What would you do?

[Judi Richardson]

Christine -- thank you for sharing -- thoughts, notes, forms and pictures!!

You mention the sponsor decided to stay with just one session -- were the
conversations deeper and did butterflies and bumblebees emerge?

Thanks again for sharing a part of your day!

Judi

__________________________________________________________
Judith Richardson, MA
Coaching & Consulting
Optimizing Performance, Potential and Profitability
www.ponoconsultants.com
www.emergentfeminine.com






-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of
Christine Whitney Sanchez
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 12:50 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: What would you do?


Dear Michael H., Birgitt, Jack, Gerard, Peggy, Larry, Judi, Michael P.,
Therese, Lisa and all OST friends,

I can't thank you enough for your advice, questions, concerns, bright ideas
and overall thinking out loud together when I asked about facilitating a 90
minute Open Space dialogue at the end of Arizona State University Center for
Nonprofit Leadership and Management's 6th Annual Forum on Nonprofit
Effectiveness:  Building the Capacity of Arizona's Nonprofit Sector.  Thanks
to your suggestions, the great group who gathered last Friday, and the
elegance of OST, people quickly understood what it was all about and moved
right into discussions they really cared about.

I took your ideas to heart and suggested the sponsor narrow the focus of the
question.  They ended up with "What opportunities exist to strengthen the
capacity of our organizations and our sector in Arizona?"  As you predicted,
Birgitt, by that time in the day, we had less than 90 minutes to pull the
whole thing off.  The sponsor went with only one breakout session to
encourage more dialogue.  Eleven topics were originally posted with several
groups merging to create a final 8 groups among the 100 or so remaining
participants.  Despite the less than ideal conditions (all breakouts had to
be crammed into one ballroom so the noise level was difficult, the biggest
group was just getting into the meat of their discussion when we had to
reconvene) there was obvious energy, playfulness and focused conversation
going on.

In the final 15 minutes of the day, we reconvened (despite yet another snack
setup :-).  I asked for a time keeper who rang the Tibetan bell when one
minute was up and then each reporter posted and gave the headlines for their
group's key ideas.  Each group also filled out a report form - ASU is going
to post the results on their website within a week.  I'll let you know when
that is available.

The final 5 minutes was a very abbreviated talking circle, tossing a stuffed
bumblebee to whomever was ready to speak.  Some of the comments were:

"I can't believe how many great ideas got shared in such a short amount of
time."
"I love Open Space - my organization uses it all the time and it is
transforming our work!"
"I'm excited to see that the time has come for us to take our power as
nonprofit leaders."
"Thank you for giving us a taste of this amazing process."
"Next time let's do Open Space all day!"

One interesting highlight - there are a handful of people in Arizona who
have taken the lead in creating a state association of nonprofits.  It looks
like the time is right for such a move.  One fellow has made this the heart
of his work for the past several years and speaks eloquently about the
association needing to grow organically.  There was some concern ahead of
time that he would dominate the day.  He did post a session and then merged
with similar topics.  During the breakout, his voice was one among many as
they began to sort out "who will lead and who will follow?"

I'm attaching 3 of the handouts the participants had in their packets and
some photos of the breakouts.

Thank you again, everyone, for supporting a tiny bit of Open Space and ever
growing Light in Arizona.

Namaste,

Christine

Christine Whitney Sanchez
Triune Milagro, LTD
2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue
Phoenix, AZ  85048-8990
milagro27 at cox.net
480.759.0262  phone
480.759.0403  fax
VISIT OUR WEBSITE:  www.triunemilagro.com <http://www.triunemilagro.com>

Invoking the wisdom and capacity of the human spirit!






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