Change or you wont go South

I had the pleasure of working with Garry Marshall this week. Garry has just returned from the Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race, the first race to the South Pole since Scott and Amundsen’s historic race nearly 100 years ago.

Garry told us the story of how after almost two weeks of intensive Polar Training in Antarctica, teams of 3 set off to race from the edge of the Antarctica continent, to race over 370 nautical miles across the largest ice cap in the world to the Geographic South Pole.

The racers will faced constant challenges throughout their journey: surviving in temperatures as low as -50C, navigating and skiing while pulling a 70Kg. pulk (sled), climbing up to 9300 ft. to the South Pole and through everything working together as a team.

One of the most fascinating things Garry mentioned was that despite having spent months preparing, some of their specialist equipment failed.Rather than worrying about the cost (both financial and emotional) that had been placed in their gear Garry and his colleagues soon realised that they must discard or modify rather to risk perishing like Scot did all those years ago. Despite looking half frozen as he does in this picture Garry and his team successfully made it to the pole. A lesson here for all of us I am sure.

Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race was more than just a race. It was the journey of a lifetime…

Read more here and watch out for a BBC documentary on the race coming soon.

Symphony in green

Big week in the offing for me next week and one that I am really looking forward to. On Tuesday I am facilitating a large event for a sales community whilst on Friday I am running a more intimate event about sustainability (green IT etc). What has got me especially excited is that I will be sharing the stage on Tuesday with Miha Pogacnik.

Miha is at the vanguard of innovation, is an accomplished classical concert violinist, and world-renowned for inspiring organizational transformation and leadership. I have met Miha and he is one of life's marvels and I cant wait to work with him. The idea of using the arts to inspire business has long been a favorite notion of mine and but this will be the first time I have used the medium of music.

So what is Open Space Technology? - Part 2

One of the particular reasons for the success of OST lies in what are called the Four Principles and The One Law. Participants are told these "rules" announced and described during the opening session. These describe rather than prescribe; they do not operate as rules which one must obey but simply describe what the system expects will happen in any case:

1. Whoever comes is the right people: this alerts the participants that attendees of a session class as "right" simply because they care to attend
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have: this tells the attendees to pay attention to events of the moment, instead of worrying about what could possibly happen
3. Whenever it starts is the right time: clarifies the lack of any given schedule or structure and emphasises creativity and innovation
   
4. When it's over, it's over: my particular favorite which encourages the participants not to waste time, but to move on to something else when the fruitful discussion ends

There also exists another tentative "law", usually referred to as the "Law of Two Feet", which reads as follows: If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.

This last "law" emphasizes that no one should sit in sessions that they find boring; instead only people genuinely interested in the topic at hand should attend the discussions. I pushed this law very hard when I ran an OST event recently and was told by the collective that it was the reason why the event went so well.

Are you cutting out coterminosity? The end of jargon in the UK

Council leaders in the UK have today published a list of 200 words that public bodies should not use if they want to communicate effectively with local people.

The Local Government Association list, which has been sent to councils across the country, sets out 200 words and phrases that all public sector bodies should avoid when talking to people about the work they do and the services they provide. Here is the list in full - I just love it!

Across-the-piece - everyone working together
Actioned - do
Advocate - support
Agencies - groups
Ambassador - leader
Area based - in an area
Area focused - concentrating on the area
Autonomous - independent
Baseline - starting point
Beacon - leading light
Benchmarking - measuring
Best Practice - best way
Blue sky thinking - thinking up ideas
Bottom-Up - listening to people
CAAs - why use at all?
Can do culture - get the job done
Capabilities -
Capacity - ability
Capacity building - enough room in the system
Cascading - why use at all?
Cautiously welcome - devil in the detail
Challenge - problem
Champion - best
Citizen empowerment - people power
Client - person
Cohesive communities - why use at all?
Cohesiveness - together
Collaboration - working together
Commissioning - buy
Community engagement - getting people involved
Compact - why use at all?
Conditionality - why use at all?
Consensual - everyone agrees
Contestability - Why use at all?
Contextual - background
Core developments - main things that are happening
Core Message - main point
Core principles - beliefs
Core Value - belief
Coterminosity - all singing from the same hymn sheet
Coterminous - all singing from the same hymn sheet
Cross-cutting - everyone working together
Cross-fertilisation - spreading ideas
Customer - people/person
Democratic legitimacy - voted in
Democratic mandate - elected to put people first
Dialogue - talk/discuss
Direction of travel - way forward
Distorts spending priorities - ignores people's needs
Double devolution - Why use at all?
Downstream - Why use at all?
Early Win - success
Edge-fit - Why use at all?
Embedded - set in
Empowerment - people power
Enabler - helps
Engagement - working with people
Engaging users -- getting people involved
Enhance - improve
Evidence Base - research shows
Exemplar - example
External challenge - outside pressures
Facilitate - help
Fast-Track - speed up
Flex - Why use at all?
Flexibilities and Freedoms - more power to do the right thing
Framework - guide
Fulcrum - pivot
Functionality - use
Funding Streams - money
Gateway review - Why use at all?
Going forward - in the future
Good Practice - best way
Governance - Why use at all?
Guidelines - guide
Holistic - taken in the round
Holistic governance - Why use at all?
Horizon scanning - Why use at all?
Improvement levers - using the tools to get the job done
Incentivising - incentive
Income Streams - money/cash
Indicators - measurements
Initiative - idea
Innovative capacity - Why use at all?
Inspectorates - monitoring bodies
Interdepartmental - working together
Interface - talking to each other
Iteration - version
Joined up - working together
Joint working - working together
LAAs - Why use at all?
Level playing field - everyone equal
Lever - Why use at all?
Leverage - influence
Localities - places/town/city/village
Lowlights - worst bits
MAAs - Why use at all?
Mainstreaming - Why use at all?
Management capacity - Why use at all?
Meaningful consultation- talking to people
Meaningful dialogue - talking to people
Mechanisms - methods
Menu of Options - choices
Multi-agency -- many groups
Multidisciplinary - many
Municipalities - towns/cities/areas
Network model - Why use at all?
Normalising - make normal
Outcomes - results
Outcomes - focused
Output - results
Outsourced - privatised
Overarching - Why use at all?
Paradigm - Why use at all?
Parameter - limits
Participatory - joining in
Partnership working - working together
Partnerships - working together
Pathfinder - Why use at all?
Peer challenge - Why use at all?
Performance Network - Why use at all?
Place shaping - creating places where people can thrive
Pooled budgets - money
Pooled resources - time and money
Pooled risk - Why use at all?
Populace - people
Potentialities - chances
Practitioners - experts
Predictors of Beaconicity - Why use at all?
Preventative services - protecting the most vulnerable
Prioritization - most important
Priority - most important
Proactive - Why use at all?
Process driven - shouldn't everything be people driven?
Procure - buy
Procurement - buying
Promulgate - spread
Proportionality - in proportion
Protocol - guidance
Provider vehicles - Why use at all?
Quantum - Why use at all?
Quick Hit - success
Quick Win - success
Rationalisation - cut
Rebaselining - Why use at all?
Reconfigured - reform
Resource allocation - money going to the right place
Revenue Streams - money
Risk based - safest way
Robust - tough
Scaled-back - cut/reduce
Scoping - work out
Sector wise - Why use at all?
Seedbed - idea
Self-aggrandizement - Why use at all?
Service users - people
Shared priority -- all working together
Shell developments - Why use at all?
Signpost - point in the direction of
Single conversations - talking to
Single Point of Contact - everything under one roof
Situational - situation
Slippage - delay
Social contracts - deal
Social exclusion - poverty
Spatial - Why use at all?
Stakeholder - other organisations
Step Change - improve
Strategic - planned
Strategic priorities - planned
Streamlined - efficient
Sub-regional - work between councils
Subsidiarity - Why use at all?
Sustainable - long term
Sustainable communities - environmentally friendly
Symposium - meeting
Synergies - what use at all?
Systematics - Why use at all?
Taxonomy - Why use at all?
Tested for Soundness -- what works
Thematic - theme
Thinking outside of the box - Why use at all?
Third sector - charities and voluntary organisations
Toolkit - guidance
Top-Down - ignores people
Trajectory - route
Tranche - slice
Transactional - Why use at all?
Transformational - change
Transparency - clear
Upstream - Why use at all?
Upward trend - getting better
Utilise - use
Value-added - extra
Vision -- ideal/dream/belief
Visionary - ideal/dream/belief
Welcome - necessary and needed/step in the right direction
Wellbeing - healthy
Worklessness - unemployed

So what is Open Space Technology - Part 1

At the beginning of an Open Space the participants sit in a circle, or in concentric circles for larger groups.

The facilitator greets the group and briefly states the theme of their gathering, without giving a lengthy speech. Then someone will invite all participants to identify any issue or opportunity related to the theme. Participants willing to raise a topic will come to the centre of the circle and announce it to the group.

Someone writes the topics on sheets of paper which get posted on a wall, creating an agenda. If someone posts a topic, the system expects that the person has a real passion for the issue and can lead the discussion on it. No limit exists on the number of issues that the meeting can post.

When someone determines that the posting of all issues has finished, the meeting sets times and places for the individual sessions; and participants sign up for those individual sessions. Sessions typically last for 1.5 hours; the whole gathering usually lasts from a half day up to about two days. The opening session lasts about an hour, even with a very large group.

After the opening session, the individual groups go to work. The attendees organize each session; people may freely decide which session they want to attend, and may switch to another one at any time. Online networking can occur both before and following the actual face-to-face meetings so discussions can continue seamlessly.

Very large groups have generated as many as 230 sessions running concurrently over the course of a day. If desired, each session can generate and distribute reports (online or hard copy); and longer meetings may establish priorities and set up working-groups for follow-up.

OST operates in a very simple fashion, and such meetings require very little planning up-front. The organizers set no agenda and prepare only a very rough schedule; the meeting largely self-organizes. The facilitator remains largely invisible and has no control over the meeting itself. This means that one need organize only basic logistics (like space and food, for example) in advance.

Rant interview with Harrison Owen, founder of OST coming soon.

Source: Wikipedia and Harrison Owen's Open Space Technology: A Users Guide: A User's Guide

Open space technology in action - defining business priorities

I have written before about the group management system known as Open Space Technology (OST) previously and I can now reflect on my 1st real experience of using it.

In this case I was asked to facilitate a session with a large consulting and IT services business (Atos Origin). The goal was to help produce part of the organisations take to market strategy. Like expected when working with any large, multi-part organisation this was going to be a challenge especially given their a complex mix of organisational history, processes and cultures. I spent best part of a week doing the usual thing; clarifying objectives, setting the agenda, considering the audience, planning the visuals and developing the key themes. To be honest this all got a bit complicated and I realized I had to do something different to make the event a success. So I turned to OST.

OST offers a method to run meetings of groups of any size. ("Technology" in this case means tool — a process; a method.). OST represents a self-organising process; participants construct the agenda and schedule during the meeting itself. Proponents claim that OST allows somewhat diverse people to address complex and possibly controversial topics.

OST enables groups of any size to address complex, important issues and achieve meaningful results quickly. It functions best where more traditional meeting formats fail: in situations involving conflict, complexity, diversity of thought or people, and short decision-times. People have used it in widely diverse situations, from designing aircraft doors at a large aircraft-manufacturing company to engaging street kids in defining a sustainable jobs-program.

OST meetings have a single facilitator who initiates and concludes the meeting and explains the general method. The facilitator has no other role in the meeting and does not control the actual gathering in any way. There are some key elements and a single rule used when using OSP which I will also come back to.

So did it work? For me the answer is an unequivocal yes. The group arrived with no idea about what I was going to get them to do. Within 10 minutes we had a good debate going on and in no more than 30 minutes we had an agenda on which the rest of the day focused. Feedback from the group has been great and they have a list of clear actions and activities to be getting on with. Next week I am working on a large conference for 300 Sales and Marketing professionals. I am SO tempted to scrap the agenda and have a go with them!