| ICA/ToP™ methods
Over the years, the Institute of Cultural Affairs has created a pot
pourri of methods—study methods, training methods, organizational
and community methods—to better carry out its work. All these
methods have four levels, because they are all built from the same
surface-to-depth pattern
The four phases of the pattern go something like this:
Phase |
This
phase d eals
with |
Focused Conversation
Method |
Consensus Workshop Method |
1 |
The objective stuff of life: what is there,
factual data, the situational parameters, internal and external
observable data. |
The Objective
Level |
Brainstorming the Ideas |
2 |
Interior reactions, initial intuitive
responses, emotional states or tones, feelings, memories and associations |
The Reflective Level |
Clustering the Ideas |
3 |
The significance of the data for the individual
or group |
The Interpretive Level |
Naming the Clusters |
4 |
Consensus, decision, implementation and
action |
The Decisional Level |
Resolving |
The four-phase pattern can take myriad forms. The Consensus Workshop
Method adds a section for contexting and setting the stage at the beginning
and is made up of 5 major steps.
- The context sets the stage for
what is to follow. It states and clarifies the focus question. It calls
the group to attention. It outlines the process and the timeline for
the workshop. It explains the product and the outcome.
- Brainstorming the ideas gathers
all relevant data from the group and puts it in front of them.
- Clustering the ideas develops
clusters of ideas and puts similar items of data together into related
clusters.
- Naming the clusters gives each cluster of
ideas a name. Larger clusters or sub-clusters are identified and given
names. The result is a comprehensive picture of the ordered relationship
of all ideas generated in the workshop.
- Resolving confirms the group’s
commitment to the decisions they have made and moves it to action.
The leader reads through the named clusters out loud and then holds
a discussion to reflect on the workshop, using focused conversation
questions. Finally the group decides on the next steps, and how they
will document the workshop results.
An example of the method in action
Let’s join the “survivor” mentality for a few moments
and imagine that a dozen of us are marooned on a deserted Pacific island.
Our flying boat has crash-landed on a reef. We have crawled out of the
wreckage, swum or helped each other to shore, and found ourselves basically
unhurt, except for a few scratches. You, yes you, decide to take
charge, to play the role of leader. What do you do? Well, you can stand
up like a general and start issuing commands. This is likely to get the
group murmuring. “Who in the heck does he think he is?” “What
says she knows what’s best to do?”—And they’re
right. The alternative to divisive conflict and competition is to lead
the group in a workshop.
Step 1 - Contexting
You summon the group, and get them
to sit on the ground in a circle around you. You say something like: “Now folks, we’re in
a bit of a jam. We’re on this island together, and it seems there’s
no way to get off it. If we all pull together as a team we can survive
this experience. We don’t know if anyone has any idea we are here,
so we have to fend for ourselves, and presume we are going to be here
for some time. It’s no use bemoaning our situation. We have to
figure out a way to deal with it. We have to do it all—there is
no one beside us to lean on. So let’s see what we have to do. I
want everyone to think of two or three things that have to be done towards
our survival as a group.
Step 2 - Brainstorming the Ideas
The leader says, “Take a minute and think, and then I’ll
try to write some notes in the sand to register what we have said.” You
wait for two or three minutes then say, “OK, let’s hear what
we’ve come up with. I’m going to go round the circle, beginning
with Eliza. Eliza, what’s one action we need to take?”
Answers come forth. You write a note on each one in the
sand. Here is what the group brainstormed:
- Explore the island.
- Look for water.
- Look for food.
- Check out the trees for fruit.
- Survey the plane wreckage for
usable supplies.
- Look at the plane site for luggage
lying round.
- Build a signal fire.
- Find a place where we can build
a shelter.
- Make a list of our collective
resources.
- Make a list of daily tasks that will need assignments
- Make a plan of how to map the island.
- Ensure we keep our spirits up.
Suddenly people become aware that there is more to do than those actions
expressed in their own ideas.
Step 3 - Clustering the ideas
Then you read through the
list aloud to the group, and ask, “Now,
what have we got here? What are some of the threads?”
One says, “Well there are items related to exploration.”
Someone else says, “Yes two kinds of exploration: the wreckage
site and the island.
“Looking for water and food” says someone else.
“Building a signal fire and building a shelter” are related,” says
one of the men.
“Listing personal resources, making assignments and keeping our
spirits up” have to do with daily sustenance.”
This step is covered in greater detail in Chapter 6.
Step 4 - Naming the Clusters
You say: “Folks, looks like we have four clusters of ideas here”
- Exploration
- Food and water
- Fire and shelter
- Daily sustenance
Step 5 - Resolving
You are now at the implementation stage. So you say: “Well, it’s
good to have the big picture. Now it looks like we need teams of people
for each of these tasks. Each one of us needs to be on a team. Who will
be on the exploration team? The fire and shelter team?” Continue
until all the clusters are assigned to a group.
Then you lead the group in a little reflection that confirms their resolve
to carry out the plan.
- Let’s hear again the names of the clusters.
Raise hands for who is in each one.
- Someone in each cluster say what your tasks are.
- What about these tasks will be relatively easy?
- What will be more difficult?
- What will we need to take special care about as we do these tasks?
- What different situation will we be in by the end of the day?
You say, “Let’s begin. Let’s go to our tasks and report
back to this spot when the sun is going down. Each team, take some of
the bananas we found for lunch.”
The Uniqueness of the Consensus Workshop Method
It
is a universal, human approach
This method will work in any management
system, at any level of technology, at any time, at any place, whether
in an African village or a Fortune 500 company. This method is not based
on a right / wrong, good / bad dualism. It hardwires open inquiry into
the process. Its inquiry is appreciative; it acknowledges the goodness
of the reality it deals with. It is value laden with values that fit
the working requirements of most groups. This approach affirms and honors
the real struggles and hopes of the participants. Rather than the application
of a toolbox to a situation, it is an integrated approach to listening
to reality and working with it.
It has a transformational intent
and result
The workshop method is more than a smart methodological
gimmick. Its intent is transformation. It enables participants to let
go of their individualized views and allow them to expand with the help
of the new insights and syntheses in the workshop. It allows people to
respect and understand each person’s viewpoint and experience. It allows them
to see the relationship between their own and others’ ideas. In
so doing it opens up and broadens their own thinking. So everyone walks
away with a different perspective on reality. This morale-building approach
works to bring about depth change in participants’ perspectives
on life. It empowers groups to listen to each other, go beyond their
anger and irritation to pool their wisdom towards making decisions and
building models for the future. The proactiveness built into the method
breeds proactiveness and commitment in the group. It sidesteps debate
and defending viewpoints, and allows participants to contribute to a
larger solution, transforming their relationship to each other from protagonist
to co-creator.
It is a transparent, human methodology
The approach is contentless in that the group supplies the content.
The method serves and protects the interests and concerns of the group.
It does not merely serve the needs of the client. The approach works
with analysis and synthesis, but with a bias towards synthesis.
The use of the workshop method is grounded and flexible. It is built
on how the mind of the human being works. The facilitator remains neutral
and transparent to the process. The workshop does not promote experts,
but teams in action. The method is not fancy, but effective. It produces
sustainable results. It operates with very high ethical standards.
It has high respect for the group
and its wisdom
The method has built into it an unusually high degree of
respect for the group and the individuals in it. Participants have been
known to say, “We have never done planning this way before—we have
never had respect like this before.” The multifaceted approach
relies on an integrated understanding of group dynamics: it understands
how groups think. The method avoids manipulating the group. It acknowledges
that all participants have wisdom. The method elicits radical participation.
All input is acknowledged, honored and received. In the workshop, the
interests of the group are protected and explored. In the process, the
group becomes clear on its real limits, so that it can be creative within
them. The workshop’s inclusive consensus-building allows groups
to have a high degree of consciousness in relation to the decisions it
makes.
The impact of the consensus workshop method
It can heal power imbalances
The methods take down the
wall between stakeholders. The methods enable an audience to move from
a divisive and negative inward focus to a more harmonious positive focus
directed at the future. When people experience ToP™ workshops,
they make the journey from protecting their own turf to developing a
common group focus. The workshops have been known to heal long-term conflict.
It enables shared power
The method enables people to
really listen to each other. People come to the table as equals and experience
the power is at the centre of the table. When the process is taken back
home and used, there is also an indirect impact on the community.
It increases the effective use of resources
One result
of using the consensus workshop is that meetings produce decisions, speed
up results and finish on time. It stops the endless cycle of planning.
It marries planning with doing. Even more practically, the workshop techniques
help give credibility to get funding for process work in organizations.
At the same time, their use has been known to reduce customer error in
making purchases and, in companies, to reduce costs associated with products
and service
It provides a structured process for progress
Without
a method that recognizes all contributions from a group, individuals
often sit on information because they do not trust the group to honor
it. The process used often serves to jumble ideas for greater confusion
rather than greater understanding. Consensus workshop methods have the
ability to pool and pull participants’
information together into larger, more information-rich patterns. They
also provide a forum for recognizing the progress that has been made
in an organization. In addition, strong focus questions increase the
chances for success in solving issues, while a clear methodological framework
guides “hot”
discussions past the possibility of group meltdown. “Heat” gets
deftly channeled into light to yield a creative consensus.
It distills high-quality outcomes
The consensus workshop
method has a reputation of cutting through participants’
propensities for speechifying to create clear decisions with quality,
commitment and satisfaction. Decisions made are more effective and
targeted, and have more commitment behind them.
It gives the group courage to risk
Consensus workshops engage a group. They allow
cultures to be bridged, and different views appreciated. Deeper levels
of conflict are exposed as the process intensifies. Courage is reborn
in the group, the courage to do something new. Such courage is the
forerunner of unleashing potential and creativity. Such an environment
allows wisdom to emerge. It elicits a depth and wealth of unknown knowledge,
and, with it, the group conviction of “can do.”
It sustains
trust and commitment to the process and results
In the consensus workshop approach, the way in which the facilitator
acknowledges and affirms all participant responses without judgment means
that participation is greatly enhanced. In the process, competition disappears.
The group comes to own both the problem and the solution. It is free
to develop a group consensus. A side product is the understanding of
the relationship between personal, community and organizational growth.
It releases freedom for personal transformation
A
value-added dimension of a group’s exposure to
workshops is an openness toward growth and development. Participants
experience somehow that the territory of personal development and interpersonal
growth is objectified for them. They experience personal transformation
at the intellectual and emotional levels. One can witness a group moving
from despair to hope, they are turning on like light bulbs. Perhaps most
significantly, there is an increased commitment to improve the current
situation.
This introduction to the Consensus Workshop Method is adapted from “The
Workshop Book – from individual creativity to group action”
by R. Brian Stanfield. New Society Publishers – Copyright 2002 – The
Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs |
