Convergence with more self-organization

Michael M Pannwitz mmpanne at boscop.org
Wed Sep 8 12:17:39 PDT 2010


Dear Diane,
the only thing I do in an intensive manner with leadership before the 
first event is to ask them to reflect on the prerequisites for an ost 
event (which are the prerequisites for selforganisation) and to convince 
themselves (and me) that they are in place.
Sometimes they wonder how they can support projects that people and 
groups might come up with. I always encourage them not to promise 
anything and not to provide up-front support for anything people come up 
with, suggesting that people will not come up with stuff without 
themselves having a strategy on how they can get support, if they need any.
Now, often, I assume, they dont believe a word I am saying. Also, rather 
frequently, they try to get into the mode I described. And then I hear 
things like "seems I have less to do then before" or "people dont come 
to see me as often as they used to" or "people just go ahead with their 
stuff, seems we have more leadership emerging".
Encouraged by that kind of feedback, I try to stay out of the way of all 
the stuff facilitators should do, to....
One of the organisations that hired me to facilitate more than 20 os 
events (very much by the book)for their organisation and their network 
over the last 8 years believes to have had some transformational etc. 
developements and other significant stuff occuring. I never spent any 
time with them except to facilitate the 3,5 hour planning meeting a few 
weeks before the event, facilitating the os events themselves and 
sometimes the Next Meetings.
My reading on this is that the ost events gave them a bunch of windows 
to see the selforganizing nature at the core of their organisation...the 
rest they did themselves.
Love this conversation and it draws me away from awfully important work 
I have to do, thanks.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

Diane Gibeault schrieb:
> Hi Michael, Thank you Michael for your comments about the group
> identifying its collective priorities or not. If it's clear that the
> follow-ups to the event are the responsibility of each participant
> only and not of the event organizers, I agree that the
> priority-setting step is not relevant. The outcome is based on
> individual passion that may or may not be supported by the group. In
> my experience with intact organizations, when collective priorities
> were not set by the group, many participants felt the resources of
> the organization  were being channelled more to individuals interests
> and that the organization did not have a clear focus as a whole.
> 
> A surplus of enthusiasm and commitment may be a nice “problem” to
> have but it may be a damper when resources of the organization are
> felt to be already too too thin. Not establishing collective
> priorities requires that the leadership trusts its own capacities and
> that of the members of the organization, to manage necessary
> arrangements to actualize its priorities and activities. So to skip
> the priority setting, it's important to ensure the leadership and the
> group is open to having an unpredictable number of actions to
> realize. The advantage, if they are open to this, is that management
> communicates it has a high level of confidence in the capacity of
> people to self-organize and to coordinate itself within the
> parameters established by the leadership. But that most be true and
> not just words. So testing the idea in advance with a a few people
> (e.g. the organization committee which should be a microcosm of the
> organization) may be wise.
> 
> An essential part of the facilitator's job is always to work with the
> leadership before the event so they already think of ways they
> themselves can adjust and ways to adapt their systems to bring the
> necessary flexibility to integrate the newness and changes coming out
> of an OS event. It is even more crucial work if no priorities will be
> determined by the collective.
> 
> Diane
> 
> 
> On 2010-09-08, at 6:58 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
> 
>> Dear Diane, for quite a while now I no longer include "priority"
>> setting.
>> 
>> So, when Action Planning starts, its not on the basis of priorities
>> the group arrived at and its also not really on the basis of the
>> Book of Proceedings but actually only on the interest/passion
>> people have for a particular action or project NOW.(Probably, all
>> kinds of stuff from the previous two days and other considerations
>> enter). Thats posted just as at the beginning of an open space and
>> groups then assemble at the various "projects" and decide on action
>> (one or two or several steps even though I tell them the first step
>> is IT!)which is recorded on Next Step sheets which are made
>> available to everyone (Name of Project, people participating, next
>> steps, contact person).
>> 
>> What I find supports the quaint notion of sponsors around "action,
>> sustainability, follow up, etc." is to include the date of the next
>> meeting to follow the open space in the original invitation to the
>> event.
>> 
>> Have a great day greetings from Berlin mmp
>> 
>> 
>> Diane Gibeault schrieb:
>>> Hi everyone, At a recent training workshop I facilitated in
>>> Ottawa, some participants suggested an adaptation to the process
>>> of action planning for priorities set by the group after
>>> discussions. This option - One Market Place Per Priority - offers
>>> a convergence process with more space for self-organization,
>>> which is the fundamental intent  of Open Space. Participants
>>> choose which of the priorities they have passion to work on and
>>> regroup accordingly. Then each priority group opens space by
>>> itself and creates its own action market wall in relations to its
>>> specific priority. Among the action topics posted, nothing
>>> precludes that someone may propose a discussion of the priority
>>> itself. This "one market place per priority" method is still a
>>> more structured approach that the option of opening space again
>>> for action with only one market place for everybody as they
>>> express their passion for actions on any of the identified
>>> priorities. For those organizations who prefer to structure the
>>> action identification a bit more, this new option still opens
>>> more space than having groups come up with only one action per
>>> priority which is what ends up happening in most cases despite
>>> the invitation to identify more than one action - at least this
>>> is what I have seen over many years of OS events. To provide some
>>> guidance to the various priority groups who will self-organize to
>>> open space and create their own market place for action, I added
>>> a few simple guiding steps on top of the Action Planning Guide
>>> which is usually in their kit or distributed on chairs before the
>>> start of convergence. I share them with you in case you may find
>>> it useful. A. Create a market place of actions that will
>>> contribute to realize the priority you have chosen. - Post the
>>> priority title at the top of a wall. - Each participant can post
>>> on that wall, an action title with his/her name. - Then,
>>> combinations of action sheets can be made if desired, by
>>> participants initiating the actions. B. Participants form groups
>>> around actions of their choice Action Initiator role – with help
>>> from the group: - Posts high on the wall the action title so it
>>> is visible to bumblebees. - Circulates a sheet to create a list
>>> of participants. - Notes key points (the group may want to use
>>> the planning guide provided). - After the discussion, prepares
>>> and posts a summary on one or two flip chart pages on the plenary
>>> wall for all participants to read during a walk about that will
>>> follow. - Registers at the News Room and enters the action plan
>>> on a computer. Maybe some of you have already used this method of
>>> "one market place per priority". If so, learnings from your
>>> experience would  be most welcome. Gifts come from everywhere in
>>> Open Space, as it is a circle of people open to possibilities.
>>> Thank you to the participants of the Ottawa training group for
>>> bringing to light this different way of doing which is full of
>>> possibilities. Diane * * 
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>> -- Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany 
>> ++49-30-772 8000 mmpanne at boscop.org www.boscop.org
>> 
>> 
>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 402 resident
>> Open Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 141
>> countries worldwide Have a look: www.openspaceworldmap.org
>> 
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> 
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-- 
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org


Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 402 resident Open
Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
Have a look:
www.openspaceworldmap.org

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