Hi-- A few conversations ago, Harrison raised the question of whether history will eventually record that OST was a halfway measure on the road to something more open, more inclusive, better for humanity.
Might the question be What do we do once we are in OST? We need to evolve better ways to meet each other. How do we encourage meeting cor ad cor, good heart and good mind to good heart and good mind? How do we go about increasing contact and conflict, without causing a severing? How do we grow together, even though we have rough edges? How do we learn to deal with discord in a way that produces symphony? And do all this consciously? But how do we get there? I think we can learn some techniques to help us. Nonviolent communication, Fran Peavey's techniques. The methods for bringing people together are simply that. Once we are together, how do we use that togetherness to foster togetherness? An understanding, such as Michael Herman's is useful, too. Throwing the people together, like we do in OST is good and useful, but it does not tell us what to do once we are together. That is, perhaps, the halfway place where OST stops. It leads people to the cliff but does not show them how to get down or up from there. It leads people to water, but does not tell them how to drink or which water is safe to drink. Some will do a check in around their little group, some will do a speech, some will interview the people who came. Some will tell stories. All useful strategies. But do we know when one works and another doesn't? Or are we going on guess work? We need to be thinking some of these things through, so that we can help grow us together. What contributes, what does not contribute so much? How do we find out if we fit together, and how do we know when to encourage each other to leave when the fit here is not so good or not yet right? How do we know such things so we can recognize it faster? What experiments of ways of throwing people together (that is, choosing whom to invite) are apt to help the evolution along faster, or better? What are the ways out there that you have seen people use to bring the breakout groups together? What brings the group together, what doesn't, what has the best long-term effects? :-Doug. Germann Seeking people making community change. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist