OS in University Settings - Part 2 (long)

[Lisa Heft]

________________OS in University Settings________part 2 of 3______________ 

 

Allison Baensch (mbody at iinet.net.au )

 

University of Western Sidney  

 

Allison experienced OST as a postgrad student at the University of Western
Sydney in 1966.  She is now using OST as a part of her PhD, and OST is still
being used by the University. 

 

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Romy Shovelton (romy at wikima.com)

 

Cranfield University

 

I opened space at Cranfield University for their MBA programme.  The issue
was that they had been having some tensions within the highly diverse group
of students - something like 57 different countries represented. Eg. the
overseas students (many Chinese) feeling that they had no space to speak,
'cos the Brits speak up all the time... And the Brits feeling that they were
doing all the work in their buddy times!  The uni asked me to run something
at the very start of the new year, to help ensure these tensions didn't
appear. OST was the obvious choice.... And as a starting point I said that I
personally do not wish to assume that there will be tensions in this coming
year... And who knows what will be in the hearts and minds of the people
coming.

The OS theme we agreed on was "how do we live and work together as an
international community" - the time at Cranfield being a fantastic
opportunity to learn about other cultures and how to be together -
especially as our business world is fundamentally global now and so we need
to learn how to operate effectively in this context.  Planned some time
before, the event took place just a couple of weeks after 911. The
contributions were outstanding and very moving (as heard in the closing
circle). We followed up the OS with time together for various task forces to
meet up and grow their work together.

 

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Chris Corrigan (chris at chriscorrigan.com )

 

University of British Columbia

 

My experience with universities has included work with the University of BC
working with the coordinator of health sciences, bringing 30 people from
across the health spectrum together to form a new College of Health
Sciences.  The current director, who sponsored that event, said to me a
couple of months ago that the OST was the key event in catalyzing the new
college. 

Also I have worked with the First Nations House of Learning which houses
some First Nations programs and provides a home for First Nations students
and researchers at UBC doing some strategic planning between them, their
internal and external partners and graduates regarding strengthening the
role of the organization. 

Did another one with the office of access and diversity on, well, access and
diversity issues on campus.  

This spring I opened space for the new Dalai Lama Centre in Vancouver on the
question of how the community will support the Centre and vice versa.
Although not an academic centre per se, it is championed by academics
(focusing on educating the heart) and the vision is held by several UBC
folks.  There were many academics at the event. 

And just a couple of weeks ago I did an Open Space with all of the HR
practitioners at UBC to create a network.  They were thrilled with the work
they did, having never really talked to one another.

I have had several UBC folks in Open Space training I have done over the
years, all from HR, or continuing education. 



 

Part 3 is coming up,

 

Lisa

___________________________

L i s a   H e f t

Consultant, Facilitator, Educator

O p e n i n g  S p a c e

 <mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net> lisaheft at openingspace.net

 <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net 

 


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