My reflections on the Goa OSonOS (longish)

[Gabriela Ender]

Dear Alexander,

thank you so much for your beautiful pictures!

I was unfortunatley not in Goa, but last year I was also in Denmark. The organizers of OSonOS 2003 did also a great job - the location was beautiful - the bufett was perfect. I was so happy to meet "old and new" wonderful colleagues. But at the same time I felt, that I missed my own passion to participate in the sessions. I thought "Oh, whats that?" ... "why do I feel so?". Beside two or three good sessions I followed my two feets and enjoyed more, very good one-to-one talks. But my "open space´ler heart" was not really happy and I asked my self "why?".

Later back home, it came into my mind, that I missed something like an exciting "main theme". Of course it is an OST on OST. But from my personal point of view I would prefer to have each year a new "powerful question" on top of >OSonOS<. This title should give enough space for diversity, but could give  an orientation and direction for new and deep conversations (space for sharing deep experiences, for telling stories, and for creativity). I think it would not minimize the community aspect - I guess, it would enrich the community feeling at such OSonOS AND the further development of OST.

My desire would be, that OSonOS would go more in such direction, instead of having additional staff.

Warm regards from Berlin,
Gabriela

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alexander Kjerulf 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 11:34 AM
  Subject: My reflections on the Goa OSonOS (longish)


  Hi

  I just got back from India, and here are my reflections on this years
  OSonOS.

  First of all there were lots of things I enjoyed about the OSonOS:

      * I met some wonderful people, some for the first time; some again
      * The place was absolutely wonderful - See for yourself, I posted
        some pictures here: http://www.positivesharing.com/Goa
      * I had many great and inspiring conversations outside of the sessions
      * And best of all, we (the Happy at Work Project) may now have a
        shot at creating the Happy at Work Project, India

  BUT :-)

  Those of you who were there know that I was frustrated with the
  conference itself. This was also true at last years event in Denmark
  (the first OSonOS I attended) but at that time I chose not to express it.

  During the evening news on the second day, I presented my observations
  on what frustrated me. I realize of course that these are only my
  experiences. Other people may have (and indeed did have) totally
  different experiences. Anyway, here's what frustrated me at the OSonOS:
  *Not much listening.* People seemed more eager to speak than to listen.
  *Not much depth.* Few conversations achieved any real depth, since many
  comments didn't seem to build on what was said earlier in the conversation.
  *Too large groups.* Many (most?) groups had 10 - 20 people in them,
  which of course makes deep conversation and listening more difficult.
  For my taste, I prefer groups with at most 8 people.
  *Too much weird stuff.* Every day of the OSonOS opened with singing,
  chanting, laughter exercises and other "weird stuff" :-) . I have
  nothing against that in itself (and indeed use some of it once in a
  while), but it didn't really add to my experience.
  *Experienced OS'ers don't seem open to input*. The experienced OS people
  in the crowd were wonderfully willing to share their experiences, but
  seemed less willing to listen to new ideas.
  *Evening circle takes too long*. The evening circle went on for a long
  time - too long in my opinion.

  I say this without any intention of blame or indictment. Please also
  remember that this kind of thing always looks worse in worse in writing.
  And as I said at the conference, I only say this, because I think the OS
  community can deal with it, and should be given a chance to do so -
  rather than just me dealing with it on my own by not coming to any more
  OSonOS'es.

  The paradox here is, that all the conversations I had outside of the
  sessions really made my coming there worthwhile, so my time there was
  certainly not wasted. It's just that I KNOW that OS conversations can be
  so much more than what I saw at both this and last years OSonOS'es.

  Now, I'm not going to throw something like this out there, without also
  thinking about what we can do about it, and so we did a session on that
  on the third day. We saw some ideas brewing as to what we could do to
  improve the OSonOS, while at the same time maintaining (and maybe even
  strengthening) all the good things the OSonOS does for the OS community
  already. This is not about revolution, it's about taking an appreciative
  approach to what already works in the OSonOS, and how we can build on that.

  But before we start that, there should be some sort of buy-in from the
  OS community. If the prevailing mood is, that "the OSonOS is fine, don't
  mess with it", then we'll leave it at the. If the mood is "The OSonOS is
  fine, let's make it even more fine", then we might start with an
  appreciative inquiry right here on the list - I'd be happy to get it going.

  What do you think?

  Cheers

  Alex

  --
  Alexander Kjerulf
  alexander at kjerulf.com
  http://www.positivesharing.com

  +45 2688 2373
  Tagensvej 126, lejl. 613
  2200 København N

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