Drumbeat/events/kit/facilitation/notes/manifesto

'Manyfesto' Statement Starter

This is a facilitation format intended to enable a group of people to start aligning the aims and visions they have for their organisation very quickly and effectively, avoiding blocking and circular discussions.

This can take as little as 40 minutes, and you should end up with a workable series of statements that will form the broad basis of your manifesto for later refinement and discussion.

Requirements:

• A room with chairs that can be pulled into a large circle or 4 small circles.
• 4 Whiteboards / flip charts and markers

Introduction: 5 minutes:

• Explain the overall topic and task at hand: to start a manifesto for the group.
  
• Explain that people will be writing a manifesto - not a final document for publication, but a broad outline for later refinement.
• Explain that the first session is about having lots of ideas, not whittling down or vetoing - encourage people to contribute, even if they're unsure.
• Make sure people are clear that each part will takeonly 10 minutes.

Part 1: 10 minutes:

• Divide people into 4 groups (in powers of 2: 4 - 8 - 16 etc.) with at least 4 people in each group.
• The groups should be composed of people that know each other least well.
• Explain that each group has 10 minutes to write 2-4 sentences (preferably short ones) that describe their core manifesto commitments.
  
• NB: The time keeper has to be completely unyeilding. After 10 minutes, pens down, people must regroup immediately.

Part 2: 10 minutes:

• Merge groups into pairs. They now have 10 minutes to condense their manifestos into 4 combined short sentences.
• NB: No long, hyphenated clauses, no extra sentences or marginalia allowed.
  

Part 3: 10 minutes:

• A full merge of the two documents is not necessary at this stage: people should have time to meditate on the summaries.
• A hard date should be set to re-visit the document and keep the process moving forward.