for elena re: kitchen talks

[Elena A. Marchuk]

for elena re: kitchen talksHi Cris,

I love your idea and really can say, that what I've read in the book of Peggy Holman and Tom Devane about AI give me such a feeling. I never tried it as it was discribed, but we used the 4D part in the workshop "Organizational Development" as some of the trainers from US showed us. I like it and it worked very good. What I miss in AI   I don't know and hope when Peggy comes to Novosibirsk in July she would probably discribe to us, or to me.

The idea of pumping is the same as I mean it, though I was thinking of more  structuring of the process of discussion,  as FSC gives the posibility to analize the past and people are saying that they relived 30 years of their lives in the 30 minutes they have to think about it, they discover what happened and how they lived. and our people like to analize the past, so they are very common and that gives them a feeling of community and also the ground to go further, to the trends of present time and then to desired future, which is the most unconcrete in our workshops but a lot of fun.

so my concern how to do it more detailed and more concrete, and I started asking more questions while I'm giving the task - how do you see the society, how do you see your organization, or community you live in and yourself, your role and so on, as I came to this idea while reading the book "Creating the shared vision" - sorry, I don't have it by hand, if I reproduce the name not exactly. in OS - as we say what would you like to start with? what questions would you like to discuss and what projects would you like to propose for discussion and if you start one, we would like you to answer 6 Ws. So the results became much more concrete. and people are happy themselves that it is not just talking and blaming but real projects which they can start doing today.

that I love. there were 6 project in the last FSC we did in January, but as I left for S-F I did not make a report for public and in English, though we printed the whole protocol at once, day by day, what I learned from OS.

so 
going step by step somewhere.
and the book of Harrison Owen gave me another metaphors for approaching to hearts and mentality of Russian people. They know EVERYTHING so when they start talking - we know everything - I start asking - why are we so clever, but so poor. So we can move further together....

ok
thank you for your letter.
I hope we shall have other good experience at this weekend,
today is a holiday in our country, but I have to make 60 copies of handouts - that is the not so easy part of FSCs and  we leave tomorrow 5 pm to arrive 4 am by train to start FSC at 9....

a life of a trainer or a facilitator or whatever crazy peple we belong to...

best wishes to you

good luck with your idea. I'm not sure we can talk this way in Russia, the analyses part sound better for me. but I really don't know much of AI.

Elena
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris Weaver 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 1:25 PM
  Subject: for elena re: kitchen talks


  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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