What if you could get your whole-organization, or a large part of it, together in one location to experience self-discovery, teamwork, and problem-solving, and to create a shared vision of the future? Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity for learning? This is the purpose of a number of event-driven large-group strategies. What these various strategies have in common is a very large number of employees in a time-limited event participating in new ways that challenge the bureaucratic, hierarchical, command-and-control cultures that are typical of the participants’ organizations.
For several of these designs, the only factors that limit the number of participants are the size of the room, the logistics of bringing that many people together at the same time, and the number and capability of the facilitators. For example, the “Whole-Scale Change” design was used in one event for the 2000 employees of an automobile manufacturing plant. The cavernous rooms of a downtown convention center had to be rented for this three-day process, which included whole-group and small-group activities.
Some of the other large-scale designs that have proved to be effective and the people who have developed them are:
• Future Search—Marvin Weisbord
• Preferred Futuring—Ronald Lippitt and Lawrence L. Lippitt
• Whole-Scale Change—Kathleen Dannemiller
• Open Space Technology—Harrison Owen
• The Conference Model—Emily M. Axelrod and Richard H. Axelrod
(For more information on these innovators, see the Resources Section.)