| I really don't understand the urgency
to create a limited time space when we already save hundreds
if not thousands of dollars by NOT bringing the participants
together in a PHYSICAL space (no air travel and hotel costs).
So what's the rush?
SLOW DOWN
Let's take some time. It's even less realistic if the participants
have not worked together IN THIS MANNER before. The first day
will be spent learning how to interact.
A fast pace or limited time window gives an unfair advantage
to the people who like to speak first and think later, and of
course to the people with fat pipes (a fast connection to the
Internet). A truly thoughtful person might not have reached
any conclusions in just three days.
INTERACTION
My favored format in these cases is a prolonged series of focused
interactions. Over several months if necessary, each question
gets chewed for a week at a time in a leisurely e-mail format.
There might be some live chats at the start and at the end.
At the start, to frame the questions. At the end, to arrange
and assign any final products. Yes, it's more difficult to build
and sustain momentum in this format, but the key preliminary
step is to have the right people at the table.
CREATING COMMUNITY
This format works well when NONE of the people involved has
this task as her/his main job, but ALL share a passionate interest
in the subject to be discussed (Open
Space Technology model). In this case, the passion sustains
the momentum and the slower pace allows time for valuable reflection.
One tip we learned over the years with e-mail discussions of
a formal and informal nature in Peace Corps was that the best
discussions happened when the people felt some sense of community
with the other participants. In the best of instances, the folks
have already met with each other in person and worked together
on other tasks.
In the funniest instances, they won't speak until they have
been formally introduced. And some cultures seemed to require
that to be face to face. So getting them to write e-mails to
someone with whom they had never shaken hands was like pulling
teeth.
I could start a conversation with anyone, because I was a bold
'Murrican without these finer cultural qualities. But I sometimes
struggled to get someone to write to 'strangers' -- even in
the next country.
COMMUNITY BUILDING
You might do a little community building well in advance of
your actual start of working on the technical stuff. I know
you have a toolbox full of great ice breakers. Do some ice breaking
with the group.
In part, it's to break the ice, but in part it's also to develop
their familiarity with the e-mail medium and get them past the
usual starting obstacles -- shyness, typing skills, and perhaps
the ways to interpret and respond to heated messages and what
appear to be heated messages but maybe are not.
Then, when the actual work really starts, everyone is already
a happy user of the tools.
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