​​OS Topic 10: A Consultant's Collaborative/Cooperative/Action Learning Organization
​​for "DandDTrans," a "community of inquiry and action" regarding the role that Dialogue & Deiberation can play in addressing the mega-crises of our time
​​Image courtesy of www.NewStories.org
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​​Initiated by: [Linda Ellinor] on [January 17, 2015]
​​Description:  A Consutant's Collaborative/Cooperative/Action learning Organization
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  • ​​Participants:
  • ​​Ben Kadel 
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​Open Space for Conversation

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​A Consultant’s Collaborative/Cooperative/Action Learning Organization
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​​Most of us in the D & D field of endeavor work in silos of engagement  - meaning other than being members of professional associations such as NCDD and the Art of Hosting, we are not part of larger organizational structures that could make immediate access to our peers for brainstorming and collaborating easy and effortless.   What if by coming together and pooling resources and skills we could streamline the process of identifying potential clients and collaborating with our peers on potential projects of shared interest?   
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​​ What if we could create some sort of loose structure that would:  
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  • ​​Focus on pooling our collective skills and experience into a collective database so that any of us could be called upon quickly to help if client organizations required the skills and expertise we offered?  
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  • ​​Develop and maintain connections with potential client organizations  - especially those who are actively working to solve the very complex, critical social issues we came around during this DandDTrans virtual conference to talk about? 
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  • ​​Make it easy to enter and research case histories from a pooled database we might create together.  
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  • ​​Offer an economical way to promote our process and experiential skills more broadly to client organizations by joining together with others and sharing the cost of such promotional efforts?  
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  • ​​Initiate cross-sector conversations leading to regional economic, political, cultural, and/or environmental shifts 
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​​What if we could maintain and develop a collaborative learning organization that kept our field at the leading edge of community, organizational, and economic change efforts, etc?  
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​​Funding is always an issue for such an organization.  What ideas might we generate for funding such a collaborative effort?  One idea is to form a consultant’s cooperative where we pool funds right from the beginning to get it started and possibly go out for funding as we developed a track record of success.  What if we were to model a collaborative cooperative structure that even offered owner membership to potential client organizations who are focused on bringing in the new economy?    Perhaps you  have other ideas?  
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​​What else might we come up with in terms of a self-organizing structure that could lead to cross fertilization of our professional efforts?  Perhaps we just start by a Dialogue amongst us on this topic past January’s conference?  Let’s get started here in the HackPad, take it to the next OpenSpace and see where it might want to go past our January inquiry....
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​Comments on Linda's post above?
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​​Ben (pre-session thought): From my perspective, real learning requires the ability to know when you are wrong (not just confirming your assumptions) and real impact requires the ability to assess the ROE (return on effort) not simply some vague outcome. 
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​​Linda: Really liked Tom's original point having been out of the D&D community for a while and interested in seeing how it 
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​​Nancy: When we say "many of 'us' work in a siloed way" I wonder who the "us" is and this is especially tricky when we are working with others all around the world. A possible project that has already surfaced is supporting ongoing project and facilitate collaboration and connection across the spectrum. 
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​Next Steps

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