In less than three weeks, the time will have come for our technological IF Forum “Best of PM-Camp” at our Unterhaching office building in the afternoon of September, 25th, 2012. We plan two clusters of presentations on “Projekt Coaching”. The first cluster will be theoretical, the second will be about emotion. As a finish to both clusters, we want to do a “Fishbowl”.
Now someone asked me what exactly a ”Fishbowl” is. Let me describe what it is and which rules you have to observe in a “Fishbowl”.
Let us assume there will be 75 guests at our IF forum. Chairs will be placed in a double-circle. All guests will sit in a circle made up of two rows of chairs that is open in one direction. At this open space, there are five more chairs, also arranged roughly circular. They are the “Fishbowl”.
After their presentations, the speakers will sit on those chairs. The empty chairs can be taken by whoever among the audience wants them. The discussion follows special rules. Only those sitting in the ”fishbowl” are permitted to speak. In other words, the discussion is restricted to those participants who sit on the special five chairs.
Strict adherence to discipline is the requirement for success. There are no “wild arguments” and nobody can indicate that he or she would like to speak. If someone in the room wishes to contribute, he or she gets up and takes a vacant chair in the “fishbowl”. If there is no vacancy, one of the persons sitting on those five chairs must get up and make room. The speakers, too, are permitted to vacate their chairs. Whenever a decision about one person having to get up is made, it is made quite quickly. As soon as chairs inside the fishbowl remain empty (or the allotted time is over), the discussion is at an end.
I already participated in some fishbowls and was always quite impressed by the standard of the contributions and the discussion inside the fishbowl. Also, I was always surprised at seeing how without a glitch and socially competent the change into and out of the fishbowl always took place. But it was also quite remarkable to see how many persons decided to take one of the fishbowl seats and what dynamics became obvious.
Now I look forward to our technological IF forum “Projekc Management” on September, 25th with two lively and constructive “Fishbowls”.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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