Julie, Julie, Julie - you are incredible. Even with all the bruising and bumping about by circumstances you could not control, you see the spirit and goodness in it all:
"And still... I'm glad we did it. It was a new and interesting experience for all of us. The problem was named. The intentions were good. People talked. We all did the best we could with what we knew at the time. Thinking back on it, it feels good to me. I like the energy of movement and engagement, even when it feels more like stumbling than gliding. I just like the fact that we were all in the room together, trying." Okay so now you know some things you would do differently. And boy you got the full experiential learning on those so you're never going to forget 'em. And yes, in hindsight, you and we could all say those things which we'd pick out as the ones to prepare for, fix, require, adjust for. My cognitive thinking says knowing there's high conflict already I would have said it couldn't be done in so short a time so try another method. That I want to be involved in all the planning, from food to room to participants, to know about all things that might affect the OS. That if it was for / about youth I would have wanted youth planners. And blah blah blah. "Woulda, shoulda, coulda" as they say. (for you English as a second language speakers, that means spending time focusing on what you would have done, should have done, could have done...rather than on what has happened and what now can happen). My intuition says that hey, maybe it all happened perfectly, with no mistakes at all. That it was important for you to be a lightning rod for anger to act as some sort of catalyst - the outside element to provide some fusion, some focal point for the organization. That you were the right person for the job, because your pure intention brought to that situation just the right elements of breathing and holding space to let out some really toxic junk. So maybe what happened was the only thing that could have... And by the way, in my experience, food has *never* been a distraction; more like a lubrication for the process... So congratulations on being a formidable 'chaos pilot' (to borrow the name of a Danish consulting firm) and for believing and breathing and walking forward into the unknown. Again. You inspire us all. Warmly, Lisa L i s a H e f t Consultant, facilitator, educator O p e n i n g S p a c e 2325 Oregon Berkeley, California 94705-1106 USA (+01) 510 548-8449 [email protected] www.openspaceworld.com * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
