Open space during a "lunch for learning"

john engle englejohn at hotmail.com
Tue May 2 04:27:39 PDT 2006


greetings.

i presented our DVD circles of change: a quiet revolution at Milton Hershey 
School yesterday (the orphanage and school founded by founder of Hershey 
Chocolate http://www.mhs-pa.org/ ) and followed it by a mini open space. 
numerous people among the 25 present--several of which are in high levels of 
leadership--expressed how much they enjoyed it and that "we need to have 
more of this."

the school's "Director of Organizational Learning and Leadership 
Development" invited me to come to present as part of their "lunch for 
learning" programs. it's just one hour and people who are interested sign up 
and bring their lunch. i told the group from the outset that following the 
DVD i would ask them to decide together which method they'd like to 
experience: reflection circles (also known as Touchstones Discussions) or 
open space. i stated, "i think it will be more valuable to live it rather 
than to talk about it."

1) we watched the abbreviated DVD (11 minutes) and i presented briefly our 
story of open space and reflection circles in Haiti (5 minutes).

2) they chose open space and i quickly presented the principles and how it 
worked (10 minutes), invited them to propose subjects--6 quickly emerged--

(our topic, which i had ready on a flipchart was "Student Achievement: 
Issues and Opportunities")

3) i had the people who proposed them hold rather than post on wall, their 
subjects, and go to a corner of the room and invited those interested to 
join them (thanks michael herman)

4) their conversations were just 12 minutes

5) we returned to closing circle and did a 10 minute talking stick exercise.

i was surprised by the comments about how interesting and powerful this mini 
experience was and how they wanted to continue the conversations that just 
began. the person who invited me told me to expect to hear from her about 
doing more open space with Milton Hershey School.

best,

john


http://circlesofchange.com participatory learning & leadership in Haiti
http://johnengle.net Open Space facilitation

email: john at johnengle.net
telephone: 202-236-6532

P.O. Box 337
Hershey, PA 17033




>From: Bea Kisszolosi <beahun at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: Re: stammtisch in istanbul
>Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:04:00 +0000
>
>
>Hi Filiz,
>
>
>
>Good to hear of you. When do you plan to come to Budapest?
>
>Bea
>
>
>
>
>From: Filiz Telek <filiz at bugday.org>
>Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: stammtisch in istanbul
>Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:23:42 +0300
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>2. stammtisch in Istanbul!
>
>Join us if you are around!
>
>
>
>when: 1 May 2006, Monday,  18.30 (6.30 p.m.)
>
>where: café limonlu bahce, Yeniçarþý caddesi No:98 Galatasaray
>
>
>
>from a sunny Istanbul

>
>
>f i l i z
>The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught - Sri 
>Aurobindo
>
>www.barakam.blogspot.com
>www.bugday.org
>
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