AW: storytelling in OST

Tue Jul 20 13:58:09 PDT 2004

storytelling can be a very interactive element in OS. Recently in Oberursel I proposed a group session about story telling and fairy tale drawing. It went like this: 

I opened the session proposing my idea, and when it was accepted, everybody sat down to invent a short storyline. The storylines were put to the wall, and each one was interpreted by its author. Then the group voted, which storyline it wanted to follow. Then the group split into two subgroups, one to formulate the choosen fairy tale and to write it down, and one to draw it simultaneously on a frieze of about five meters. 

At first there were several people taking the chance to produce nonsense, and many laught abour it. But by it self the atmosphere got more serious and productive. Of course there still was a lot of traffic between the two subgroups, and a lot of fun and laughter. 

Then the group went into the plenum, and offered to show its fairy tale to the whole group. While one person was reading the story, another one followed the drawn story to make it visible to everybody. A good experience!

Mit freundlichen Gruessen
Best regards

Reinhard

VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
Kuchenmueller & Dr.Stifel

Munich Germany

Tel: +49-89-202 447 48

 <http://www.visuelle-protokolle.de/> http://www.visuelle-protokolle.de 

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Im Auftrag von Zelle Nelson
Gesendet: Dienstag, 20. Juli 2004 20:11
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: storytelling/training/learning sessions in OST

Joelle, Raffi,

My wife, Maureen and I facilitated an Open Space where we used special post-its (tree and flower shaped) to indicate that certain sessions would be in a story-telling or training format with one primary speaker. We explained in the invitation and the opening circle that sometimes we learn best from one-way communication as opposed to two way communication, or multiple way communication that we focus on in OS. We invited people to take what they learned from the storytelling sessions and then post new topics based on the learning. The traditional OS sessions ran concurrently with the storytelling sessions. 

In this way each participant had the space to tell a story or teach/explain an idea and each participant could choose to attend those sessions they wished with a simple visual clue (those flower and tree post-its) as to which ones were one-way communication. I noticed that most of the one-way communication started with the story or explanation of a new idea or way of seeing the world and then the session was opened up so everyone could say what was sparked from the primary/opening speaker. I would say about 1/4 to 1/3 were storytelling sessions.

It seemed to work very well. The participants liked the format and the opportunity to do both styles of OS sessions.

With Grace and Love, 

Zelle 

************ 
Zelle Nelson 
Engaging the Soul at Work/Know Place Like Home/State of Grace Document 

www.maureenandzelle.com 
www.stateofgracedocument.com 

zelle at maureenandzelle.com 
office - 828.693.0802 
mobile - 847.951.7030 

Ravenswood - Isle of Skye 
2021 Greenville Hwy 
Flat Rock, NC 28731 

Joelle Lyons Everett wrote:

Raffi--

People do and will present lectures and trainings in Open Space, and some of these sessions will be effective.  If this is the intention, might be good to say so.  But I suspect that the elaborate boundary-setting that you suggested might rub people against the grain a bit, once they have been introduced to the principles of OST.

I've been on both sides of this one as a participant.  I've offered a workshop that has been effective in other settings, and found it did not work out as well in Open Space.  I've convened sessions where I asked an honest question and had magnificent conversations.  I find I like that better; other people are more interesting when they have space to expand, explore, open to others, dance with ideas.  I've been in sessions convened by others which took me to places I could never have arrived at on my own.

I don't think there is any one right answer for all situations.  I'm just discovering what it fun, and productive, for me.

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ÐÏ à¡± á

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