Peggy, for the past couple of years, I've been working with an international nonprofit to build capacity by bringing appreciative, self-organized and distributive processes and practices into their organization. Because of the fear that had unfortunately arisen from a recent systemic change process, we have found that initially opening space with smaller groups feels safer and has naturally led to an eagerness to try OS with larger groups, with some especially strong advocates now among those who were originally the most wary.
A lovely result of doing smaller to larger OS events is that those who are already experienced in OS have often "talked it up" to their colleagues, further mitigating the fear. The more experienced OS'ers also often jump right in to post topics and model self-organization - this has been especially helpful to me when English is NOT the primary language. This summer, I will be opening space at their international conference, the largest group so far. I hope some of the folks from this organization (who I know are lurking here :-) will jump into this conversation and share their experiences and perspectives! Christine Christine Whitney Sanchez Triune Milagro, LTD 480.759.0262 VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.triunemilagro.com Invoking the wisdom and capacity of the human spirit! -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu]On Behalf Of Peggy S. Holman Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 9:19 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Question on OS with a subgroup first I've always been a believer that OS is best done by bringing all stakeholders together right away. The OS with the street kids has given me a situation that for the first time makes me wonder if this is always true. I'm referring to the teachers and wondering if we had done an OS with just teachers first if it would have made a difference in both their experience and the young people's experience. I'm curious how others see this. Is there ever a time when you have found it useful to do an OS with a subgroup before bringing the whole system together? Peggy ___________________________________ Peggy Holman The Open Circle Company 15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 425-746-6274 www.opencirclecompany.com pe...@opencirclecompany.com * * ========================================================== 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 * * ========================================================== 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