Dear collegues,

here below follows the englisch version of the german/portuguese-text I had 
posted yesterday to the Open Space-List and the Search-List. I am sorry for my 
thougthlessness. It's just that I am forced to switch between languages 
-german, portuguese, french, englisch here throughout my day, so I simply did 
not notice what I had done. Fortunately there was a rapid reaction from the net.

Since I have been a silent listener/reader of the list-postings up to now, I 
will start with some introduction:  

I am an austrian organization consultant (my basic academic education is 
physics, parallely I started with group dynamics training labs in the 
middle-70ies). Since 1994 I live and work in a nomadic cycle - beeing about 
9-10 months of the year outside of Austria, mainly at the Cape Verde Islands, 
an arquipelago in the south Atlantic ocean, about 400 miles westwards of the 
african continent. This had been my dream for years and I am very happy to 
materialize that vision now together with Patriza Bitter, my wife, a 
comparative education specialist.

Between 1995 and 1998 I concentrated on a trainings program (projecto 
TransFORM) for national consultants/trainers for micro- and small enterprises 
in Cape Verde. At the final seminary "Identity & transFORMation of systems" I 
made some steps towards an introduction to cenario work, future search and 
exploration of the "space of solutions" (following some ideas of de Shazer). 

When I called all the folks related to the project together for a 2-days follow 
up three months afterwards, I took time by the forelock and opened the space 
for the 54 new graduates, the representatives of their future clients 
(micro-entrepreneurs) and the institutional partners of TransFORM. My design 
was not exactly a standard one, but it worked out well: they used the open 
space to explore the idea of a national network for micro- and small 
enterprises' consultants and of 10 regionally focussed consultancy groups 
(covering the 9 inhabited islands).

Since then they did the necessary implementation work an I am quite proud that 
the "ASSCONSULT" - Associacao dos Consultores/Treinadores para Micro-Empresas 
em Cabo Verde - reached meanwhile its legal status, which was not so easy 
considering the african-portuguese buerocratic processes here. It is one of my 
"prouds" because I had refused to define the future organization when the donor 
(the Austrian Development Cooperation) wanted to fix that point within the 
TransFORM-Objectives in 1994. My argument was: "we will do the training, the 
organization is up to them" and also: "how should I know the best organization 
strategy for 1998?". My beeing stubborn at that point in 1994 left the 
necessary space open for a successful auto-organization process in 1998.   

Now to my actual situation and the reason of this posting:

When ICASE (the Institute for Social Action in the Educational System) of the 
Capeverdian Ministry of Education & Science asked me to think about a 
RTSC-Conference in September 1999 with the general objective to discuss and 
refine their new strategy for the national school canteen program (financed by 
the WFP), a very sucessful program which produced some growing problems in 
recent years (so they started to get in trouble with the donor),  I was 
"electrified", beeing quite aware of the fact that the capeverdian canteen 
program is the main cause of a school enrolement rate of nearly 100% in basic 
education - unseen in any other of the LDC-Least Developed Countries of the 
world.

I asked Matthias zur Bonson if he knew any portuguese speaking RTSC wise 
facilitator, because the conference would be quite a big one due to the 
complexity of the national canteen program and I felt, that I would need 
somebody at my side. Matthias sent my question to his private Emaillist 
"Simultaneous Change with Big Groups". As a result Josef Oberneder from 
Linz/Austria asked me, if he should post my question at "l-org" (Learning 
Organization List). Then Michael M. Pannwitz from Potsdam/Germany informed me, 
that he had posted my question at the OS-List and the Search-List.

I was impressed: First of all by the rapid reaction of the net of nets and 
secondly by the reactions to my question. Some guys informed me that they hat 
informed others, some recommended other people, some offered to colaborate 
personally. 
At first the reactions came all from the german language zone, the information 
jumped then to Luxemburg and Bruxeles (EU), where some serious 
"information-milling" seemed to start, because I received then also reactions 
from Portugal and from Brazil. 

Since I was not yet inscribed at the Search List and the Open Space List at 
that moment, I am "blind" about this part of the information distribution 
process, so I simply want to thank everybody who was involved in that process.

Unfortunately the Cape Verdian Ministry decided then, NOT to realize the 
strategic conference, staying occupied by tactical manoevering instead.
But there was some sparkling around of the new concepts I had discussed with 
ICASE, because then the GEDSE (Ministry Cabinet for Studies and Development of 
the Educational Sector invited me to realize an "Introduction to methods for 
strategic planning an facilitation of group's and conference's work" at the 
Level of the General Directors.
This introduction - two weeks ago - raised a lot of interest in Simultaneous 
Change Interventions, especially the general Directorate for the Primary & 
Secondary Education and the Institute for Pedagogics (Teachers training) would 
like to explore the potential they see in OST.

Asking around to find portuguese speaking RTSC facilitators I got the 
impression, that there are neither introductory texts nor checklists or other 
written conference material accessible in portuguese language. 

If I am not wrong, there are very few people prepared to use RTSC, OST or 
Future Search Methods in Portugal or Brazil and absolutely nobody in the other 
portuguese speaking countries like Angola or Mozambique or any other african 
country outside South Africa. (If I am wrong, please inform me!)

As a result, I did a lot of text production and translation work during the 
last weeks, producing a text to orientate the folks at the capeverdian 
Ministry. Then I decided to react to the portuguese-text-deficit and "just go 
ahead", producing a text-frame, which could be useful for decision makers on 
one hand and could be a first step to a portuguese manual for consultants 
specializing in Simultaneous Change/Large Scale... Interventions on the other 
hand. 
 
Attached you will find the index of the text/draft, which I finished this week. 
My offer to all, who reacted to my question in such a selfless way (and can use 
a portuguese text): I will send you the parts of the text, you are interested 
in, by Email. 
(By the way: I also produced a preparation text in portuguese for the 
RTSC-conference which was not realized. If anybody is interested in it, its 
also accessibel). 

If I am right, and we are just beginning in the lusofone countries, I would 
like to start a "little market" for material exchange. I invested a lot of time 
and sweat (its rainy season here in Cape Verde and its really raining a lot 
this year, breaking the normal weather conditions in this -since 30 years - 
drought-striken Sahel country), perhaps somebody has portuguese material or 
knows somebody who has it. I am interested in everything in the areas of 
Simultaneous Change, Large Scale Intervention, Small- and Big group moderation, 
OST, Future Search, RTSC, Scenario Work, ...theoretical and practical stuff). I 
have collected already quite a lot of portuguese material about Consultancy in 
general, Organization Development, Consultants training, TQM,...in the last 
years so that is not my focus.   

Does anybody know of folks in Brazil who participated in OST, Future Search or 
RTSC Trainings and would be able and interested to work in that field together 
with me? I would like to offer such Moderation- and Consulting interventions in 
the lusofone countries.
In November I will go to Mozambique, looking around, how the market is and how 
the context should be prepared. 

My first experiences support the interpretation, that Big Group Interventions 
and visually orientated Moderations are very well fitting to the local 
tradition, at least in Cape Verde, where I could find a strong tradition of 
methods for visual codification/decodification processes in the sector of adult 
education due to a very sucessful alfabetization-program installed by Paulo 
Freire himself. On the other hand, I' ve got the impression, that the 
big-group-communication structures are not yet so badly demolished as they have 
been during the last hundreds of years in big parts of the United States and 
Europe.  So the local people are already "there".

In the institutional and corporate sector I see very traditional strategic 
planning approaches, though. That's also a chance, I think.

To finish with this long posting I want to repeat my thanks; the strong 
international resonance to my "simple question" to Matthias zur Bonson brought 
me a lot of encouragement.

Yours

Bernd Weber

-----------------------------------------------------
TrainConsult International
management & human resources
training, consulting & development GmbH

Praia Office       fon: +238 61 30 11,     fax: 61 30 77,      email: 
tr...@mail.cvtelecom.cv
C.P.740 Prainha, Praia, República de Cabo Verde
 
Vienna Office   fon: +431 595 43 46;    fax: 596 86 57,    email: 
train....@train.at 
Gumpendorfer Strasse 88b/18, A-1060 Wien, Austria, Europe
-----------------------------------------------------


Sehr geehrte  KollegInnen, liebe Freunde,

da ich für Mitte September eine RTSC-Konferenz für das ICASE Kapverdianisches 
Institut für Soziale Aktion im Bildungswesen des Kapverdianischen Ministeriums 
für Erziehung und Wissenschaft bezüglich einer neuen Strategie des nationalen 
Schulkantinenprogramms des WFP geplant hatte, startete ich einen "Rundruf" auf 
der Suche nach einem zweiten "portuguese-speaking RTSC-wise facilitator". 
Ursprünglich fragte ich bei Matthias zur Bonsen an, aber dann ging meine 
Anfrage weiter über die Liste Lernende-Organisation von Josef Oberneder. Und 
Michael Pannwitz plazierte sie dann auch in der OS List und der Future Search 
List.
 
Die vorliegende Email ergeht an alle, die auf meine Anfrage irgendwie reagiert 
haben, sei es durch Weiterleitung an KollegInnen, durch direkte 
Kooperationsangebote oder durch Empfehlung anderer. Ich möchte Ihnen allen 
dafür herzlich danken.

Leider hat das Ministerium die RTSC-Konferenz dann doch nicht durchgeführt, 
doch irgendwie ist in der Kapverdianischen Bildungsbürokratie ein Funken 
übergesprungen. Jedenfalls wurde ich von der Planungsabteilung des Ministers 
(GEDSE/Gabinete de Estudos e Desenvolvimento do Sector de Educacao) zu einer 
Präsentation über "Strategische Planungsmethoden und Moderation von Klein- und 
Großgruppenarbeit" vor zwei Wochen eingeladen. Speziell OST ist dort auf 
grosses Interesse vor allem der Generaldirektion für Primar- und 
Sekundarschulwesen und des Pädagogischen Instituts zur LehrerInnenaus- und 
-fortbildung gestoßen.

Bei meinen bisherigen Recherchen gewann ich den Eindruck, daß in 
portugiesischer Sprache weder Einführungstexte noch Checklisten noch sonstige 
Konferenzunterlagen zugänglich sind. Wenn mein bisher gewonnener Eindruck 
richtig ist, gibt es zwar erste Schritte zu Simultaneous Change Interventionen 
in Portugal, in Brazilien noch kaum irgendwas, ganz zu Schweigen von Kap Verde 
(wo ich in den letzten Jahren allerdings schon in diese Richtung gearbeitet 
habe), Mozambique oder Angola bzw. andere afrikanische Länder ausser Südafrika. 

Ich unternahm in den letzten Wochen daher eine größere Text-Anfertigungs- und 
-Übersetzungsanstrengung und schrieb einen portugiesischen Text, der in erster 
Linie zwar für den Auftraggeber meines INTRO`s, also das Erziehungsministerium 
gedacht war, aber ich habe angesicht der geschilderten Mangel-Situation gleich 
weiter ausgeholt und einen Text produziert, der einerseits für potentielle 
Auftraggeber eine Orientierung und Entscheidungshilfe abgibt und andererseits 
Keim eines portugiesischen Handbuchs für ModeratorInnen darstellen kann. 

In der Anlage schicke ich Ihnen das Inhaltsverzeichnis dieses Texts und biete 
Ihnen - auch als Dankeschön für die selbstlose Hilfe, die von vielen Seiten kam 
- an, Ihnen jene Teile des Texts, die Ihnen interessant erscheinen, per Email 
zuzuschicken. 
 
Es gibt übrigens auch eine deutsche Fassung des Vorhabensdokuments für die 
nicht zustandegekommene RTSC-Konferenz (und eine etwas vertiefte portugiesische 
Fassung) , die ich Ihnen bei Interesse ebenfalls gerne zuschicke.
 
Am liebsten wäre es mir, eine kleine Materialientauschbörse einzurichten: Ich 
kann ALLES Einschlägige, (also zu: Simultaneous Change, Large Scale 
Interventions, Klein- und Großgruppenmoderation, OST, Future Search, RTSC, 
Szenarioarbeit, Change Beratung, OE,... ) in portugiesischer Sprache brauchen. 
Bis jetzt habe ich relativ viel Energie in die Materialerstellung gesteckt, 
vielleicht haben andere schon irgendwas und können mit mir "tauschen". 
 
Ich möchte übrigens auch längerfristig ein Partnernetzwerk aufbauen, mit dem 
gemeinsam ich bzw. meine Firma TrainConsult International in den nächsten 
Jahren im portugiesischsprachigen (lusophonen) Raum entsprechende Moderations- 
bzw. Beratungsinterventionen anbieten können. Im November schaue ich mich in 
Mosambik um, um den Markt zu sondieren.

Meine bisherigen ersten Erfahrungen sprechen dafür, daß 
Großgruppen-Interventionen und visuell orientierte Moderationen insgesamt sehr 
gut kompatibel mit der Kultur zumindest auf den Kapverdischen Inseln sind: Hier 
gibt es einerseits im Erwachsenenbildungsbereich eine entwickelte 
Methodentradition zu visuellen Kodierungs- Dekodierungsprozessen (aufgrund 
eines sehr erfolgreichen Alphabetisierungsprogramms, das Paulo Freire 
persönlich eingeleitet hatte), andererseits sind die 
Großgruppen-Kommunikations-Strukturen noch nicht so demoliert, wie in weiten 
Bereichen Europas und der USA. 
 
Im institutionellen und unternehmerischen Bereich dominieren hier allerdings 
sehr traditionelle strategische Planungsansätze. Darin liegt auch eine Chance, 
glaube ich. 

Abschließend also nochmals vielen Dank; mich hat die starke Resonanz auf meine 
"einfache Anfrage" bei Matthias zur Bonsen sehr gefreut und ermutigt.

Mit besten Grüßen

Bernd Weber
------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Estimados Colegas, caros amigos,

com a intencao de realizar uma conferência RTSC para o ICASE (Instituto 
Caboverdiano de Accao Social Escolar) do Ministério de Educacao, Ciências, 
Juventude e Desporteno no contexto do Programa de Cantinas Escolares 
(financiado pelo PAM) eu fiz uma pequena pesquisa por email para encontrar um 
segundo facilitador/moderador que tem experiências com Intervencoes RTSC. 
Inicialmente perguntei o Sr. Matthias zur Bonsen na Alemanha. Mas a minha 
pergunta dispersou-se atraves de demais listas de email: "A Organizacao que 
Aprende" (Austria, Josef Oberneder ), OS List e Future SearchList (Michael 
Pannwitz). 

Mando o  actual email para todos que reagiram em qualquer forma à minha 
pergunta, seja oferecendo uma colaboracao, seja propondo outros peritos para o 
trabalho, seja informando colegas deles. Queria apresentar os meus 
agradecimentos a todos. 

Infelizmente o ministerio decidiu para nao realizar a conferência. Mas a ideia 
"lancou faíscas". Fui convidado pelo GEDSE/Gabinete de Estudos e 
Desenvolvimento do Sector Educativo para fazer uma introducao/apresentacao 
sobre metodos de planificacao estratégica e moderacoes de grupos e 
conferências. Nesta apresentacao mostrou-se grande interesse na Open Space 
Technology OST especialmente do lado da Direccao Geral para Ensino Básico e 
Secundário e do Instituto Pedagogico (para Formacao e Aperfeicoamento de 
Professores). 

Nas minha pequena investigacao ganhei a impressao que quase nao há textos de 
introducao, checklists ou material para conferências em lingua portuguesa. Se 
nao me engano, ainda há só poucos actividades de consultores portugueses na 
área de Intervencoes de Mudanca Simultânea tipo Espaco Aberto/OS, Future 
Search/FS e RTSC, quase nada no Brazil e absolutamente nada nos outros países 
da Lusofonia. 

Por isso eu investi um bom tempo e algum suor (aqui temos tempo de chuva, e 
chove mesmo, pela primeira vez por anos e anos neste país do Sahel) para 
produzir um texto nao só para o GEDSE, mas tambem para outros potenciais 
clientes. Um texto que alem disto poderia ser um núcleo de um futúro manual 
para moderadores.

No anexo vôce pode encontrar o indice deste texto e a tabela de anexos do 
texto. Para "tirar desforra" a todos que responderam, queria oferecer partes do 
texto para os interessados deste grupo. Informe-me e eu vou mandar um email com 
as páginas que quizer. 

Apesar disto tem um Draft do Documento  de Preparacao da Conferência RTSC, que 
nao foi realizado; tambem accessível para os interessados deste grupo.

Eu tenho muito interesse de criar um pequeno mercado de troca de tais 
materiais. Até agora eu investí muito na producao de tais materiais, mas 
pode-ser que outros já tem textos em português e interesse de trocar.

Eu estou interessado em textos , introductorios ou teóricos mas tambem de 
fichas, checklists, listas.... para Intervencoes de mudanca simultânea, 
intervencoes de grande escala para a mudanca estratégica-organizacional, 
moderacao de pequenos e grandes grupos, Open Space, Future Search, RTSC, 
trabalho com Cenários,....). Qualquer material em portugues.   

A meio prazo eu queria construir uma rede de parceiros para oferecer tais 
servicos nos países da lusofonia. No mês de novembro vou para Mozambique, para 
lá fazer um sondagem do mercado. 
 
As minhas primeiras exploracoes deixam-me acreditar que tais moderacoes com 
grandes grupos com métodos de visualizacao tem uma grande compatibilidade 
inter-cultural. Aqui nas ilhas de Cabo Verde tem um tradicao forte de 
metodologia de Alfabetizacao (O grande Paulo Freire abriu pessoalmente este 
caminho nesta terra). Quer dizer, que podemos contar com uma metodologia 
amadurezida de processos de codificacao e de-codificacao visual no Sector de 
Educacao dos Adultos. Tambem tem uma tradicao nacional de comunicacao em 
grandes grupos que ainda nao é destruida como na maioria das zonas de Europa e 
dos Estados Unidos de America.  Mas no sector institucional e empresarial 
dominam formas de planificacao estratégica muito conservatorios. Nao é por 
acaso, que a implementacao das grandes planos e reformas mostra pouco jeito. 

Para fechar queria repetir os meus agradecimentos. A resonância alta que se 
exprimiu na grande quantia de respostas à minha pergunta para Matthias zur 
Bonsen deu me muito energia.
 
Com os melhores comprimentos
 
Bernd Weber
 



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