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Open Space Technology
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 The originator of the method, Harrison Owen, says that it is essential that people are passionate about change and feel responsible for making it happen if change is to take place in organisations. Open Space Technology (OST) is based on these concepts. OST has been used extensively in the public and private sector, throughout Europe and other parts of the world, to manage meetings and participative planning with groups from 5 to 2000 people. It is especially useful when tackling complex problems when a simple solution is not immediately available. |
Project Cycle Management (PCM)
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Project Cycle Management (PCM) and its associated techniques, Goal-Oriented Project Planning (GOPP) and Logical Framework Approach (LFA), are widely used today. The methods have been used successfully in many different settings, across Europe and elsewhere in the world to support programme and project design, planning, management, monitoring and evaluation. PCM pays special attention to the definition of the objectives and results which a project intends to achieve. It focuses on meeting the real needs of the beneficiaries of the intervention. Many Directorates General of the European Commission use this approach, including programmes for development, and the EQUAL initiative. |
EASW – European Awareness Scenario Workshop
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 The European Awareness Scenario Workshop (EASW) is a method promoted by the European Commission for facilitating social participation in local communities. It enables participants to exchange information and discuss the topics and processes which determine economic and social development. The participants use their knowledge of and expertise in their own situation to develop concrete and sustainable solutions for the problems they actually face. They can take account of the real potential for change and the constraints they experience. |
Appreciative Inquiry
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Appreciative Inquiry (AI) offers an approach to participation which is significantly different from traditional ways of working: it focuses on the positive aspects without ignoring the problems people face. There are four phases in this approach:
discovery -> dream -> design -> destiny
During the discovery phase, participants focus on what is good and positive in their current working environment.
In the dream phase they are invited to imagine the future reality which will build on the positive elements in their current situation.
How they will work to achieve this future is the subject of the design phase. Concrete actions to implement the changes are agreed in the destiny phase.
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Future Search Conference
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 Future Search was developed in the 1980's by Sandra Janoff, Marvin Weisbord and many others. By building on the common ground which stakeholders share, it allows a way for everybody who is involved in a situation to work together on improving the whole system of which they are a part in a series of semi-structured dialogues. Where participants open up old issues and begin to fight each other, they are invited to accept the differences of opinion and to work on what they do share in common and what they wish to achieve together in the future. Working in this way enables creativity and commitment. |
Creative Problem Solving
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Creative Problem Solving focuses on innovative and unconventional solutions to problems. In a four-step process, participants avoid jumping directly from problem to solution so that new ways of looking at their problems become available. They explore ways of "breaking out of the mould" to discover creative ways of tackling the issues they face. The four steps are:
1. Problem analysis: "mess finding" and "hot spots"
2. Problem definition: "ladder of abstraction" and "testing the statement"
3. Idea generation: "forced relationships" and the "C-box"
4. Action planning:"the "Magic Lamp" and "Reflect-adjust-plan" cycle.
Each step consists of a distinct divergent phase in which new perspectives are generated and shared among the participants, and a convergent phase in which choices are made on the areas on which to focus next. |
Technology of Participation
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Technology of Participation (ToP) is a series of related methods and techniques used in participative planning and for awareness creation and training. Developed in the 1970's and 80's by associates of the Institute of Cultural Affairs, it offers a rich set of tools to facilitators for managing workshops and reflective sessions.
The ToP Strategic Planning workshop follows five-steps to guide groups in:
future vision -> current contradictions -> strategic directions -> concrete plans -> immediate actions
It is used in existing groups, organisations and communities to develop a dynamic approach to action planning, with regular 90-day reviews of immediate actions, and annual or bi-annual planning meetings.
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Focus Group
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 Focus groups enable a working group to focus on a specific theme or topic. Developed in the 1950's, based on social research by Merton, it aims to build on the direct experience and expertise of the participants to undertake qualitative research. In this sense it is very different from other participative methods described here. |
Brainstorming
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Probably the most widely known technique in participative workshops, the approach was developed by Alex Osborn in the 1930's. The technique works by separating the divergent phase of generating ideas from the convergent phase of analysis and decision-making. Suspension of judgement in the brainstorming phase is essential, in order to allow free flow of ideas (stream of consciousness). There are many different ways of implementing the brainstorming technique, and it is a fundamental tool in most of the methods described here. |
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Presentazione della metodologia