[OSList] what convergence after 3 OS events ?

Thu Oct 19 22:13:32 PDT 2017

a few thoughts, christine...

1.  i'd not be as interested in prioritizing everything as in sorting and
grouping things that are similar or overlapping.  voting is a quick way to
come up with a small number of attractors around which you can associate
all the other issues.

2.  it may or may not be possible or desirable to have a senior and/or
select group sort everything into clusters of issues and then simply open
some more space around each one of those.

3.  i would not do action planning with each group.  I would give the
proceedings from the first group to everyone.  then i would give the
proceedings from round two to everyone again.  by the time you get the
output from round three, i think you will see significant integration
happening.  it might be possible to sort/group just those issues from the
last round, but if not, the others should mostly fit in somewhere.  if
something from round one disappears by round 3, that probably means
something.

4.  alternatively, it may be that there is an org structure that for now is
in place and going to stay in place.  presumably, since they're staggering
the open space work, they're trying to keep the wheels turning while
reinventing themselves.  so another way to go is to take all of the
proceedings, distributed to all after each round, and do a new set of open
space meetings, where each operating group surveys everything in the
book(s) and claims what it is that they can own and do within their
immediate area and also what they could do with some help.  everything they
can do within their area can start immediately.  all the stuff that wants
to cross silos can be the subject of a new round of open space meetings.
duration of all os meetings proposed here is to be set as appropriate for
that particular issue/area/etc.  some of these silo-crossing issues will
naturally cluster, so you'll still end up with clusters of things to work
on.

5.  it's possible that one piece of work will be to end existing silos and
create new groupings.  maybe this can be done soon/quickly, maybe even in
advance of the first round of os meetings... maybe leaders already know
they want to reorg at the highest level around customer segments rather
than production systems, for instance.  anytihng that is
known/desired/planned already should be made explicit before the opens
pace, of course, as givens.  BUT... if some sort of post-existing-silos
organization is desired/expected but not yet known, they will learn a lot
about what shape(s) would be most helpful if they do #4 and study the
cross-over requests for help.  those represent the new organization trying
to be born.  if they move quickly around those things, they'll just want to
make sure that the old groups don't lose traction on the things they said
they could own as existing groups.

6.  some of this work may fit very well into a framework called enterprise
scrum, which i see as a slightly structured version of ongoing open space.
i have a colleague from france who's now not so far from you, living in
heidelberg.  i'd be glad to connect you if he'd be a help on the ground
there.  or i'd be glad to discuss this with you, as an extension of the
os+agile conversations you and i have had over time.

7.  don't forget the University of Kentucky rules for ongoing open space.
They might be helpful here.  There on my site or google will find you
multiple sources, i think.  Or I can get them for you.

8.  when holding followup meetings, logistically 100 can be a lot easier
than 300... which is to say that if they're going off-site for these
meetings, but they have an onsite space that will hold 100, then there's
nothing wrong with convening follow-on meetings where only the first 100
responders get the seats in the circle... and if many more want to attend a
given session, you'll already have experience of running three in series on
the same theme.

well, that's maybe more than a few thoughts... and i think i've actually
forgotten to mention something(s)... i'll stay tuned...

michael

p.s.   9. and don't forget to keep having fun.  fact is nobody knows what
the best way to go is, except one step at a time.  it sounds like they're
already in open space!  so you just help them stay there... do these three
and see what happens.  what a great situation!

p.p.s  10.  there's no reason the notes from each day can't be posted
somewhere the very next day!  don't let a lot of processing get in the
way... conveners are responsible for typing and posting their notes right
away.  no filtering.  and if they're all in one location, think about
printing them out and posting on the walls in a long hallway... keep the
news in front of everyone and it'll be one long meeting, not three!

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)

http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 7:48 PM, Scott Gassman via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Christine,
>
> You have a wonderful opportunity to continue helping stretch this company.
> If in your shoes, I would share findings/outputs/reports with all
> attendees
> from the three days.
> Ask them to read them, and identify what's most important and gripping for
> the organization to distill and carry forward as most significant change
> initiatives.
>
> I would invite all who want to and can attend to a follow-up 3.5 hour
> convergence session.
> If I could I would ask for most important themes/topics to be discussed
> and volunteer
> leaders to step-up and move the topics forward.  I would next invite the
> leaders, topic leaders.
> and scribes to process what's resulted and close in on new strategy. I
> would also have
> Subject Matter Experts on hand to respond to inquiries. This is the
> beginning of what they
> want to build.
>
> This likely will require more time, a model process leader and business
> owner as a start.
>
> Looking forward to hear future stories.
>
> Scott Gassman
>
> On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 2:21 PM, christine koehler via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear friends and colleagues,
>>
>> May I ask for advice, ideas and/or  stories ?
>>
>> I am preparing for a company (owned by its employees)  3 one and a half
>> days of OS that will host around 300 participants each.
>> The 3 events will take place one after the other, but each with different
>> participants. The whole company has been invited and almost everyone is
>> coming. Only the CEO and the GM will attend the 3 of them.
>> The theme is the same for the 3 events: re-invent the company.  They are
>> on a market that is completely changing those days and they have a very
>> ambitious goal with acquisitions (at the time the OS will take place, there
>> will be 200 people more in the company, and they are invited) and
>> diversification. They have begun looking for new markets and hope to
>> continue that with the OS. So their expectations are huge : new
>> organizational models for a new company, new projects, new synergies,
>> hopefully a new management model.
>>
>> The leadership team is following very carefully the event but they are
>> already facing overload. They expect to have to prioritize the projects
>> that come out of the OS as they expect many projects and probably won't be
>> able to fund all of them.
>> They are aware they should invent a new model but right at the moment
>> they want to follow up everything, which, of course, shows that it's not
>> easy to change the model. But I am confident that with a few conversations
>> they can consider other options.
>>
>> I suggested to organize one day convergence after those 3 events.
>> How would you design it ? and who would you invite ?
>> I would love  to get ideas from you or what you did in a similar occasion
>>
>> Christine
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Scott Gassman
> IdeaJuice
> (917) 951 - 0258 <(917)%20951-0258>
> scott.gassman at gmail.com
>
>
>
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