New member

Tue Dec 16 06:56:14 PST 2003

Hello to all,

I’m also  : 
a new member here 
French
In the process of creating an Institute !

I haven’t read the archives yet and Dominique’s mail was the first one I
received. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have been looking for French
people aware of Open Space (as well as other organisational change
theories and practices) to see what has been / could be done in France. 

My name is Geneviève Treille, I live near Paris. My life and career are
highly influenced by expatriation, communication and teaching : I
started as an ESL and FSL teacher (English and French as second
languages), was a trainer, a trainer instructor and creator and director
of the French Communication Skills Development Department of an
international NGO.   I spend 15 years in North America, Europe and
Middle East at different  periods of my youth and adult life and
continue to travel frequently to various countries for work, research or
pleasure.  After a few  years in the corporate world in the HR field, I
co-created Chrysalide International which is specialised in setting up
training  modules, coaching multicultural teams in periods of transition
and  change, coaching expatriates and their families, linguistic
coaching  and life coaching. I speak English and French and am starting
to learn Chinese. I used to have some notions of  Spanish, German and
Arabic but these languages need a serious brushing up. After using Open
Space, Appreciative Inquiry and the Chaordic Process in our work, my
partner and myself want to focus mostly on Change, personal, collective
(organizational) and social. 

I am happy to be here, at the right place at the right moment as it
seems.

Best regards,

Genevieve Treille
Chrysalide International,  The human potential development company
 <http://www.cvreferral.com/3/101989.html>
http://www.cvreferral.com/3/101989.html
France
Tel / fax #  +33 (0)1 30 60 07 84
g.treille at wanadoo.fr

-----Message d'origine-----
De : OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] De la part de
Harrison Owen
Envoyé : mardi 16 décembre 2003 14:05
À : OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Objet : Re: New member

Dominique wrote:

“. 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. “

Don’t wait too long. Never met a question I didn’t like, even an old
one. Actually, most particularly The Old Ones. They give everybody a
chance to revisit old familiar places – and usually discover that what
we took to be “established wisdom” was actually just the tip of an
iceberg. Also good luck with OSI/France. As you can see already from
this LIST, folks will be more than helpful. And on the journey, you
might want to make contact with Christopher Schoch. Mdlschoch at aol.com
Christopher lives in Paris and was responsible for Executive Development
(or something like that) for Accor Hotels. We did an Open Space together
around the time of massive merger for that corporation. You can read the
story, if you want, in Tales from Open Space.
http://openspaceworld.com/tales.htm 

Good Luck!

Harrison

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Dominique Proudhon
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 2:58 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: New member

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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