MORE THAN 40 OPEN SPACE MEETINGS IN CHILE

[Harrison Owen]

Super! And you have been hiding all those wonderful stories from us for 4
years!!! Shame! But now you have come out of the closet and it is great to
hear from you. We want to hear more !!!!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20845

Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/>


Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Johann
Borquez
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 9:45 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: MORE THAN 40 OPEN SPACE MEETINGS IN CHILE

 


Hi,

I've been practicing Open Space in Chile for the last 4 years and I have to
say that I AM GRATEFUL to Harrison and all the practitioners who add to this
global learning experience and from which I have learned the fundamentals to
begin my own practice. The technology itself is -compared to other
methodologies for Large Group Interventios- the lightest in terms of
logistics, the quickest to be organized, and the one that get the best
results from -and for- people. And it's cheap.

All of the almost 40 Open Space Meetings I have facilitated had been for the
Public Sector, i.e. State organizations ranging from Education to the
Housing Service. Allmost always, the concerns of the clients have been the
same: fear of "losing control" of what happens, of not being able to cope
with the demands of people, of being criticized openly, of not being able to
concentrate on the specific themes about which the Open Space is convened.
Also, they always remain skeptic about the minimal preparation necessary to
make OST happen (they seem to think that it won't work and that I'm bluffing
them by being so "light"). All this concerns have been followed by relief
when the client sees that the OST really works, that the order emerges from
chaos every time. Old clients have been the best promotors of the Technology
among new ones.

My last experience is still developing, as on Saturday we met with about 250
leaders from the neighborhood on Pedro de Valdivia Bajo (a bidonville by the
riverside) in the city of Concepcion, to plan the needed interventions from
all the different State services to improve the area. The curious thing is
that always, both conveners and participants evaluate the OST as the "best"
participatory experience they ever had. This was not the exception, and is a
real achievement in a neighborhood with a history of conflict and acute
poverty. We have had illiterate group conveners! To help this, this time we
had the help of student volunteers to take notes of the full conversation in
every group. My main fear was that the students could somehow intervene and
manipulate the discussion, but it was they who, at the end of the day, were
impressed by the quality of people's participation. This Open Space is still
hapening, as next saturday (october 16th) we will meet again! to discuss
solutions for the discussed problems.

Best wishes and keep on!

 

Johann Bórquez Bohn

Open Space Practitioner

CHILE

zekrov at hotmail.com




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