On the Sunday evening January 27, 2008, I was invited to facilitate a planning meeting for a group of coaching professionals in Taipei, by the group chairperson, which would be held on January 31.
This meeting was to be the second preparation meeting for formally establishing the organization. Over the last 18 months, there were lots of discussions and workshops conducted to talk about the future of this coaching group, but no solid implementation resulted.
I recommended they use the Open Space process. Just an hour before the meeting, the chairperson decided the theme for that evening: ICFT 2008 Development Focus and Action Plan --- I Want To Do. At 6:45pm, the meeting started with 13 participants, three brand new comers included, and worked focuse around their development and action plans for 2008.
After a very brief introduction by the chairperson, I quickly explained the principles of OST then invited the topics for the evening’s discussion from the group. There were six topics brought up and the members self-selected to discuss them. Then the five actions plans emerged – all within the next 90 minutes!
The discussion and action topics included:
- Book study groups
- Collaboration model between coaches
- Certification programs
- Publishing – successful coaching stories
- Effective marketing strategy of Coaching
- Enhancing images of Coaching --- combined with #5 into one action plan
During the closing circle, it took 40 minutes for the five action group reports. All the action plans were very aggressive and need more discussion and involvement of other group members. However, the energy and commitment was so great. It was 9:45 when we all headed home in the rain.
The following day, the chairperson called and told me that the action plans will be announced for the first time to all their members on Feb 24. She is expecting more people to join the efforts of making this self-organized group be successful in 2008!
Jessie Hsiao in Taipei, Taiwan, 2008/2/10
---- a similar Chinese article could be found:
Posts
