New member

[Dominique Proudhon]

Good day all,

I joined the OSlist a few days ago and have been lurking for a while. I
am very impressed with the quality of the exchanges on this list and
find myself drawn to participate. Several threads called my attention;
in particular the one questioning the list itself (what are we doing?
Aren't we loosing our spirit, Should we split?) -I find these
conversations very healthy. And also the one about Civil Conversation,
which resonates with an old questioning of mine around ways to implement
real participative democracy - I am dreaming of initiating some real
debate around the question "what world do we chose to build for
tomorrow?". I believe we humans are caught up in our own contradictions:
after centuries of evolving faster and faster technically, and having
more transformative power than ever, we are now facing the essential
question of  Meaning: How do we participate in the world and to what
end? What is our responsibility in regard to what is happening in our
world? Especially all the "not so nice" little things like irreversible
destruction of earth resources, loss of entire species, wars and weapon
builders, starving, and all that noisy ongoing disconnected stupidity on
our tv and radio shows that take people away from being.  I believe that
for the first time, we, at least in "developed" countries, have won the
freedom to look beyond simply working for survival, to ask ourselves:
how do I want to also make this place a little better?

Anyway. I'll stop here for today. My goal was actually to introduce
myself:
I am French and leave in Grenoble. After a PhD in molecular/cellular
biology and 6 years of research. I decided to do something else with my
life and moved to human resources development. I actually did that
career move in the US: I lived 10 years in North Carolina. I wanted to
understand why people so often get into conflicts because of "films"
they make in their heads that have little to do with reality. I wanted
to find ways to work on re-establishing lost connections, especially in
the workplace, where they could serve common projects and goals. I
trained with Will Schutz, originator of the Human Element, became a
mediator, trained in various psychometric tools and got to work with
various groups. Two years ago, just before I came back to France, I
bought a book that called my attention: Open Space Technology, a user's
guide. I read it in the plane. It was one of those "ha ha": I found
something I was looking for. A piece of extreme simplicity that called
on very ecological principles to set the stage for real connection
between people and for meaning to happen. On top of that, this approach
was shared openly without any bind, just as a gift to humanity, which
seduced me even more...  I decided to try it as soon as I would get the
opportunity, here, in France. Starting a new business as a group
facilitator/team consultant has not been easy thing. Things are slow
going and I often get discouraged. But I finally got the opportunity to
run two different open space events for two different clients in the
last year (30 people and 36 people). Both very energizing experiences
and both around the question "How could we improve the way we function
as a team?": I loved the first moments of surprise in people's eyes, and
then the sudden rush to bring up issues as they understood that the
event was theirs. Several persons approached me at the end telling me
how much this work had moved them from a negative reactive position to
an engaged position and telling me about a number of places they would
see such work as useful. Thanks to Harrison, they got a gift they
deserved. Felt quite good to serve in such a meaningful way. I'll
continue. I now would like to share this approach with others in France
and starting a French Open Space Institute (web site in preparation for
sometime next year). Of course, I have plenty of questions around OST,
but I'll wait: This post is already long enough, you guys are busy, and
I need to read more of the documentation to make sure I am not asking
questions that have already been answered 20 times.

All the best to each of you,
Dominique

Note: I am a guy, for those who would wonder.

Dominique Proudhon
Group Facilitation
Problem solving
Conflict resolution
Dampierre
38470 Notre Dame de l'Osier
(33) 4 76 36 71 34
(33) 6 78 91 48 77

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