Fwd: RE: OS In Vancouver on Friday

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Wed Feb 2 16:30:14 PST 2000


Mike Bell is a friend and colleague who lives in the serious North -- Yellow
Knife NWT (CANADA). I sent him a copy of Chris's note, and he responded with
the following. I thought you all would enjoy. As you will see, Mike promises to
join the listserve.

Harrison


From: Mike Bell <mikebell at internorth.com>
>To: "'Harrison Owen'" <owenhh at mindspring.com>
>Subject: RE: OS In Vancouver on Friday
>Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 08:58:45 -0700
>
>Harrison:
>
>Thanks for sending along the report on the Vancouver Open Space.  I had a
>similar--though much smaller experience--last week in Iqaluit on Baffin
>Island.  I was working with 9 Inuit middle manager trainees deeply involved
>in the creation of Nunavut--the new Inuit Territory that came into existence
>last year and covers the eastern and High Arctic.  This group is well
>educated and is "the best and the brightest",  The subject of the workshop
>was "Critical Thinking and Decision-making."
>
>During the initial planning session that I held with three of the
>participants in the local coffee shop, I told them that the first day would
>be mine with a set agenda, the last two days would be theirs--with an open
>space format.  The content of the workshop would be real:  We would critique
>and analyze from a strategic perspective how the existing government was
>succeeding and/or failing in its efforts to set up  public government that
>truly reflected Inuit values and traditions.
>
>The first day, with their agreement, I spelled out some of the basic
>principles of strategic thinking and analysis, worked with them to develop a
>mind map outlining the major strategic issues confronting government, and
>did a presentation of framing and reframing--followed by some work with a
>reframing model I've developed over the years.
>
>(All of our work up here is in a cross-cultural context. The development of
>public government is in many ways an effort to find common ground between a
>Western perspective and an aboriginal world view. Understanding how cultures
>are frames and how frames influence us is helpful.  In my presentations I
>spend a great deal of time discussing organizations as living organisms and
>the presence and influence of Spirit as a manifestation of culture.  They
>respond instinctively to these concepts.)
>
>They ran the Open Space the second and third day.  By Prior agreement, it
>was supposed to end with brief reflexions from each participant on some
>aspect of strategic decision-making. But the ending changed.  The
>participants decided they wanted to develop a position paper on Traditional
>Knowledge and Values to be submitted to the deputy ministers and
>politicians. This would be their "Graduation Speech."  What they wanted to
>do, in effect, was develop a score card telling the government how it was
>doing.  The last session was spent developing a brief terms of reverence for
>their position paper. ("Whatever happens is the only thing that can happen.")
>
>The concluding comments were interesting.  This was their first experience
>with open space.  They found it empowering, from a variety of perspectives.
>On a daily basis they work under supervisors who are experienced civil
>servants-- but they are all "white guys".  The "trainees" (a term they
>despise) have great difficulty communicating Inuit values to their
>superiors--and letting these values influence policy, structures, programs,
>etc.  In the open space exercise they had a strong sense of "calling the
>shots" and "being in charge".  They found this particularly useful from the
>point of view of learning.  In every workshop experience they'd had up to
>that point, there was some "expert" with the knowledge trying to "pour it
>into them".  In the Open Space they were the experts--because they all lived
>within and shared their own culture and were doing the same kind of work in
>different departments--and they were learning from one another.  They also
>noted that unlike the group government structures and communication
>mechanisms, the Open Space was not a control structure. They were all in
>charge of their own learning--and there was no one to criticize their
>performance.
>
>I found the whole experience really interesting and helpful to me
>personally. Though I thought I was "holding the space," they created their
>own space and let me become part of it.  By the end of the session I was
>saying things like "How are we going to deal with the white guys?"
>
>Take care. And thanks again for sharing the write-up on the Vancouver OS.
>
>Mike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----------
>From:  Harrison Owen [SMTP:owenhh at mindspring.com]
>Sent:  January 23, 2000 1:10 PM
>To:  mikebell
>Subject:  Fwd: OS In Vancouver on Friday
>
><<File: ATT00001.htm>>
>Mike -- this showed up on the Open Space listserve. Thought you might be
>interested.
>
>Harrison
>
>**************************************
>
>
>>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; U)
>>X-Accept-Language: en,pdf
>>Approved-By:  Chris Corrigan <corcom at INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA>
>>Date:         Sun, 23 Jan 2000 01:09:46 -0800
>>Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>>Sender: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>>From: Chris Corrigan <corcom at interchange.ubc.ca>
>>Subject:      OS In Vancouver on Friday
>>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>>
>>Amazing OS in Vancouver on Friday.  The theme was "Making lives better
>>for urban Aboriginal People...Let's stop talking about it...let's start
>>doing it!"
>>
>>175 people in attendance, including a federal cabinet minister, two
>>deputy ministers, two cheifs, many leaders from throughout the
>>Aboriginal community and dozens of community members, program staff,
>>private sector representatives, and clients.
>>
>>Opened with a a prayer and a song sung by Leonard George a local chief
>>and son of the great actor Chief Dan George.  My opening stressed that
>>traditional nature of the technology, how this was how we always met to
>>solve our community's problems.  Stressed passion, responsibility AND
>>self-management, which equates to self-government, a very important
>>value in our communities.  The particpants were charged up and by the
>>time I had finished the opening, there was a stampede...five people
>>jumped out of their seats.  I had to call for more markers!
>>
>>It took us twenty minutes to set 45 agenda items,most of them proposed
>>by strong young women.  Very few of the agenda items were proposed by
>>the leadership that was present.  Instead they found themselves actively
>>involved in a meeting where the agenda had been set by people who never
>>get a chance to set an agenda.
>>
>>My notes remind me that the groups were very large and intially quite
>>close together.  The location was the Vancouver Friendship Centre
>>gymnasium, an Aboriginal community centre, chosen for it's locality and
>>the realized possibility of lots of drop ins.  In my experience, there
>>is nothing you can do to encourage Aboriginal people to meet in smaller
>>groups.  Has anybody else found this?  First Nations people seem to like
>>crowds...
>>
>>This made the organizers a little nervous...shouldn't they be further
>>apart?  Shouldn't the groups be smaller?  Over the day of course, the
>>participants managed to spread themselves out nicely, and a nice
>>self-ordering came out of it.
>>
>>In the vein of "trust the process" comes this story...We didn't break
>>for lunch, with the result that the whole crowd lined up for chow at
>>12:00 and didn't get into the 12:00 sessions by about 12:40.  The
>>organizers were going nuts..."make an announcement!"  I refused.  By
>>2:00, the meeting was running only 15 minutes behind, and by 4:00 ON THE
>>DOT we were back in the circle and beginning the closing, right on
>>schedule.  I asked the organizers if they had ever seen a conference
>>that was running late bring itself back on time and not drop anything.
>>They were amazed.  I was amazed too.  175 people, with no leadership or
>>influence, ran 40 minutes late and brought themselves back on time.
>>Remarkable.
>>
>>Closing was very powerful.  We were lucky to have many traditional
>>people in attendance so many prayers were offered.  This kind of thing
>>wouldn't make it in the business community, but as a facilitator working
>>in the Aboriginal community, I am luckey to have built in openings and
>>closing at my disposal.  Sharing ranged from a woman who was a recovered
>>drug user/alcoholic/prostitute making a committment to action as a
>>result of the day to a man who lightened us up by coming into the
>>circle, giving his name and occupation and stating that he was looking
>>for a wife.  Someone called out "how many horses have you got?"
>>Laughter...his response: "None.  They ran away and we were too lazy to
>>brand them!"  I LOVE the way we laugh at ourselves!
>>
>>This was a remarkable event and very important in the life of the
>>impoverished urban aboriginal community of Vancouver.  Open Space has
>>opened a tremendous set of opportunities for people.  A whole new
>>leadership came forward, and a fresh momentum was established.  And
>>equally importantly, this may become known as the event during which
>>Open Space took hold in the Aboriginal community in British Columbia.
>>Everybody is now talking about using it.  First Nations people recognize
>>this technology, as I've said before, and meeting this way is a very
>>profound process of rediscovery and is very imiportant to unleashing the
>>cultural models that have colonized us for hundreds of years.  There is
>>a HUGE appetite for this now...I can't state it enough.
>>
>>So thanks for all of you who wished me well.  This was easily the most
>>important facilitation I've ever done.  Your support was invaluable.
>>
>>I'd also like to thank Harrison, on behalf of the many people who
>>thanked me yesterday for the technology.  You have given us a great
>>gift, even if it was only by holding a mirror up to ourselves.  Open
>>Space represents a beautifully natural and indigenous technology that is
>>reawakening a power among a great many First Nations people in this
>>area.  It's very exciting to be a part of that.
>>
>>Chi meegwetch.  Sorry for my overstated ebulence.  I'm thrilled...
>>
>>Chris
>>
>>--
>>CHRIS CORRIGAN
>>108-1035 Pacific Street
>>Vancouver BC
>>V6E 4G7
>>
>>Phone: 604.683.3080
>>Fax: 604.683-3036
>
>Harrison Owen
>7808 River Falls Drive
>Potomac, MD 20854
>USA
>phone 301-469-9269
>fax 301-983-9314
>website
>www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
>Open Space Institute websites
>www.openspaceworld.org

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website
www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute websites
www.openspaceworld.org
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