I was gobsmacked back in 1998 as the eldest and oldest in the group of
(believe it or not) Anglican Bishops in Nairobi in Kenia interrupted my
introduction saying:
I know this. We used to do that in our village.
In the ensuing talk I found out that their word for it was baraza
meaning so much as "sitting under a shady tree". Others among this
illustrous crowd of purple clad bishops from other tribes then pointed
out that they knew of this from their villages too with equally poetic
names.
Yep, its been around and ho is right when hes says that he
"re-discovered" it and when we say that we dont have to "learn" it,
"remembering" will do just fine.
And when we meet in Kiev in May for the 15th OSonOS I am sure there will
be stories from countries and tribes East with similar stories. In case
you wonder about what this OSonOS is, go to
http://www.demenko.info/welcome%21.html
with some grand pictures of open space set ups.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp boscop eg
Harrison Owen wrote:
GOBSMACKED! Finally, the definitive diagnosis for the Open Space Syndrome!!
I thank you. The world will thank you. Wonderful!!
Reminds me of a time I was opening space with a group of Southern Ute and
Navajo (1st Nation People from the Southwest US). The topic was something
pretty mundane like "roads and where to build them" -- but the experience
was something else. Towards the end one of the Chiefs came up to me in a
friendly way, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "What took you so
long, White Man?"
And some folks think that Open Space is a brand new idea???
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Anne A
Hiha
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 9:44 PM
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: dominant and shy/Cultural Differences
Kia ora Harrison
I recently had the experience of opening space with a group of trainee
secondary school teachers and a number of them thought it was a [New
Zealand] Maori process because of experiences they had had on marae
(traditional Maori communal areas) and I would guess that they linked that,
with my Maori ethnicity and came to that conclusion. Anyway, it would seem
the the 'Law of two feet' was a clincher because voting with ones feet is
the modus operandi in many Maori communities including my own. It can get
us to gatherings and away from them and is just part of what we do around
here. When they discovered that it brought into the western organisational
world from over yonder they were gobsmacked.
Regards
Anne
----Original Message Follows----
From: Harrison Owen <hho...@verizon.net>
Reply-To: hho...@verizon.net
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: dominant and shy/Cultural Differences
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:23:28 -0500
There is no question that cultures make a difference, but over the years as
I have participated in Open Spaces in more cultures and places than I care
to remember -- I have been struck by how much the same it all is. For
example, when people first hear about The Law of Two Feet the almost
universal and immediate reaction is -- "Sounds great, but we don't do that!"
And of course the feet do move everywhere and every time. Sometimes faster,
and sometimes slower, but at the level of overall group behavior, it is same
old, same old. Of course there are individual differences, but that seems to
have more to do with personal preference, the challenge of the topic, as
well as how hungry they are, the need for a cigarette, or the Toilette. So
what could that tell us about culture and Open Space?
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Arno
Baltin
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 4:25 PM
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: dominant and shy
Hi,
> I would benefit from hearing a little bit more. Like Raffi, I sense
> that you're communicating something significant here, something that
> can help us to better understand ourselves and how we might be
> perceived by others.
>
> john
Well, I'll try some more.
As I am not sure, where the misunderstunding lies I'll try two ways.
1. Lets take another examples of participant behaviour at OS: the bee.
Some people feel at easy to change discussion groups, to listen some
here and then move to next discussion, add something to it and move
again. And then there are ones just staying from the beginning till the
end in one group. Again it is possible to search for individual motives
and preferences. Another way of reflecting on these differences is to
find a cultural value dominant in particular group (where thesse persons
come from). An interesting idea which comes from cultural difference
descriptions is that there are groups (cultures) where it is OK do many
different things at the same time (multitasking) versus on thing at
time cultures (a person should finish on business before turning to
another). So we could expect more bees on OS when participants share the
"multitasking" cultural norm. And for participants from "one business
cultures" to become bee is a challenge.
2. Could be the my speculations are not easy to follow as i am not good
at explaining the idea of the impact of cultural differences on
organizational behavior. Although there are several different models,
the one I am most familiar is the G.Hofstedes one (and everyone can
find more hints here):
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?CulturalDimensions
What I am trying to say is that participants form different cultural
background percieve OS differently. The same thing (law of two feet)
might be a normal thing for one person, challegenge for other and tabu
for third. And it depends not so much on the personality of this
particular person but on the cultural norm he is accustomed to.
For example here in Estonia (and this is just my opinion) discussions
turn often into "fight" as we are prone to "one truth" as a value. One
should discuss a topic till The Truth is found. It is rather hard to
tolerate many equally right viewpoints at the same time. (And there are
cultures where this is not the problem at all). So this cultural norm
leads often to not writing anything down on the paper till The Truth is
reached. At the end we will get too few proposals ...
thank you for taking time to follow,
Arno
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_________________________________________________________________
Find the coolest online games @ http://xtramsn.co.nz/gaming
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--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de www.michaelmpannwitz.de
Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 434 resident Open
Space Workers in 68 countries (working in a total of 125 countries
worldwide)
www.openspaceworldmap.org
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