Ah The Expert Syndrome! And experts can be helpful if you clearly understand the question for which they have the answer. But more often than not I find that people are foggy about the question. So when it comes to the right people particularly in a community setting the ones with the question, a question they really care about are the right ones for a start. And then strange things can happen, particularly if the people discover that the answer to their question lies right in the middle of their own experience, contacts, and energy. At that point, they turn out to be The Expert. And that is called empowerment. And who knows, the people may well come up with a solution (answer) that nobody every thought of before. Experts, on the other hand, tend to provide answers to questions they know about and if you dont fit into their box, you just dont fit. Of course if the people do need some more help, there are such things as phones and internet.
Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Bui K. Petersen Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 7:11 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Is whatever information present the right information?? Thanks to everyone on this list, I am learning more and more about OST. But every couple of weeks I get a new question. "Whoever comes is the right people" totally makes sense. But what about the information needed? We have all been at "conventional" meetings where nothing was accomplished due to lack of proper information. How do we deal with that in Open Space? Obviously the invitations is critical but we can't really be sure that the people with expertise will show up unless we pay them. Can we? When we are working with groups or communities with few resources, how can we make sure that the right information (legal, technical etc.) is in the room? Looking forward to everyone's wonderful and enlightened responses. Thanks, Búi -- Búi K. Petersen, Cert. ConRes. mediator and facilitator -------------------------------- c.solutions Vancouver, B.C. Canada Phone: 604.724.4954 Web: www.buildconsensus.ca * * ========================================================== 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