I was very pleased recently to come across Jack Martin Leith’s blog “Creating The New. In it he has published a whole chapter that he contributed on creating collaborative gatherings using large group interventions.

Jack and I have since been in touch and he has been so kind as to share with our readers his Guide to Large Group Interventions.  If you download it, please respect the copyright and give credit where credit is due.

Chapter 28 of the Gower Handbook of Training and Development, Third Edition, September 1999. ISBN 0-566-08122-9. This is a complete book chapter and therefore a very long article. While one might wonder if it was dated since it first came out in 1999, it remains an excellent summary and well worth taking the time to read. I do love how he opens the chapter:

A complex world calls for strategic collaboration.

Although as he points out, there are more than 20 different LGI methods, Jack’s focuses on five of them:

1. Future Search (one of our favourites at 1-Focus International. In fact we are working with Snadra Janoff to do some facilitator training in German and Polish in Poland sometime in early 2008.)
2. Real Time Strategic Change (another one we love and what a great formula first documented by my “hero” Richard Beckhard. Dick never claimed it was his.* How we miss Kathy Dannemiller – who is no longer with us)
3. Participative Design
4. Open Space Technology (again one we are trained on and use.)
5. Semu-Real

Other popular methods include The Conference Model®, Search Conferences, World Cafes. Appreciative Inquiry and Work-Out. I was recently reading something on Positive Deviance and thought as an adjunct to AI it looked promising.

At 1-Focus, the reason that we encourage the use of large scale change interventions is not simply because it helps create common ground by getting “everyone” in the same room, hearing the same message BUT we don’t know of any other methods that can actually facilitate in creating the start of an on-going collaborative process. As Jack and many others point out – these work conferences are not training nor are they a one time event. The more complex our world and organizations become; the more we are faced with integrating and accepting differences, the more we better figure out how to develop truly collaborative working arrangements. Collaborative Leadership for example is not simply about being a team player or sharing power as some appear to believe. It is not doing the same all things in a new way – it is actually doing new things that everyone can share. It is not engagement as we have experienced it to date. Leaders don’t create and inspire new visions. They don’t ask others to join in and contribute. They begin the framework and dialogue for a new identity that is something they may not even have envisioned. It goes beyond synergy to creation. The challenge is in developing meaningful processes that involve everyone at a fundamental level. At 1-Focus we work with clients – particularly those in a merger environment to design such processes that meet their unique cultures and values.
* The original metaphor, according to Richard Beckhard, was developed by David Gleicher of Arthur D. Little. It was structured as, C (abd) > x, where C= change, a = dissatisfaction with the status quo, b = a clear understanding of the desired state, d = practical first steps, and x = the cost of changing. The reference to the original formula is found in, Richard Beckhard (1983). Strategies for large system change. In French, Bell, & Zawacki (Editors). Organization development: Theory, practice, and research. Plano TX: Business Publications, page 235.