G'Day Brendan and Michael, Thanks so much for this sharing - enjoyed your story.
Say - any chance that Dr. Neil Preston has published/case studies any of his research findings - that he is open to sharing? I'm in conversation with a potential client in New Mexico (who meets all requisite conditions for an Open Space) and I can imagine that pointing them to something like this could inform their decision process - in a positive way :-) Also loved the "From Tolley Pond to Billabong" story Cheers - from a sunny Sunday afternoon on Russian Hill in San Francisco. Heidi PS - Will head up to walk the Labyrinth at Grace later today. Heidi Nobantu Saul he...@nobantu.com Santa Fe & San Francisco -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Brendan McKeague Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 8:57 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Wave Riders Gather in Western Australia Hi folks We had a great gathering of Wave Riders here in Perth, Western Australia, yesterday - about thirty people showed up to continue the momentum generated by the anticipation of Harrison's tour down-under (Harrison Owen Perth Experience - HOPE09), which as you know, has needed to be postponed until the right time. I'm sorry to report that everyone had a great time - even without the man in the hat :-) Harrison - we did miss you and honoured the presence of your spirit among us! First up, three people presented their stories around our theme of Leadership For High Performance in a Self Organising World - went like this: 1 For the first 90mins, Michael Wood gave his version of how organisational/systems thinking has changed over the past couple of decades - based on Wave Rider - a presentation with Ppt slides, inviting dialogue with the group - and generating a shared language around leadership, high performance and self-organisation. 2 After morning tea, we had two presenters, taking about 40 mins each: first (Dr) Neil Preston gave us solid, scientific stories about measuring the impact of OST meetings in organisations he's been working with and ways to help leverage the impact of the energy that's generated and captured through the Book of Proceedings...planting this deep within the organisational structure. Neil is an experienced Organisational Psychologist and has designed and recorded some great quantitative and qualitative evidence around self-organisation and health/well-being of people at work. 3 Then Kwame Selormey from a local community NGO, told the story: From Tolley Pond to Billabong, about an OST meeting he helped sponsor in a town that was seeking to create a climate of inclusivity and participation in an area that was diverse and somewhat fractured. One indigenous woman who attended the meeting 'championed' an Action Plan for cleaning up the local pond that was being used for a dumping ground for rubbish and shopping trolleys from the local mall. The Local Council said it was the responsibility of the Shopping Mall - the Shopping Mall said it was the responsibility of the Local Council. The local action-initiating group decided to get on with the clean-up! (When the Local Council heard this was going ahead, they came in, without notice, and cleaned the pond up the day before the community had planned to do it - a face-saving exercise). No matter, the pond has now become a place of focus for local people to gather and generate a deeper sense of community - and to take responsibility for maintaining the beautification of what was an ugly eye-sore. And the initiatives keep on coming....a local, multicultural community market is starting up, young people are having a voice.... 4 Then we had three hours of Open Space to consider the 'issues and opportunities' emerging out of our listening to these three stories...very rich conversations indeed. We, the sponsoring group (now known as HOPEless09), have decided to keep this space open and will host a further two or three of these gatherings this year, providing opportunities to tell our own stories, to grow our own practice and to expand our understanding of 'leadership for high performance in self-organising world' - and to support each other in our work of the 'practice of peace'.... As HO has often said, OST is a free gift to humanity, but it comes with a cost - we share what we learn. And that's an easy and mutually enjoyable cost to pay.... Cheers Brendan * * ========================================================== 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