Barcelo&Company
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Large Group Processes
" Play something you know ... Loud is good. "
Large group processes can be a daunting challenge. Town-hall meetings, symposia, neighborhood and community sessions all represent the classic duality of opportunity and danger.
At Barcelo&Company we relish the opportunity to work with large groups.
JCCI Forward
Take for an example what we did for the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. (JCCI). [see JCCI]
This community-think tank had been born out of a community leadership retreat held back in 1974. In observance of its twenty-five year anniversary in 1999, JCCI created an emerging leadership initiative which it called JCCI Forward. An open community-nomination process resulted in the identification of a hundred emerging community leaders - all under 45 years of age - who came together for two days of issue-related conversation.
The challenge Barcelo&Company given was to design and implement an innovative and meaningful program of conversation. For 100 people. That wouldn't waste their time. And that wouldn't result in unexamined conclusions or zany public projects.
Our response was to design a multi-step program modeled on the theme on Connections:
an opening dinner session featuring a nationally-known speaker,
a plenary session featuring five community icons as presenters,
a second plenary session designed to introduce the participants to one another, to the task at hand, and to the processes to be employed,
a series of iterative break-out sessions designed discuss priorities for a new community agenda which were
proffered,
discussed,
analyzed,
prioritized, and
documented, and
a final plenary session at which the priorities for further inquiry and research were reported.
Barcelo&Company ...
led the organizational design team,
recruited and trained the five facilitators and scribes,
standardized and documented the final facilitation protocol,
standardized the remarks of the community icon presenters,
supervised the set-up of six (6) conversation venues including five breakout sites and a unique "plenary arena,"
monitored the five simultaneous breakout sessions, and
facilitated the two plenary (100 participant) sessions.
By providing an innovative design that engaged the emerging leaders and channeled their input, Barcelo&Company helped in the weaving of a new community fabric and in the development of a new agenda for inquiry and discussion.
Years later, JCCI Forward remains a vital developmental tool for emerging leaders. [see JCCI Forward]