Proceedings OST-1

 

 

The Proceedings of OST-1 tell the story of the event, and more importantly they help the organization write a new story going forward.

How these Proceedings are supported by the OST-1 Facilitator and how they are processed by the Sponsor is critical to the success of the whole OpenSpace Agility method.

 

These Proceedings:

  • Allow space for emergent leaders to identify themselves and write the story of the organization’s progress into agility and high performance.
  • Make it possible for the Sponsor to honor the promise to process and act on the recommendations of the event as reflected in these Proceedings.

Some Conveners become informal leaders in the process of improvement. Since OST-1 invites participation in the writing of the new story, the session Conveners tend to write the session reports that make up the Proceedings without much help. They do however require some direction, to ensure that the reports include recommendations as well as a list of attendees. The lists of attendees help identify emergent leaders as well as the people who might be willing to help around specific issues.

The Facilitator of OST-1 needs to support the Conveners and Participants to get the output from their sessions into the Proceedings as soon as possible during the event. This support will include sufficient input devices (e.g. laptops and cameras) at the event, space and tables for those input devices, and staff to support the effective use of those devices.

The timeliness of the publishing of Proceedings to all Participants is an important element of Open Space. The Facilitator sets it up so that the Proceedings are complete very shortly after the closing circle, ideally within a few hours. The distribution of the OST-1 Proceedings should be accompanied by a message from the Sponsor affirming that the organization will act on the top issues from the Proceedings as soon as possible.

The recommended approach is to for the Sponsor to review the Proceedings and then bring the most interested people together to identify (and take action on) the following :

  • The most important concerns as reflected in the proceedings
  • The best recommendations from the proceedings that require no additional authorization and signal that they “just do it”
  • The best recommendations that require additional authorization from the Sponsor, and provide that authorization
  • Any recommendations that are beyond the Sponsor’s authority

 

Written by: Harold Shinsato, OSA-Certified Trainer