Sunday, June 13, 2004

Sustainability Circles the development sessions tapescript pt 2

Tapescript Supplementary Journey 1 part two

Back in the room they are serving water and some juice, some green spirogyra.

I have been doing these exercises a long time but I must say this is one of the most interesting and enjoyable exercises I have been on since starting with PORENA.

Back to the circle

A guy at the other end speaks: “we now have a proposal, but could we evaluate the proposal by looking back on what we have done so far?”

More group input. You evaluate what you have done against the purpose.

“Let’s evaluate the first part of circle.

The purpose is to take up something which is not sustainable and to find … to come up with ways to make it … more sustainable.

What went well?”

We agree that the framing the behaviour and setting clear goals was useful.
That everyone worked in a circle, and people were involved and genuinely engaged.
Documentation was not that important, but good as a one page reminder.

What could be improved?

Some offers:” we could talk about rules of interaction between us all. Clarity of rules would make it easier to act in the group.”

As an improvement suggestion we include a step where the group itself agrees on rules of interaction.

And agreement on purpose. We could have started with that.

Maybe questions are generated. We make a list and go away and find the answers.
Research. We add research to the method.

We have now tested the idea. What is next?

I ask. “How do big things get changed we are a group of individuals”

The answer is simple. Each large organization has a group member with a mandate. The group members go away with suggestions and questions to their organization.

I think I have this now.

They ask me if I have more questions.

“Have we evaluated the first session properly?”

We write the steps on a poster. (Are there twelve steps is that why I thought that earlier?)

My next question: “Do you use the PORENA visulations techniques?

“We use them to come up with proposals.”

Learning by doing. I actually learnt by doing. That is part of it.
I go back to twelve steps. If I remember correctly twelve steps are accompanied by twelve principles.

I start to read from the large poster on the wall.

• Each group formulates its own principles and rules.

• Each group is independent.

• Group members participate as individuals, mandated representatives of associations or organizations.

• Group members are responsible for their own behaviour

• We want to have fun and be creative

• We have a genuine desire to help each other.

• Each group is independently financed.

• Focus on change of behaviour.

• Learning by doing, the practical application of proposals.

Can’t read the rest.

I still doubt it can be done in just the few hours these people are suggesting.
However, this exercise has actually been an illustration of the method and it didn’t take that long.
We have succeeded in stating the issue, working out a solution and reviewing the proposals.
What we need to do now is test it again.

In our case we have a proposal. We could all go away and run similar groups to try it out.

I get an AHA feeling coming on. “In my case, I asked for a solution, have now got one and would need to go away and try it to follow the principle. Everyone takes responsibility for their own behaviour. Because I asked you for help I must now go try it out. Otherwise I would be wasting your time! And I will review it with you as you involved yourselves.”

“You got it,” says someone.

I thank everyone, get back into the lift and arrive back on the ground floor.
End of Tapescript Supplementary Journey 1

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