Dear Suzanne,
As you "rest and sink into this complicated grief work" may you feel
the unified field love that permeates all time and space and the
support that this amazing community offers.
Love,
Christine
Christine Whitney Sanchez
CWS - Collaborative Wisdom & Strategy
2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85048, USA
+1.480.759.0262
www.christinewhitneysanchez.com
www.innovationpartners.com
www.collaborativespark.com
On Dec 13, 2010, at 4:40 AM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
Dear Alan and all in the Open Space family, (long and personal....!)
Where to start, how to start and what to say. On many fronts Alan,
I have much to say and share.
First and most important, is this work in Health Care, globally,
nationally, regionally and locally that you are connecting us to.
In the past 10 years or so, I have spent weeks and months in the
hospital accompanying my aging parents undergoing various medical
interventions. When you live and sleep in the hospital, you see and
feel many things. You see the kindness of staff, you know the deep
intention to do good and you feel the powerlessness and sheer
exhaustion of many overwhelmed by a system that is struggling most
days: struggling at how complicated medicine has become, with so
many procedures and processes, advanced technology that saves lives
and extends lives and yet often crashes with the "day-to-day basics"
when we often lose sight of and the loving care that is such an
important part of Health Care. Big business with its fervor to
manage, predict and control often intervenes in ways that are not
helpful. If we could only trust the human spirit more, I believe
costs would be better managed and care would have its noble place
thus making us all "healthier" and "happier" in the long run.
Alan I applaud what you are doing; I applaud the conversations you
convene between human beings with human beings in so many places, in
so many ways. I honor Open Space and all that it does. I know that
Positive Deviance, though I am not deeply familiar with it but plan
to be, offers a path to change and transform health care and so many
other areas in a way that lives and breathes the very principles of
Open Space. And then finally, I know that Conversare is a gift from
the heart, a gift to say that in life it is okay to have fun, to
enjoy being together and simply revel in this place called life. We
often forget that to "save the world" and "address all the
problems", the simple act of "enjoying each others' company and
just "being ourselves" goes a long way to get things done. When we
appreciate each other, we stop fixing and we start creating.
Now this is where my story becomes more complicated and personal. I
share it with you because it is through Alan that I met Joelle Lyons
Everett, a great source of comfort and friendship these past weeks,
and it is through Open Space that I met Gail in Taiwan, Lisa from
San Francisco who is also living parent care, and of course Harrison
and so many others in the Open Space community. As I have often
done in the past, I will share vulnerably with you again now.
A week ago tonight, my father passed away in hospice at the
hospital. A few short months ago, he was the picture of health
pushing my mom's wheelchair, racing up stairs and still the guy very
much in charge. Those who know me and have read me on this Open
Space international list, know my close relationship with my dad,
this man, the doctor who revered facts, data, science and medicine,
the rebel at heart always battling the system, the one who did not
always understand the "emotional and spiritual ways" of his daughter
or large system change achieved not through "force and might" or
"right and wrong" but rather using Harrison's Wave Riding words
through an understanding that "high performance is the productive
interplay of diverse, complex forces, including chaos, confusion and
conflict, characterized by wholeness, health and harmony." These
past few years, dad and I found each other through Open Space. What
fun he had reading the Italian Version of Open Space Technology and
then grilling me as a stern teacher would a trembling student.
What I also know now is that on the other side of pain lies a brand
new life, one where I will be released from this desire to please
and appease that happens so often between daughters and fathers,
between sons and fathers -- something that often gets carried into
the rest of our lives. I will know "freedom" and "choice" no longer
seeking approval, passionately engaged in this important work of
Open Space. But first I will rest and sink into this complicated
grief work realizing perhaps for the first time that in death as in
life, all is not always as it appears. Soothed by re-reading what
Harrison has written in many books including Spirit (http://www.openspaceworld.com/Spirit.pdf
) about the process of grief work which was inspired by the late
Elisabeth Kubler Ross, I will know that I am like so many others,
just human and by knowing this, I will be better in the future at
"opening, holding and closing" space.
So Alan, hopefully you will not feel that I high jacked your posting
with my personal life story. I never knew Alan that meeting in
Taiwan at WOSonOS with us raising our martini glass with a salute to
our pal HO would lead to this long distance friendship and collegial
relationship.
In closing, it seems appropriate to shift away from my story or what
Alan described to what a few Sumatra participants said which speaks
a common truth that we hear all the time and in many ways are our
"raison d'être" for Opening Space and why we, in this wonderful Open
Space community of ours, do what we do:
"Until this experience I had always thought that only the most
intelligent members of a class were capable of coming up with ideas
on a topic such as the one we addressed. Now I know that anyone may
do so."
"When my colleagues and I do research we usually look at the
negative side of issues. I can now see that looking for positive
aspects would be very valuable."
"I have never before imagined myself coming forward to talk to an
audience this large. Today I have done it."
Simple truths indeed!
Affectionately and appreciatively signed,
Suzanne Daigle
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 8:55 PM, Alan Stewart
<alanmstew...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello All
Further to my being in West Sumatra in May of this year to give a
keynote address at an international conference on ‘The Health Care
Revolution in Indonesia’ …at which I suggested that OST is a very
effective means by which to enable communities to communicate their
perceived needs for health care services. See:
http://openspaceworld.ning.com/forum/topics/sewing-seeds-for-ost
The organizer of the conference was Prof Dr Elfindri (like many
people in Indonesia he has only one name) who was one of my PhD
students when I was an academic nutritionist in a medical school in
Australia in the early 90s. While his background is in economics he
wished to better understand the relationship between the nutritional
status of communities and their productivity.
In the course of his studies I passed on to him the concept of
Positive Deviance (PD). He used this approach in the field work for
his PhD thesis and subsequently in further studies. So successful
did this prove that he published widely on the approach and also set
up his own publishing company to produce books on the topic.
Elfindri is now a well respected and well connected person in
Sumatra and beyond in Indonesia.
He invited me back late last month to present, jointly, a series of
seminar/workshops on OST and PD in several cities around this
island, all to audiences comprising mainly staff and students of
private universities. My role was to cover matters to do with OST,
his on PD. We both also introduced our respective perspectives on
‘soft skills’ or ‘people skills’
Here are brief points about these elements of our presentations:
‘Experiential' OST, PD, roles of Dania Pratiwi.
1. ‘Hands on’ experience with OST
In only one of the four sessions was there opportunity to provide
this, given limitations of time and space. Nonetheless I touched on
OST as a means of communicating with communities and its potential
significance for health care practitioners wherever possible.
In the first of the presentations, scheduled for a morning only, in
Padang, while 500 participants were expected 1300 materialised. No
possibility! In two others the time was even more limited and so no
prospect either.
In the one where there was an opportunity (a full day event in
Pekanbaru, in Riau province), the time allocated was two hours only.
And with an audience of some 250 - in a theatre with fixed seats
that did not swivel - there was no possibility of having a circle!
This audience comprised staff and students of nursing, midwifery and
health education.
Very briefly – the OST experience happened and happened well. I had
mentioned in a talk in the morning that it would take place,
immediately after lunch, and what the potential value to them could
be.
And had shown John Engle’s lovely video at the Mennonite Health
Assembly Open Space. (Also to the 1300 strong audience earlier).
John, even while you and your family are in a precarious situation
in Haiti your influence is percolating nicely in Indonesia.
In introducing the ‘hands on’ I:
. suggested to the audience that they imagine that they were in a
circle!
. walked up and back up the centre isle of the theatre, in lieu of
the circle, making eye contact with as many of the audience as
possible.
. spoke to the principles and associated ideas which Dania – see
below – had produced beautifully and which were on display on the
front of the stage.
. indicated that the theme was ‘How may health care practitioners
improve the nutritional status of children?’
. also indicated that there was time only for one breakout session
of about 75 minutes.
. invited everyone to come down to the front where there were paper
and pens, and write what they thought was important to explore.
. encouraged those who had a topic to offer to come to the front
again to announce it.
Whoosh! Immediately I had finished saying these things about 15
people from all parts of the audience ran (no leaped!) down, picked
up their paper and began to scribe furiously. And then came forward
to announce – through a hand held microphone – their topics. Having
done this they pinned their papers to a board.
What to do next? With only about 75 minutes for the break out
session and about 15 topics I suggested that we pick five of them,
randomly, to become the agenda items. These were then typed up by
Dania and projected onto a large screen.
Once this was done I invited the proponents of each to come down the
front and allocated them a number from 1 to 5. I then asked them to
follow me up the centre isle, where I ‘deposited’ them - each
holding a piece of paper with their number on it- about 10 metres
apart.
When all were in position I invited everyone to go to join with the
person whose topic attracted them, find a place to gather and get on
with it!
(As an aside I would add that, while this was happening, I felt a
totally unexpected attack of diarrhea coming on. The food in Sumatra
– similar for every meal of the day – is very spicy, normally no
problem for me. Having finally said ‘go to it’ I had to dash and
only just made it!).
On my return, much relieved, to the hall I found that all the groups
were sitting on the floor between the stage and the first row of
seats, and were thoroughly engaged.When the time was up I asked them
to hand in their reports. At least one of these was ‘voluminous’ in
that the scribe had recorded several pages of notes.
And then invited anyone to come down to the microphone to express
their experience of being a participant. As this was all done in
Bahasa Indonesian I did not follow the details. What I did gather
were three comments:
. Until this experience I had always thought that only the most
intelligent members of a class were capable of coming up with ideas
on a topic such as the one we addressed. Now I know that anyone may
do so.
. When my colleagues and I do research we usually look at the
negative side of issues. I can now see that looking for positive
aspects would be very valuable.
. I have never before imagined myself coming forward to talk to an
audience this large. Today I have done it.
Who knows what the principals of this private university made of
their observations of this event? (The three of us had to leave
immediately after to appear in a live local TV program). In my
experience the chances of receiving direct feedback are not great.
Nonetheless I always invoke my own primary measure of success: It
happened! Being invited back would be another indication of impact.
2. Positive Deviance
Referring to my post: ‘OST and PD (Positive Deviance)’ 11 Nov 2010
and the comments on this:
While PD and OST are highly complementary they are different
approaches. PD, in my understanding, provides a powerful framework
for conceptualizing what is ‘working’ well, what to look out for and
how to use insights and knowledge of why some people do better than
others in seemingly similar situations.
Implementing such knowledge in particular contexts requires a
different skill set from facilitating OST forums. Joelle Lyons
Everett, in Seattle, does both and says that her background in OST
serves her well for her work as a coach of PD in addressing MRSA
infections in hospitals. I suspect that Henry Lipmanowicz and Lisa
Kimball would say the same, nes pas?
3. Roles of Dania Pratiwi
Dania, a recent graduate from the University of Indonesia in
Jakarta, was the ‘logisitics’ person on this enterprise. See http://conversare.net/?p=448
for more information on how this came about and to gain a sense of
who she is.
She was the most personable and capable person imaginable to do
this. She took everything in her stride, mainly translating what I
was saying but plenty more, as an integral member of ‘The Three
Amigos’.
Something which I learned during our several most enjoyable days
together was that Dania’s one and only experience of OST to date was
at the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in
Seville, Spain in March 2006. This was as a 19 year old member of an
organization called ‘Children of Abraham.’
There she met Harrison who facilitated an OST session. And also, for
the first time in her life as a Muslim, Rabbis. “I met a lot of
Great Imams and Rabbis there and learned a lot of things from them.
I learned that we can always turn our enemies into friends. I also
learned that we may be different, but inside we are brothers.”
This experience prompted Dania to join the OSlistserv, which is how
she came to offer her assistance when she saw that I would be
working in Indonesia in May of this year.
As you may surmise doing this work with Elfindri and Dania was
likely to be eye-opening for many people, and certainly was truly
wonderful experiencing for us. The portents are that there will be
follow-ups next year.
Go well
Alan
Hong Kong
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NuFocus Strategic Group
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University Park, FL 34201
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CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
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twitter @suzannedaigle
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