OST with local Catholic Diocese (long)

[Lisa Heft]

Hello, Winston --

Let me try to answer some of your questions and perhaps Jeff or Brian or
others can add their two cents (hi, Artur!).

> First, could you (Brian? Jeff?) expand a bit on the "agenda evening -
start sessions next morning" design?  I have heard it said, and it is my
intuition, that breaking into the particular kind of energy
(anxiety/curiosity/anticipation) which exists at the time the
marketplace is filled (such as by having a "hiatus" like an intervening
night) is generally not a good idea as it is hard to get that moment
back...  Yet obviously it worked well for you and has for others.  Was
it the "morning warmup" that did it? How did you regenerate the energy?
Or was it necessary? Did you allow more postings at that time?<

On Thursday evening I opened the space at about 8:00 pm (20:00) and we
did the marketplace / agenda for about one hour and fifteen minutes.  By
the way, I agree with what Harrison and others have said -- it's a funny
thing.  No matter how big the group is, I have experienced this portion
taking no longer than 1:15.  Fascinating.  Anyway: we covered the wall
with 75 or so sessions.  Then we closed for the evening with prayer and
song designed to give us energy for the next day's work ahead.  What I'm
saying is that we chose text and song carefully to provide that kind of
energy.  And our Evening News (as it was not really a closing) was
really beautiful.  As the participants turned away from the wall after
having signed their names on the sheets of paper to indicate what they
would attend the next day, they were greeted with the sight of several
hundred tiny candles in the center of the circle in the shape of a
cross, and as the prayer and guitar music and singing began four young
people lit the candles (Lisa looks up to see where the ceiling
sprinklers are) and the lights in the room were lowered.  Really
beautiful.  No wax on the floor, either ;o)

They came back at 8:30 am (08:30) *so* eager to get to work, a) because
they had put up topics of passion, b) because probably they were so
curious as to how the heck we'd ever get all that done and c) because
there was high energy and a bit of conflict in the room, which always
makes things interesting.  (You know, the conflicted feelings of those
worrying the Church will change and those worrying the Church will never
change...)

No loss of energy.  Morning News consisted of a review of guidelines and
principles, opportunity to post new sessions, a short and energetic
prayer / song series to bless our work and see us on our way and then
off we flew.

>Second, what DID you do about the escalating demand for prayer?
Especially when (as would have been the case most of the time) you were
not "in circle" as a whole group? Anything? Did mass get posted as a
topic? I'm fascinated..<


Let me tell you, I was fascinated, too.  At first I said "so let them
post it if they want to post it and whoever comes comes", when several
of them asked for a Mass.  And so some of us sat in the center and
talked about that and my client explained to me about Mass being very
different from other kinds of prayer.  And even as she felt it was not
necessary to have Mass, herself, in a working weekend (not even on a
Sunday) she felt that as host it would help the process if they found
the person who could do Mass, ask them if they wanted to, and *then*
decided if we should help that happen.  It turns out that somebody was
really happy to do that.  Meanwhile we had decided to use Mass as an
optional evening activity (the OS was only until dinnertime) but in
another room, not our main OS room.  It all worked out very well that
way.  Not everyone went but about 80 out of the 115 did, and we were
able to run around the larger room printing and posting and keeping
those computers going to get that part of the job done during the same
time.  After Mass let out, a great stream of people came *back* into the
main room with lots of wonderful energy!  Some gathered in a singing
circle, others applied themselves to grouping and regrouping and moving
action items around on the action item wall (helping move closer to
convergence) and others continued networking and socializing.  Some sat
back at the computers to finish entering their notes.  We were thrilled,
as they had the whole run of this beautiful retreat center (swimming
pool, lovely evening) to run around, and they felt the energy in (and
added energy to) the room they'd been in all day.  It was really
touching.

>And third, what did you do about the languages? Were there only a few
who did not speak English? Did you translate the opening? Or just let it
all happen? And if the latter, if there was a number of folks who did
not speak English how did you facilitate their involvement?>

Regarding languages, I welcomed everyone in Tagalog (Filipino), Spanish,
Vietnamese and English, the primary languages spoken by the
participants.  I reminded everyone as they posted sessions that they
could hold a session in any language, provided they translate the notes
into English when they entered them onto the computers.  Everyone spoke
English, though I tried to speak very clearly and succinctly so those
with English as a second language could understand me (and they turned
to friends for clarification when needed.  But they seemed to get
everything, because those same people with different language abilities
went right in and announced and posted sessions in front of the whole
group, even if their English was less fluent.  There was lively
discussion and also wonderful camaraderie at the computers as trios and
duos helped each other find the right words for the English version (and
nobody felt that was a burden).

Stay tuned for some more questions and comments as I respond to my dear
colleagues wonderful insights and messages...

Lisa


--
L i s a    H e f t
Consultant, facilitator, educator
Experiential learning and Open Space Technology

2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106 USA
(+01) 510 548-8449
www.openspaceworld.com

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