconds in my experience. Merging discussions is also
far easier with this method. It also does not give any spurious 'order' to
the ideas - because they are arranged higgledy-piggledy. 

For finding the discussions - I usually opt for large letter shaped balloons
suspended 2m from the floor. If you are sponsoring session D - you go and
get the D balloon and a flip chart and see who turns up. (see
http://www.classiccelebrations.com/images/categories/alphabetletteraballooni
mage.jpg for an example) 

Hope this helps...

Very best wishes

Jon
___________________________________________________

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Erik
Fabian
Sent: 04 August 2009 05:08
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: [OSLIST] Why is a grid sometimes useful?

Hello,

I have been thinking about the bulletin board and the debate that happened a
while back on this 
list about whether a totally free collage of session postings is somehow
better than OS style events 
that use a grid layout that notes time/locations.

I agree that the complete free flowing collage approach has an elegant
appeal but I have been 
asking myself a different question...why do some OS style events even use a
grid?

I wonder how did the use of the grid evolve at these events? What is their
value?

I can only speculate on how these event evolved into using a grid (or if
that is how they started out 
perhaps) but I have realize one advantage...they allow new participants to
easily to join in with an 
event that is already in progress.

When someone shows up late to a public event and encounters a messy session
board it is hard, 
without further explanation, for them to understand what is going on, where
it is happening, if it 
is happening, and if so when.

The original OS literature I have read usually emphasizes that participants
are present start to 
finish. There are many obvious benefits to this but the relevant one here is
that everyone is 
present during the original board making. They have some sense of how it
evolved into whatever 
mess that it becomes and how it changes as people go about the experience.

It makes sense if the original OS literature isn't accounting late arrivals
that it doesn't need 
something like a grid to help late arrivals get oriented quickly.

Thoughts?

Cheerio,
Erik

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