Reflections on nested OST forums

[Alan Stewart]

Ever experienced a 'nested' Open Space? A full blown OST forum set
within a conference.

This is what was cocreated recently as part of a residential for
graduate students of the Department of Social Ecology at the University
of Western Sydney at Hawkesbury.

I had been invited to be a guest at this annual gathering for students
undertaking research theses for masters and PhD degrees. In the event
my role evolved into both presenter of ideas to open the 3 and 1/2 day
gathering and of facilitator of Open Space processes during its course.

'Social Ecology' is difficult to pin down; in my knowing a working
definition is that it is 'Pariticipant observation in processes
underpinning
personal, professional and community transformation.' It attracts mature
age
students from many diverse disciplines and from all around the
Antipodes.
Invariably they are passionate and committed people; about 70 were
present
at the gathering.

The theme for the residential was a composite of 'crossing traditional
disciplinary boundaries', 'incorporating a variety of
media/styles/approaches'
and the 'post modern/constructivist/how real is real' ... all in the
pursuit
of creating a significant research thesis.

Here is a brief overview of the happenings. For those interested
questions to me could flesh out more details of the event and its
origins,
as well as what interpretation to place on specific observations and
outcomes.

. I gave the opening presentation on 'Time for conversation in research
and practice: what happens when people come together knowing that
they will treat each other well.'

In this I touched on ideas relating to respectful interaction derived
from physics (David Bohm and notions of dialogue), biology (Humberto
Maturana and notions of knowledge being produced in course of
conversation,
cybernetics (Gordon Pask and notions of intelligence being a property of

conversation and family therapy (Harold Goolishan and others on notions
of therapy being conversational artistry).

This presentation was set in the context of OST principles; including
pictures of a bumblebee and a butterfly which my wife drew some
time ago and which were inadvertently soaked in the interim; they have
a surreal appearance.

The whole gathering could not be conducted in an OST format as there was

an agenda which included presentations from students on the progress of
their research and from staff members.

Nonetheless there were opportunities for two 'dinky di' ie 'box and
dice' OST forums (fora?).

. One was for the purpose of students finding others who had similar
interests relevant to the conduct of a scholarly project and the
production of a
respected thesis.

This was conducted in the late afternoon of the first day. Within 15
minutes the bulletin board had about 25 items on it. It was then that I
had a
powerful learning experience.

The issue was not “Which issues will be discussed today, and which on
the succeeding days?” The group made it clear that they wanted to find
others with similar interests NOW and use the opportunity of the rest of
the
residential to pursue these mutual interests. They were not concerned
with
recording who was there except for their own purposes of keeping
connected
nor were they concerned with documenting the proceedings of the
conversations.

The only issue seemingly then was where particular groups would hold
their first meeting or 'huddle' (a term used within the Social Ecology
culture).

I quickly came to the appreciation that I had no role in this
'arranging' and so I just 'sat on my hands' and let it happen. Which it
did,
with no apparent hassle, to my amazement but not to my surprise. I have
learned to trust the principles underlying the process!

. The other was a Passion Cafe, held on the last night. This is a
process created by Nancy Margulies, as part of World Cafe
(www.theworldcafe.com). She calls it _Cafe with Open Space a la carte_.

In essence I invited all participants to contribute whatever they wished

to a social gathering which would have some talking in small groups and
which had the potential to include other expression of passion. The
general
comment had been made that they had spent the previous three days in
talking and
listening and they felt a need to 'move'. (There was circle dancing for
those who
wished prior to the start of each day's business).

People brought all sorts of decor including flowers and candles and pink

paper table cloths. They also produced fine finger foods and soft drinks
and
wine as well as percolated coffee. One man from the nearby Blue
Mountains
'happened to have' a set of four drums and a collection of small
percussion
instruments with him.

On the night participants wove an incredible collage of songs, stories,
poems, drumming and dancing without a shred of prior preparation or
consultation. The improvising was such that any group of jazz musos
would have been
triggered to marvel in sheer astonishment.


There is much that could be said about the whole event and the place of
OST principles and practice in it. For the moment I will conclude by
saying
that the gathering was remarkably successful as adjudged by the demeanor
of the
group as a whole and how they 'got on' with what was required. .

And perhaps for purposes of offering another perspective of applications

of OST I would say that I experienced no conflict - in this particular
context
- in being both a presenter of ideas on conversational practice and the
facilitator
of a full blown OST process _within_ the overall conference.

And so the caravan moves on.

>From  Wed Apr 21 23:14:28 1999
Message-Id: <WED.21.APR.1999.231428.0000.>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 23:14:28 +0000
Reply-To: bjpeters at amug.org
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: BJ Peters <bjpeters at amug.org>
Subject: Re: Reflections on nested OST forums
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Alan--- what a beautiful story of your experience. Thank you for sharing
it. I was particularly touched by the final "nested" open space. It
reminded me of gestalt and playback theatre, and I could visualize a little
of what you described; it is so inspiring to have people improvise in such
creative ways ---BJ

**************************************
“We must be the change we seek in the world."

                                                            Gandhi
**************************************
BJ Peters
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602 279 4806 FAX
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