for elena re: kitchen talks

[Chris Weaver]

Dear Elena,

I enjoyed your posting to Harrison.

I am interested in the approach you describe of using Future Search to
"prime the pump" before an OST event.  I just had a discussion with a
colleague on a related matter today.

We are designing a program that would bring OST to some remote communities
of very independent-minded rural people in the Appalachian Mountains of the
southern USA.  My colleague, who has worked in these communities for years,
tells me that nothing in the local culture resembles the experience of OST,
and she is afraid that if opening the space is the first thing we do, that
people will not have the confidence, trust, or reference point to step
forward and convene.

If she was new to OST, I would perhaps disagree, but she's not.  She knows
OST.  She knows rural mountain people (since she is one!) and she wants the
program to succeed.

Like the people in Robtsovsk, the rural mountain people have their version
of kitchen talks, and a depth of community oral tradition that is beyond the
understanding of mainstream America.

What we talked about today was to hold two events to lead up to our
community OSTs.  The first, on a Sunday afternoon after church, would be a
program of local music, history, and storytelling.  The second, a week
later, would be, well, "kitchen talks," except structured as interviews,
based on the "discovery" stage of Appreciative Inquiry process.  By design,
the events will attract both long-time settlers of the region and newcomers,
and we want to help people start talking across these often-tense lines.  We
are thinking of starting with questions like "Tell the story of something
you use in your kitchen that your family has had for a long time."  ...and
move toward questions like, "Tell about a time when you realized how strong
your community is."

Appreciative Inquiry process moves from these one-on-one interviews to
groups of six or eight, and people share highlights and themes from one
another's stories.

The OST event would then not be held until a week after that, on the third
Sunday.  My colleague believes that in this cultural context, holding these
preliminary events will greatly enrich the results in our OST events, in
particular by giving the old settlers their voice so that the newcomers
aren't the only convenors (and so that the old settlers will feel that
something's in it for them, and will come).

So, this story may or may not have anything to do with Robtsovsk!  But I am
interested in this idea that, in some contexts, it's good to prime the pump
- not as a part of the OST, but as a prelude.

Blessings to you unforgivable optimists!!

Chris Weaver

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Opening the Space for Inspired Collaboration
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