About the 3-week Senior OST

Mon Mar 10 05:44:55 PST 2003

Douglas,

even when the feeling is very good afterward I am always a bit exhausted.
Chris' remark brought me to the idea, that the secret seems to be to have  "ho's naps" right in place and not afterwards ;-)

In fact I observed this same phenomenon not only in OST events, but always when participating in processes of highly efficient self-organization (= OS type processes) or accelerated relevant learning. It seems to be related to the climbing/jumping around between different levels of perception, abstraction, all that complex mental networking.

I also observed that this "complexity-integration-exhaustion" goes slowly down when I do similar types of mental climbing&jumping in similar systemic environments  again and again, but goes up drastically again, whenever there are completely new levels/aspects/(sub-)cultures to be integrated.

Do others have similar or different experiences?

Bernd

On Sun, 9 Mar 2003 12:59:47 -0800, Chris Corrigan wrote:
The first time I ever facilitated an OST event, I slept for 18 hours.
It ain't easy.

Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Douglas
> D. Germann, Sr.
> Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 1:36 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: About the 3-week Senior OST
>
> To my good friends--
>
> For all of you who agonized with me over the
> hand-wringing and the design of this event, here is the
> report I am sending to those who participated.
>
> In brief: as usual, it worked.
>
> Also, are you this tired after each OST? I felt like I
> had been run through an old-time wringer-washer each
> night of the event!
>
>                :-Doug. Germann
>
> PS: Pictures and the reports are up on my website in the
> discussion forums at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
>
> ===clip
>
> What happened at The Waterford?
> The results: A community advocacy group was started, and
> an organizational meeting was set for April 23, 2003,
> from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at The Waterford; plans were made
> for people to visit with seniors in one facility
> locally, including having a young man come in to play
> the piano regularly.
>
> The event:
>
> Seniors, doctors, nurses, nursing home administrators,
> senior living complex executives, discharge planners,
> bank trust officers, insurance executives, hospital and
> home care administrators, home care givers, lawyers,
> senior service agency executives, CPAs, pharmacists,
> care givers, and others who have a concern for seniors
> were invited to The Waterford at Edison Lakes on
> February 19, February 26, and March 5, 2003.
>
> 36 people came the first day, 18 the second, and 27 the
> third, for these community Open Space forums.
>
> 10 break-out sessions were held the first day, 6 the
> second. On the third day, 5 topics were posted, then
> several combined and 2 groups met.
>
> What happened:
>
> Some controversy was raised at the first two sessions
> and on the website for the meeting
> ( http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com ), yet the group
> became closer and established new bonds and caring
> networks across professional boundaries.
>
> One man, new on the last day said that he was impressed
> that this was taking place here and that he had not
> heard of similar work in the community from which he had
> come. Another participant said she had been all around
> the country and had not seen anything similar anywhere
> else.
>
> Many people remarked that we need to continue to meet so
> see the perspective of all the others, so we are not
> working with blinders.
>
> The sense of the final closing time was that people had
> gotten a deeper sense of the needs and resources in our
> community, that they had made new friends, and that they
> wanted to continue to work together on these things for
> the benefit of seniors.
>
> Facilitator notes:
>
> There were some remarkable things to me, as the
> facilitator.
>
> For one, it was surprising that we picked up four new
> people at the last session, and although they had not
> experienced the prior sessions, they seemed to have had
> as profound experiences as those who attended all three
> sessions; they felt right at home to add their
> perspectives to the discussions.
>
> For another, the group was anxious to get something
> concrete to come out of the sessions. This is probably
> not remarkable given that the Open Space format is
> designed to encourage free thinking and positive action.
> What other community meeting have you been to where
> there was this quality of results?
>
> As usual, the meeting format (Open Space) worked, and
> worked well, although people worried it could not work.
>
> Another observation was that the re-opening of the space
> after the reports were read resulted in fewer posts than
> in prior sessions, but the topics were very specific and
> attracted much enthusiasm. It seems to me this was
> because the general concerns were amply discussed in the
> first two sessions. With the time in between to consider
> the issues and opportunities, the members had a good
> sense of what direction they wanted to go.
>
> A comment was made afterwards that the meeting was
> running out of things to discuss. But the fact that a
> group was formed to continue the work suggests
> otherwise. The group might have been running out of
> steam to continue discussing the issues posted; but new
> themes for the new group will be all that is needed to
> continue the enthusiasm.
>
> Should this new group revert to more "traditional"
> meeting formats?
>
> There is danger in doing that: after having tasted the
> freedom to act on their passions and responsibilities,
> if their choices are restricted the members might not
> long sustain their enthusiasm.
>
> I suggest the group continue the Open Space concepts
> (the 4 principles and the Law of Two Feet) and
> consciously choose to be open to whatever anyone brings
> up--open both in attitude, and in meeting format. For
> instance, open each meeting with an opportunity to post
> topics for the agenda.
>
> The meeting format is simple, and with a little coaching
> members could rotate facilitating it.
>
> ===end
>
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