Again: The World Cafe

[Masud Sheikh]

Katharine Armstrong <4pangaea at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>There's room for another change process, truly, Harrison.  ;-)
>
>Appreciatively,
>Kate

I couldn't agree more.
And good for you Kate, to have said "Appreciatively" rather than, for
instance, "Openly" or "In freedom". I had an email exchange with some OS
friends offlist. I am repetaing part of it below:

START of Cut and paste: I greatly value everything that leads to deep and
authentic communication, and collaborative action that can result from it.

Let me take a religious analogy: even though I was born into a religion
(Islam) that like Christianity encourages proselytizing, I tend to agree
with the Dalai Lama when he recommends that people stay within their own
religion to find growth. This way, I believe that people get are far more
attuned to seeing the commonalities than the differences between
religions.

Similarly, I find a great deal of value in people following their own
paths in their developmental processes. So, perhaps Juanita Brown would
give more value to participants if she used WC, and all of you (and HO, of
course) would give more value with OST, and Marv (and FS believers) would
give more value with FS, even though there might be situations where
another approach (perhaps OST?) might be more appropriate. HO tells us
that OS gives the greatest amount of freedom and challenge to accept
responsibility. Let us accept that as a given. But say, if the facilitator
hirself is unable to operate in that manner, what point is there in
insisting that everyone should “see the light and be converted”? I believe
that there is something beyond “true belief”, where the process does not
matter as much as how well the process unfolds.

At this time, I tend to agree with Meg Wheatley when she says that what
really matters is that we “turn to one another”. END of Cut & Paste.

Elsewhere, I wrote about my exposure to my first and only multi-day
exposure to OS in the 1999 SoL annual meeting. That was my first exposure
to World Cafe as well. This was the way lunch was "organized"(!!?!!). It
turned out to be quite a good way for people to get to know each other. If
I remember correctly, while moving around was suggested, it was not
enforced. Were you there Juanita - in case you are reading this?
Masud

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