In our experience it is not uncommon for us to meet – say in various combinations of 6 or 8 of us – every 2 weeks or so to try and make progress on some really important issue. The issue remains urgent – we all agree on this. But attendance is inconsistent, and we all have other, pressing concerns. We all have this intractable problem in common – but many many other challenges we do not share.
These meetings can go on for years – 6 of us, every 2 weeks for (say) 3 years. And since we meet for 2 hours each time – and have to get there – we find ourselves investing 13 person weeks of effort per year perpetuating the problem….frustrating ourselves…..keeping on coming back to the fact that we have this problem and need in common. Can you imagine
- concentrating all of this time into 3 days or 5 days of working together?
- getting our whole system together for a week’s work together?
- immersing ourselves in relating to one another and to the challenges we face?
- developing enough capacity between us for some ‘free association’?
- working with purpose within a design which helps us to innovate and improvise?
It is worth a try – we have done it with teams in a wide range of different settings. If you want to learn more…..
Slingshot