OS in University Settings [long]

Lisa Heft lisaheft at openingspace.net
Wed Jun 28 09:46:25 PDT 2006


It is great to hear from you, Romy, and thank you for sharing about your
opening space at Cranfield University.

 

And brother Chris, thanks for your examples of using OS at the University of
British Columbia, with the First Nations House of Learning and the Dalai
Lama Centre.

 

I forgot to add in my own experiences with using Open Space in university
settings:

 

I have used OS with Columbia University School of International Relations
and Conflict Resolution (New York) for exploring what their impact is on the
international communities they serve with their conflict resolution
services.  A number of students coming through that program have taken my
Open Space workshops to learn more about and use the method in their work,
and I have consulted with their conflict resolution program on Open Space
events in Northern Iraq and East Timor.

 

I have facilitated OS for San Francisco State University's Institute for
Holistic Healing Studies, to help them explore opportunities and issues and
areas of learning they wish to include in their programs.

 

I have facilitated OS and given OS learning workshops for the 21st Century
Leadership Center at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, which
builds capacity of community leaders to facilitate transformation in local
underserved communities.

 

I have also facilitated different Open Space events for university and
university-aged folks meeting off-campus for such things as a leadership
series on healing from and dealing with racism and a conference on issues
and opportunities for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders.

 

And I have shared learning with and mentored folks building their own
capacity for facilitating Open Space at such places as University of
Michigan, San Francisco State University, Portland State University and
University of Florida.

 

And I totally agree - so many of our prospective clients at first say, "well
that Open Space sounds great, but it would never work with my people" (with
engineers, or with corporate folks, or with policepersons, or whomever).  

 

And collectively, we have found that as long as it has been chosen as the
right tool for the right reasons, Open Space works in (as far as we have
found in our 20+ years collectively of using it) any culture, country or
setting.

 

But I agree with you, Chris - it seems as if the hardest people to convince
(before they experience it and find how well it works) are academics.
Indeed we of OSLIST have had similar conversations about this in the past.
Is it because so many academics live in a world of needing to describe what
is already known?  I can't tell - obviously scientists and doctors live in
this world, too, and really wonderful scientists and doctors have invited
Open Space into their worlds full of proving, describing and knowing.
Similarly, all academics are not alike - certainly there are those we work
with who invite Open Space - who believe in the power of not-knowing
partnered with deep-knowing.  So who can say.

 

But I do find that facilitation requires the client to trust in the
possibility, in the unknown potential, without being able to first see
something concrete and tangible.  An architect can show plans or a model to
describe similar successful projects; a chef can make a recipe for a
tasting.  But in our case it is often the sharing of the stories of "yes,
here are some situations like yours and some people like your community who
have found this to be successful for tasks like yours" that provides some
support for clients who try to imagine the success of something they have
not yet experienced.

 

One of the projects I have 'on the back burner' *  (Life, she is so full of
things to do) is a collection I am making of all the stories we share on the
OSLIST when any one of us asks 'who can share stories of using OS with.' for
different kinds of clients, situations and organizations.  I will one day
give this back to you all as a database of examples you can dip into
whenever you have this sort of question.  In this lifetime, I will launch
that service to you all.(whenever it starts and all that.)

 

Lisa

 

* "on the back burner" is a saying in the States, for those of you who do
not speak English as your home language - like a pot bubbling away on the
back burner of a stove to create a nice hours-long-cooked stew or soup

 

___________________________

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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