16 European countries represented in first OST expereince OST

Christine Whitney Sanchez milagro27 at cox.net
Sat Mar 20 15:07:17 PST 2004


Dear Friends,

Today, at Rolduc, a 12th century abbey in the Netherlands, two of the most innovative leaders in La Leche League (LLL)of Europe conducted the first OST meeting at their European Mastery Symposium.  Department heads from 16 European countries (Slovenia, Hungary, Greece, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland) and the USA have come together to share best practices and discuss ways to grow their organization.

Of course, it was a fabulous success – they are sitting with me right now as I write to you, feeling shy about telling you just how exciting this is.  Genevieve Treille and Christine Koehler from France said, "nous avons du nous battre" ( we  had to fight) to offer a full day option of OST along side the more traditional workshops that were being offered at this educational event.

Their OST theme was: Collaborating and working together in order to enhance our effectiveness."  Out of the total 80 participants in the symposium, 25 sat in the opening circle and posted 13 topics over three sessions.  

At midday, there was a palpable buzz in the air but not due to any bumble bees, because leaving a session was felt to be too impolite.  Some of the participants reported that they were holding the law of two feet in their minds but weren't quite ready today.

During the closing circle, other women who were not there for the opening, came to find out what all the excitement was about.  All together nearly half of the women from the event were exposed to OST.  Already the Chair of LLL Germany has decided to conduct their entire National Conference as an Open Space.

One of the women who came to the closing, “borrowed” the sticky wall to hold her next session in Open Space.  Buzzzzzzz


Personally, I am excited because colleagues and I from the Chaordic Commons have been consulting with La Leche League International to help develop a distributed system, seed a more appreciative culture and, of course, to encourage self-organizing.  Today, many leaders had the personal experience of just how natural this is to their organization.  I am so moved by listening to these women, nearly all speaking English as a second language, sharing what has heart and meaning for them.  I have the sense that this is part of the magic, too.  Their passion is grounded as they slow down to choose just the right words to express what they mean.  Our national ambassadors could learn much from these dedicated women about authentic communication.    

Christine Koehler says that this experience proved to the participants that self-organizing is not just for dreamers or just talking to be talking.  It worked wonderfully as a training for the new Department Heads from Eastern Europe.  One of the conference organizers had been worried that the hosts of the sessions would not be properly prepared nor would they have adequate materials.  But just the right people came to each session J   

Genevieve says, “I thought it was magic, because at the beginning, everyone was worried that there would be no subjects posted.  But as soon as one person posted a topic, one after another came forward.”

One of Christine’s innovations:  During the report outs, she read a title of a discussion and then placed the paper with the session topic in the center of the circle so that by the end, the circle was holding the intelligence of the discussions in a very tangible form.

In the closing circle, they asked for words that represented the experience - renewed, energized, connected, focused, going to the point.  And guess what?  They were not surprised.  This is how they always work when they are at home. 

Some of the comments heard in the halls afterward were:

“This was like putting on a coat that fits.”

“I’m really excited about what we did today.  I have the impression it’s the first time we worked so deeply.”

“I felt incredible – it is really exciting because when you “prepare” a typical conference session, you never really know if people are there because they have to be there.  With this process, you know that people come because they want to be there and you have the passion for the topic so it is more interesting.

“We should have done this for the whole EMS meeting.”

“I am happy to be able to discuss what is important to me.”

Genevieve and Christine K. want everyone to know that they are lurkers on this list and appreciate all that they are learning from everyone.  In particular, Christine would like to thank Tova for recently writing up the experience with the Israeli company because she shared that post with an Israeli La Leche League Leader.

Ho!

In ten days, these two dynamos are participating in an OST meeting to create the Open Space Institute in France.  Please feel free to contact them directly:
g.treille at wanadoo.fr
christine.Koehler at wanadoo.fr.

Au revoir and many blessings to you all,

Genevieve Treille
Christine Koehler
Christine Whitney Sanchez








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