Julie,
Your experience here raises for me questions about Open Space as a way of being, inside and perhaps more significantly, outside scheduled OST events and gatherings. When I work with a community of work, faith, or geographical community, I'm always curious about how to help nurture Open Space as an intrinsic fiber in the community's fabric of being. For me this means being Open Space in everyday contexts, especially the most mundane, ordinary, and accidental. A group or community that does this, in my experience, brings this in a deeper and more lively way to events and gatherings. Just a thought. Jack ____________________________ JACK RICCHIUTO / 216.373.7475 site: www.DesigningLife.com / blog: www.Gassho.Blogspot.com _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Julie Smith Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2003 3:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: help, please Greetings ~ It's amazing how life keeps supporting whatever lesson we're working on. This morning I received this message from a colleague who participated in one of my earliest OST's with a handful of tribal council folks from several villages: I was wondering if you might be interested in the possiblity of doing some "Team Building" type training out in the villages. I haven't thought through how the training would go, that would sort of be up to you. But I was thinking that something like "team building" would be a very positive thing for some of the tribal councils that I work with. I discussed this possiblity with my co-workers and they were all very supportive of the idea. If you think that you might be interested in this type of thing, then maybe we could meet and talk more about the details to see if it is possible. Let me know what you think :) When I started reflecting on our first experience together, I remembered that this had been a very difficult OST. The theme had something to do with conflict resolution. I did the opening and then "got out of the way" so they could self-organize and learn from and with each other. I really believe in the power of all that stuff. But the energy was flat. Things just didn't move. People seemed to simply be rehashing what had already been hashed through before. No fresh insights to speak of. They clearly wanted that spark of new insight and inspiration, but it just wasn't happening. After a few hours of talking, they wanted more help from me in understanding how they might do things differently. They very clearly and directly asked for more help from me. I resisted participation, and expressed confidence in their ability to find the answers they needed from within themselves and within the group. They resisted my resistance. In the end, I talked with them a bit about what it means to collaborate, to engage in mutual problem-solving that relies on and respects the input of everyone. We talked about how collaboration changes the dynamics of human interaction, and how that approach might help. But it felt like too little, too late. Overall, I felt out of sync with OST, and out of sync with them. It wasn't one of my brightest moments. And now that I think about how it FELT when they asked for my help, I realize I didn't have that sense of them asking me as an expert to solve their problems for them. It didn't have that us-them quality about it. Rather, it felt very real and authentic, like they were asking me as another human being to share my knowledge and insight to help them find their way out of desperate situations. (The situation in many places in Alaska is truly desperate. And tragic. Things are so unbalanced in some areas that suicide rates, especially for young Native Alaska men, are among the highest anywhere in the world. And that doesn't count the countless "accidents" that result in injury or death. Many communities are very small, perhaps several hundred people, so the impact of each person on the community as a whole is magnified. Everything and everyone deeply matters. And in addition to whatever else is happening, the community is typically engaged in deep grieving over many kinds of losses from the recent and distant past.) And so I wonder what ideas any of you might have about how to approach this request. I'm interested in thoughts about OST and also other approaches that might come to mind. I appreciate any and all ideas ~ Julie * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
