Open Space in Oral Cultures

[Glory Ressler]

  Bernd,
I echo the sentiments of others who say YES! it can be done and you are
the person to do it!

I recently facilitated on OS on community -based program development for
people with developmental disabilities... by and large an illiterate
group with varying levels of cognitive impairment. I can attest to how
well they self-organized (announcing their topics in the circle, using
symbols and finding other ways to capture their learning - asking that
those who can read and write capture some notes and share them,
pictures, etc...). Closing comments expressed deep excitement and
satisfaction, clear ideas for new services, and champions to track the
progress of programs. I ran into one of the participants with a
developmental disability the other day at a restaurant ( 1 1/2 months
after the meeting) - she not only remembered me and the OS experience,
she was still talking about her passion for certain services and what
she's doing about that.

I suspect that the organizers, facilitators and animators will have the
most problem with using OS - they are used to feeling all tidy and in
control.

Best wishes,
glory

WB-TrainConsult wrote:

>Dear os-list
>
>I REALLY NEED HELP FROM YOU OUT THERE!
>
>My questions (for now):
>
>1) Should I take the responsibility to invite my client to go for
>such a journey?
>In other words: is it possible to realize open space with people who
>are completely illiterate?
>
>2) Are there practical experiences I can rely on?
>
>3) Wouldn't it be necessary (and great) to make OST even simpler?
>(Putting a part of the external instrumentation back into the heads)
>
>
>Bernd
>

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html