"How quickly can you get the team on the ground and producing?"

Here is an approach that works. It addresses three needs simultaneously-- quickly engaging partners and beneficiaries in a meaningful way; showing the donor early, substantive action and progress; and beginning productive program activities in the first month. I have used this method with farmers, business professionals, NGO leaders, and government officials.

The first step is during proposal writing. You consider the SOW and identify the numerous stakeholders, partners, and beneficiaries; consider the context of the funder's project portfolio; and formulate your proposed approach-- a basic first step of proposal writing, but in this method of project start-up the proposal writer must pause here.

We cannot go too far down this road because the first step on the ground will be the start of activities we are not yet able to identify. Let me repeat that: the first step to is to start program activities before we know what they are.

It sounds like "ready, fire, aim" but it's not. The collaborative planning activity I am about to describe is simultaneously a program activity. It is an activity that enrolls partners, mobilizes non-project resources, enlists support, designs many of the activities and interventions to come, and is the kick-off for several activities all at the same time.

This is possible because the meeting participants do not just sit and listen to us tell them what we have planned for them. Working within the framework of our approved project approach, the stakeholders actively help us plan the next level of detail-- giving practical direction, committing resources, and outlining the specific interventions and support they need from project resources.

Using this dynamic approach clearly serves the first project objective, meaningful engagement with the project's target beneficiaries and partners. In addition, the action plans show the funder there are clear plans for action on many fronts. And the quality of the work coming out of such meetings will amaze any who have not seen this approach in action before.

Preparation

As the kick-off event of a new project, the meeting has as its objectives gathering recommendations from the stakeholders, engaging partners, and identifying and mobilizing non-project resources. In the proposal, this can be described as developing stakeholder commitment to the project via their serious role in preparation of the first project workplan. The proposal writing team must identify the general characteristics of the target audience and as many specific invitees as possible at this stage. The key is that we need to bring together those who might work with us or be effected by what we will do-- not just direct project beneficiaries.

In preparation for the event, the invitation is critically important. It must be clear to the invitees that they will be active throughout. They must be prepared for a working meeting.

But gathering people for a meeting is always easy. The main difficulty of any seminar is always in selecting topics for discussion, the agenda. Too often we substitute our assessment of what is important for the judgment of the people for whom this work actually is important.

When forced to select from the huge number of issues the attendees face, we invariably include sessions which carry meaning for only some of the attendees, a few topics that interest no one, and miss a few important topics altogether. It would be far better to create opportunities for the attendees to participate in conversations on topics for which they believe it is worth bringing them together. Presentations and break-out sessions do not work because, as in traditional agenda design, we determine the topics.

Agenda decisions are best made by participants. Consequently, we need an activity that allows the participants to create and manage their own agenda of working sessions around our central theme of, in this case, project planning. Such an approach is called "open space". Over the past 20 years it has been used successfully in 115 countries. I have used it with good results several times. For additional information about how this sort of workshop operates, please go this site.

For now, the important point to emphasize is that while the agenda is not predetermined, we do prepare the attendees for the meeting. We will tell them to bring materials they've prepared which are relevant to our project. We will tell them who is coming and to be prepared to share their information and their experiences with their colleagues. We make it clear that they will establish the agenda at the meeting's outset. At the workshop, they make the decisions about how and when to use this material, and the participants select for themselves which sessions to attend.

Examples

In the Ferghana valley in central Asia, I organized a series of such conferences. Typical was a meeting of administrators of the region's colleges, universities, and institutes. This was after the project was underway, and the conference theme was regional cooperation. 35 people attended, and in two and a half days they organized and conducted 18 separate working sessions. Topics ranged from faculty recruitment problems to a joint presentation of their needs to the international community.

No, they did not complete that presentation during those three days. What they did was form a team to work on it and agreed on an action plan for their work. They did this without project assistance and bound themselves to a commitment for joint action to follow the session with action.

I could give a dozen more examples: regional agribusinesses and farmers together to promote cross-border trade, over 100 NGO leaders together for their first ever national conference, 70 professionals in the tourism industry. All of these open, self-directed meetings were very productive-- a group of 50 should generate two dozen sessions in three days on a wide variety of topics.

Logistics

Staging for this event is important. There is an element of theater in it. As the participants arrive, they enter one large retreat room able to accommodate all participants sitting in a circle-- not theater seating, just a single large circle of chairs.

Most if not all participants will be surprised by this. Some will be a bit unsettled as they realize this will not be an ordinary seminar. We want that; we want to raise the energy level and make sure no one takes a seat in the corner for a quiet nap. There are no corners.

So this main room needs to be a large, open space with no pillars or obstructions, excellent lighting, three unobstructed walls that will be used to display flipcharts, five circular tables with chairs for the breakout groups in the corners, and six rectangular tables with two chairs each for computer and printer workstations at one end of the room so the participants can record the proceedings of their sessions. At the end of the conference every participant gets a printed copy of every session's proceedings before they leave.

This is where it is all going to happen, and we don't interrupt their work. Groups of participants will talk about what they want to talk about for as long as they wish-- we do not stop them just because it's 10:30 and our plan says they need coffee. (Remember to have coffee and refreshments available continuously throughout the day.)

After the facilitator takes an hour to tell them how the meeting will work and raises their energy level, what follows looks like a three day long coffee break. And I mean that in the best way.

The truth of any seminar is that the best work is done during breaks. During the typical lectures you've got maybe half of the room paying attention. You've stood in front of the group and seen the faces drift away. "Break time" you say, and they all liven up immediately. Putting aside our insecurity about how boring we must be, we know it's a good meeting when we hear the participants talking with one another in small groups about the subject we're discussing. That's what this is: three days of those discussions.

So we don't want them running for the door at five to get a jump on the drive home, and we do want them to have the chance to be together in the evening and at breakfast. That means we must provide lodging at the site. That site must be, if not isolated, at least self-contained so the participants stay together. Neither a schedule nor routine logistics should be allowed to interrupt their discussions.

To make all this happen, you need to assign responsibility to a Conference Assistant. This person will provide overall support to the COP and to the trainer for all logistical and operational matters related to the conference. The Conference Assistant will work in close cooperation with hotel/retreat center staff and other local representatives, and handle all procurements and arrangements.

Costs vary from country to country, but as a rough estimate of the total cost for a three-day meeting of 100 people, you can pencil in $70,000 which includes the facilitator.

Caution

It is my opinion that a workshop like this one is far and away the best way to begin a project, but there is a serious caveat: some funders can be very reluctant to support open-ended activities without specified deliverables, outcomes, results, or whatever their language is. It might sound cynical, but in my experience it is sometimes necessary to emphasize the expected results of a series of interactive working meetings rather than try to explain this process.

I proposed this once. I said things like open meeting, participants set the agenda, and trust them. Our funder said "an interesting and thought provoking idea" and "we're not comfortable with it, just do a seminar". We all love our funders, but they are not often as open to new ideas as one might like.

It takes a bit of selling, but it's good development work. It is also useful as an end of project event. Then, the key objectives of a meeting would be to encourage and support the project's beneficiaries and partners as they continue project-sponsored activities after the project ends and to spread the results of the project to an audience broader than the immediate beneficiaries. The theme could be "sustaining momentum and progress" or "spreading what we've learned".

Additional information about Open Space Technology can be had by contacting Mr. Elwin Guild at Future Development International, Baltimore, MD, at < elwinandjoan@yahoo.com >.

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