[Ailist] Discovery/Dream with 400 senior managers

[Rob Voyle]

Hi Marvin

While not exactly about the large scale numbers, one thing I would suggest is 
that you do the interviews in triads, so that you have one from each company in 
each triad and then work at tables of nine.  When the three groups understand 
what they each value, and what they have to offer and what the others value 
and have to offer you will have created a shared community that will be ready to 
move on.

I did something similar with two congregations of different denominations that 
were looking at merging. The dynamic of shared stories and the human desire to 
find commonalities had the two goups with more in common by the end of the 
process that any two groups within a denomination that had worked with 
individually.

Rob
  
Robert J. Voyle, Psy.D.
Director, Clergy Leadership Institute
For Coaching and Training in Appreciative Inquiry
Author: Core Elements of the Appreciative Way 
http://www.clergyleadership.com/
503-647-2378 or 503-647-2382

On 12 May 2007 at 23:25, Marvin Faure wrote:

> Would any of you that have a lot of experience working with very
> large
> groups be willing to share some ideas?
> 
> I have been set the very exciting task of designing a one-day
> offsite for
> the top 400 managers in three French companies that are merging part
> of
> their operations. The principle theme of the offsite is to be
> change. Each
> company has recently introduced a significant change (new internal
> business
> process, new IT system, etc...) that will now be rolled out across the
> other
> two.
> 
> I have plenty of experience running AI sessions with smaller groups,
> and
> have a very dog-eared copy of Jim Ludema´s book that has served me
> well
> designing summits for up to 150 people. This will be the first time
> I have
> tackled such a large group. All 400 will be in the same room, in
> principle
> on tables of 10. The client is very concerned about keeping
> everybody
> entertained and engaged. The brief is that the sessions need to be
> fast-moving, with plenty of animation and transitions between
> activities.
> 
> I´m looking for ideas on how to scale the processes that work well
> for 100+
> people up to 400. How to do the report-outs, how to keep everybody
> "engaged
> and entertained"? What has to change in the Summit methodology as it
> scales
> up? What are the really crucial things to get right?
> 
> Any and all ideas would be very much appreciated!
> 
> Marvin FAURE
> MINDSTORE France & Suisse
> Chemin du Canal 5
> CH-1260 Nyon
> Tél. +41 22 363 9286
> Mob. +41 786 826 926 
> www.mindstore.ch
> 
> 
> 
> 
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