Parsons Fellows Summit
The Visioneering® team facilitated an Open Space exercise at the annual Parsons Fellows Summit around the theme of the Fellows future contributions to the AI strategy and adoption of AI at Parsons.
Service Provided:
Facilitation
Industry:
Corporate
Purpose of the Project:
Established in 2017, the Parsons Fellows Program recognizes our top technical experts and promotes innovation in solving our customers’ most difficult technical challenges. The Fellows Program serves as a think tank to solve technical challenges through either strategic research and development or the development of long-term policies and procedures. The program fosters engagement, mentorship, and retention.
Once a year Parsons hosts a “Fellows Summit” in which Fellows can gather and innovate together. The pinnacle of this year’s gathering was a modified Open Space exercise facilitated by the Visioneering® team. The theme of the open space focused on two main questions: “What steps can the Fellows take to become AI ambassadors for Parsons?” and “What can the Fellows do or what do the Fellows need to be able to provide value to the corporate AI strategy?”
Impact/Outcome:
During the 3 hour Open Space exercise, the circa 50 person group generated topics around the theme and broke into smaller groups to discuss the topics. Each group laid out key opportunities and risks, critical actions, and next step for each topic. At the end of the 3 hours, the Fellows had outlined, prioritized, and formed interest groups around 17 new initiatives for how the Fellows could contribute to the AI strategy and adoption at Parsons.
A chart outlined the “Four Principles and one Law” of Open Space for the Fellows Open Space exercise.
Fellows gather at the Community Board during the Open Space exercise to generate theme-related topics in different event spaces and during three rounds of discussions. The Fellows generated the topics, chose which topic to attend discussions for in each round, and met with a group to flesh out the topic idea.
The evening before the Summit began, the Fellows kicked it off with a night of fun at Top Golf. To help everyone mingle and get to know each other, the Visioneering® team facilitated a game of “Fellows Bingo” – which quickly turned competitive in a high performing group like this one!
