help, please

[Jaime Pedreros Fitzgerald]

Hi Julie!

We have been colleagues for several months. I enjoy reading your thoughtful messages and insights. It is really good to know that someone with your knowledge and experience does not mind to request for help. I am not sure whether I could be of help (I perceive you already know all I will write about) but perhaps someone else could make good use of my suggestions.

I live and work in one of the poorest countries in South America. Indeed, Bolivia´s economic and social figures speak for themselves and I feel as my own the desperate and dramatic situation in Alaska.

I have not been using extensively OST in my work with groups here. Most institutions and representatives/leaders gave me a clear "we are not ready yet" message. I am working on creating conditions.

One of the most effective ways of "cleaning up" minds and attitudes, raising OK human relations, self-esteem (and many other applications) I am using, is a formal/not so formal course of Transactional Analysis (TA), that remarkable technique developed by Eric Berne. Indeed TA has a very convincing way to explain suicide and why some people causes themselves severe injuries "by accident". Depending on the specific situation and possible outcome, I direct the group towards team building, creative thinking, leadership or any other topic. Started in 1990, to date I have thought Basic TA to more than 3000 people through almost 70 programs. TA is for everybody. I am an economist and learned by myself after participating in a basic program.

I learned about OST (and became immediately enthusiastic with it) while working with Peace Corps in Bolivia by the ends of year 2000. Some months later, I read a couple of Edward De Bono´s books about creative thinking and discovered that Mr. De Bono put in an analytical and organized way some of the findings some of the groups I worked with arrived to. I am convinced that the best way to put in practice Mr. De Bono´s suggestions is through OST gatherings.

My most recent finding is the so called "appreciative inquiry" (AI). Basically, (AI) states that when approaching a group or a community, the observer's attitude counts a lot. The "problem solving approach" is not a useful tool (again Mr. De bono) becuse usually the list of problems (and the interaction of one with each other) is of such length and intrication that it is quite difficult to arrive to positive results when it is necessary to optimize the use of time. It is better to focus on "what is good/correct?", "what does work here?" and similar questions. Obviously, the list is shorter and gives the group a sense of accomplishment.

In brief, if you face with adverse situations in which problems have developed through a process, it is necessary to create a new process. There are not immediate solutions nor answers. OST is very powerful and its power is increased as you use synergetic tools.

I really appreciate and thank you very much for your request Julie. It gave me the opportunity to put in writing some ideas that are "bumble-beeing" in my mind.

Take care. Best wishes. Lots of success

Jaime



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