[OSList] 1,000 participants in 4 hours - The Report

[lucia pavia Ticzon]

oh,
and the self reflects, empties, and begins anew ...
happy weekend !


On Friday, August 2, 2013, lucia pavia Ticzon wrote:

>
> keep going, sis ~
> spirit abides and the universe is spacious...
> blessings ever more...to you and us all !!!
>
>
> On Thursday, August 1, 2013, Sharon Joy Chao wrote:
>
> Just two weeks ago I had this interesting experience of opening space for
> 1,100 (yes, the number swelled) under 4 hours. You probably remember the
> massive exchange in OSList on how to convene under these conditions as we
> burned the line talking about the merit of this assignment. The extent of
> our discussion was remarkable for it showed the depth of wisdom and passion
> attached to the practice with ideas flying from one side of the globe to
> the other.
>
> It started with an invitation to a two-day symposium on performance
> management system in government service. And because it’s a symposium there
> were 6 speakers lined up including a dozen others for concurrent sessions.
> Day 1 had a couple of plenary and concurrent sessions. Open Space was
> slated in the morning of Day 2 followed by a formal symposium integration
> and closure in the afternoon. This was the first time HR people in
> government are called together, and there was a good mix of people from
> national agencies, government corporations, state universities and local
> government units in attendance.
>
> The open space session focused on making performance management system
> (PMS) in public service truly essential, responsive and life giving.
> Sitting through Day 1 presentations and forums made me realize that the
> audience have compelling stories to tell in addition to having contending
> views on how to move PMS in their agency. This prompted me to check my own
> motivation as I worked with government in the past and I know that PMS has
> always been a thorny issue in the service. I need to bring respect to
> everyone involved and there’s no sense adding my own ideas and arrogance to
> the issue.
>
> Bits and pieces of the process I used that somehow worked despite the
> number and the time configuration:
>
> ·        Space was tight to include provision of an open space in the
> middle, but the hotel staff did an incredible job of assembling 5 layers of
> chairs in concentric circle. With this arrangement a thousand chairs almost
> reached the wall but then again that’s fine as there was ample space for
> people to move in the center. To facilitate movement an open aisle was
> provided from four points of the room so what we actually had was an open
> circle.
>
> ·        Opening was limited to an hour with 15-minute sponsorship and a
> walkthrough of the theme and the OST process. The whole spiel gave me time
> to completely/slowly walk the circle to establish some degree of proximity
> with the participants. The rest of the hour was spent getting people to
> queue and publicly announce their topics.
>
> ·        Convenors used placards (illustration board stapled on
> three-foot bamboo stick) instead of papers to publish their topics. There
> was no marketplace because the market was mobile. It was messy, disorderly
> and fun when convenors started to go around the room for membership, while
> the rest decide which topic to join. The decision to use placards was
> brought about by hotel’s policy not to stick anything on the wall, and this
> policy actually worked to everyone’s advantage.
>
> ·        It helped to talk about chaos openly and early on. There’s no
> way I can manage a thousand in four hours; and the only other thing left
> was expect chaos, accept it, and work it to my advantage. At the same time
> I remained calm and secure despite the seeming disarray inside the room
> especially when people start standing up and moving into groups. It’s
> essential to coach the sponsor to expect it. The analogy I used to convince
> them was that of a  wedding event, one can think things through and
> organize it to death but then again things don’t usually turn out as
> planned. I also told the participants to expect chaos, learn to live with
> the mess and love it.
>
> ·        When all the topics were declared (about a hundred), I realize
> it did not make sense sticking to the original plan of having two one-hour
> session, despite the color coded placards and instructions for groups to
> have two separate time frames. With placards on hand, people immediately
> self organized. Not even those sticky numbers posted (yes, this was the
> only concession we got from the hotel) made sense at this point. Respecting
> that tendency, I decided not to call for
>
>
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