whatever one says,people do whatever they want to do anyway

Mon Mar 6 07:15:18 PST 2006

OST has worked; 34 issues were posted, 12 action plans were anounced and we (all the group and us) learned many things.
Filiz, although she is not aware of that, was wonderful!

Funda 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Filiz Telek 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 9:46 AM
  Subject: whatever one says,people do whatever they want to do anyway

  This is the newest principle for OS that Funda and I are proposing.after our experience in OS yesterday J

  Ok, just around the days when we have been contemplating on "whatever happens is the only thing that could have", I will share with you a brief reflection on this open space we experienced, a first for me, Funda and for all who attended.and perhaps dwell a little bit on what could we have done different or what can we do different in the future.

  Funda Oral, whom you know from this list, facilitated this meeting and I tried to support her to my capability. This was the first time we opened space together in Turkey, so it was quite a historical day for all of us, considering the work Funda has done in the last years to invite people to open space in Turkey.

  Today we co-hosted a group of people who are passionate about improving the public transport in Istanbul. Their immediate focus was saving the traditional ferryboats of Istanbul which are one of the important symbols of Istanbul that reflects the spirit of this city. Saving because the municipality wanted to get rid of them to bring in new and fast sea buses. So by taking a stand on the maintenance of these ferries, this group actually is one of the real citizens' movements in Turkey that has some effect on local decision making.the theme of today's meeting was to come up with activities for 2006 to improve sea transport and saving the ferries.

  All in all it went well with a little more chaos than usual.groups were formed, exciting conversations were held, actions were proposed.and Funda did a great job in opening the space.

  However convergence was a little disaster in my view, and good news is that I was hosting it J  there could be many reasons for this but I tend to blame myself or the group for the outcome. When it was convergence time, we re-opened space where I invited people to announce the actions they want to take. By the time I could finish my sentence, some people had left the room, some wondering around, some chatting to the person next to them, two people shouting at each other.I invited the group about 3 times and nothing changed. At the end, someone read some proposed actions from the previous session, put them on the floor and people who were interested signed up. By that time half of the group had left already. Unfortunately we didn't even have a closing, because we couldn't maintain the energy of the group anymore. The meeting finished an hour earlier than the proposed time.

  Now, whatever happens is the only thing that could have. But for my own sanity, I need some practical help here. Because this seems to be the general group dynamics over here and I am having a hard time as a facilitator to deal with it. Not only it makes me feel incompetent, it makes me also lose hope at certain points about being able to do any useful work over here.

  My main challenges are that people don't listen well, they don't concentrate during a meeting, so they miss and don't follow the instructions and the groups are not able to converge. In all of the meetings I attended so far, I found myself watching in awe how people disappear before we are able to say, so this meeting is finished. And naturally there is no conclusion. I then feel all the energy that was built up during a meeting gets wasted before we could channel it into something constructive.

  I have been told that being young and female does not help in Turkish culture. I do not accept this as an explanation. 
  I would like to know whether any of you worked in a similar cultural setting where it was difficult to shift the group energy beyond the individual to the collective, where listening and focusing was a challenge.and people proceeded the way they wanted to. To which degree do you or do you not interfere? What do you do, when you propose a step and one (or more) participant suggests something else before your next step? (this happens so often here, drives me crazy, even if you say no, we cant really do that, people go ahead anyway) What are the conditions for being able to converge a group whose energy is all over the place?

  I am really interested in improving the flow under the conditions I described above and I am asking for practical suggestions.

  Thank you! 

  f i l i z 
  approach love and cooking with reckless abundance!
  www.barakam.blogspot.com
  www.bugday.org 

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