Roundtable Rut
Posted on October 22nd, 2007 by Mickie
I kid you not that within seconds of posting Roundtable Ruse, I got an e-mail from an association for which I agreed to lead a roundtable. Here are my instructions:
Thank all participants
Start the conversation on your assigned topic
Moderate questions from participants
Serve as a resource where appropriate
Communicate any necessary information to the ____ staff
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. The association wants and is content with me letting the session “go where it may.” Am I?
Mickie, thanks for your two challenging posts. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that, often, many associations and individual leaders have a tendency towards consensus-based leadership and an overemphasis on relationships as the bottom line take away for association events. That is to say, let’s all participate and whatever we come up with will be fine.
There may be nothing wrong with that, but if it’s the desireded process why convene the “expert” and market to all the folks in the first place? Why not just let them self organize and follow what interests them?
I participate from time to time in an “open space” workshop where that works beautifully and the outcomes are very rewarding. But that is how the event is planned, organized and marketed. The take-away is finding what is relevant to each individual from the open-space agenda.
On the other hand, I am a firm believer in performance and results. If the situation involves a fee, there are “experts” present, I am supposed to get some sort of credential as a result of the learning experience and/or subsequent application of the knowledge is vitally imporant, then I want the best learning results possible and the associated relationships don’t much matter.
So I guess it all depends on the advertised outcomes and take-aways, eh?