[Oe List ...] Salmon: A consesus for M. Thatcher

Mon Mar 1 17:31:59 CST 2010

Colleagues: The following is in response to Herman Greens' insight from Margaret Thatcher who never fought or won under the banner of 'I stand for consensus.' Obvious Margaret Thatcher didn't understand the process of consensus. 
    FOR INSTANCE: 
    Recently, in conducting a planning workshop at a local Protestant Church, each person was asked to participate in a Brain-Storm to empty their minds on the topic of their Hopes and Dreams for the future of their congregation. This was a group of about 15 people who worked to get a list of at least 5 items. Next, they were asked to prioritize their list from first to last and letter their top three choices from A to C. This created a list of 45 items. Addition items were asked for in case someone had a 4th or 5th items that was important to them. 
    The next step was to write down their choices on separate slips of paper and to send them to the front of the room where the facilitator helped the group organized them into 4 to 6 columns according to the wisdom of the whole group. The end result was 5 columns of lists. 
    The following step was to assign 5 teams to different columns with the task of Naming their column using a three-word title of a gerund, an adjective, and a noun. Each team was asked to give a brief report. It is this step of "naming" the Hopes and Dreams that is crucial to the process of discovering something new; this step taps into the intuition of each person, but more importantly, it taps into the synergistic intuition of the whole group, this is the place of the deepest wisdom and most creative new ideas. 
    THE NEXT PROCESS was to do a similar brain-storming process to identify the DEEP BARRIERS (or the Underlying Contradictions) preventing this church from achieving their Hopes and Dreams. A context was presented to illustrate that our "situations are never are problem;" i.e., not having sufficient money is not a problem. Rather, being defeated by insufficient funding is the relationship we take to our SITUATION.
     Again, they began by doing individual work and then moving to the corporate/group activity of naming each column. However, this time the names identified a New Direction necessary to address each barrier and to aim this new direction so as to enable a Hope and Dream. 
    FINALLY, the New Direction columns were reorganized so that the one with the most data became the center column, the next two columns with the second most date framed the center column. Then the two columns with the least material were placed on each of the outside columns. 
    Then, three teams were assigned. The first was to name the New Direction for the center column as the Vision necessary to achieve the New Direction (previously aimed as a Deep Barrier). The second team took the next two columns and related them as the New Direction that would achieve the Hopes and Dreams. the Third team took the outside two columns and did likewise. 
    Each team gave a brief report that was clarified by the entire group and then accepted by the group as an appropriate Vision that would support the Hope and Dream while addressing the Barriers. 
    After this part of the exercise, the entire group was asked to name the overall VISION for the entire process. 

    The lapsed time for this workshop was 80 minutes. The time crunch helps to push people to use their intuitions in the brain-storming and naming process. The last step of the process is the most important.  
    Later on another workshop was planned to involve each and every member of a committee or commissions. This group did a two-hour workshop to focus on the work of each committee/commission/task force that will 1) name any new work necessary to enable the Hopes and Dreams of the Congregation, plus name each activity they usually do in a year's time. Each old and new activity is related so that it achieves a Hope and Dream, addresses the Barrier, supports a New Direction and aims to fulfill apart of the Vision statement. 
    Each individual item is put on a single sheet of paper identifying each of the above items, plus a "Who, What, Where, When, and Who is assigned noted. Each of these items is calendared according to when the planning stage begins according to the month and the week 1 - 2 - 3 - or 4.
    The last step is to "Claim the Victory" associated with every activity. This is noted at the edge of the calendar.
    All of this is calendared. 
    When the plan is printed and presented to the Administrative Counsel (AC), they are asked to identify the "Manager of the Calendar " whose job is to check on the progress of things at each monthly meeting. This needs to be a pretty hard nosed character. 
    As the facilitator, it is my task to attend a meeting of the AC every quarter to facilitate the process and any changes.   
    AFTER EACH WORKSHOP: The entire workshop then does an "Art-Form Conversation" as an analysis of what they've done together.Theologically, this is where the Holy Spirit is active. Part of the "Decisional Level" questions is to ask if the result of the workshop representes the wisdom of each person present.     
    WHAT DO YOU THINK THEIR ANSWER TO BE?  
    The importance of this planning process is its ability to do THICK PLANNING. The whole planning process represents the wisdom of each person, and then the wisdom of the gathered group. Each Vision statement supports any number of the groups HOPES AND DREAMS, seeks to block a DEEP PROBLEM/BARRIER using a NEW DIRECTION to get the job done, and does this by igniting a part of the VISION statement. 

    Of course, all this is carrying coals to New Castle, but Prime Minister Thatcher, had she had this tool at her disposal, would have been able to carry Coals to New Castle; she would be delighted and the people of New Castle well served. 
    Often it is discouraging to attend planning meeting which do not have this process. Most of the time I get myself into a position where I can volunteer to organize the activity. Sometimes, I even able to get paid a modest fee. 
    A long time ago I discover that, "I'm not FREE but I'm CHEAP."
     Such is life. 
    Inner Peace, 
    Bill Salmon 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Herman Greene 
  To: 'Order Ecumenical Community' 
  Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 10:00 AM
  Subject: [Oe List ...] Want to discuss consensus?

  I received this morning meditation today:

  Lord, guard me in my convictions.

  "To me consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects--the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner 'I stand for consensus?'" -- Margaret Thatcher in a 1981 speech as reported in The Wall Street Journal

  _____________________________________________

  Herman F. Greene

  2516 Winningham Drive

  Chapel Hill, NC 27516

  919-942-4358 (phone and fax)

  hfgreene at mindspring.com 

  Skype: hgreene-nc 

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