FW: dominant and shy/Cultural Differences...bring them to Kiev

Harrison Owen hhowen at verizon.net
Tue Feb 27 05:11:54 PST 2007 

From: Michael M Pannwitz [mailto:mmpanne at boscop.de] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 8:03 AM
To: hhowen at verizon.net
Cc: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: dominant and shy/Cultural Differences...bring them to Kiev

I was gobsmacked back in 1998 as the eldest and oldest in the group of 
(believe it or not) Anglican Bishops in Nairobi in Kenia interrupted my 
introduction saying:
I know this. We used to do that in our village.
In the ensuing talk I found out that their word for it was baraza 
meaning so much as "sitting under a shady tree". Others among this 
illustrous crowd of purple clad bishops from other tribes then pointed 
out that they knew of this from their villages too with equally poetic 
names.
Yep, its been around and ho is right when hes says that he 
"re-discovered" it and when we say that we dont have to "learn" it, 
"remembering" will do just fine.
And when we meet in Kiev in May for the 15th OSonOS I am sure there will 
be stories from countries and tribes East with similar stories. In case 
you wonder about what this OSonOS is, go to
> http://www.demenko.info/welcome%21.html

with some grand pictures of open space set ups.

Greetings from Berlin
mmp boscop eg

Harrison Owen wrote:
> GOBSMACKED! Finally, the definitive diagnosis for the Open Space
Syndrome!!
> I thank you. The world will thank you. Wonderful!!
> 
> Reminds me of a time I was opening space with a group of Southern Ute and
> Navajo (1st Nation People from the Southwest US). The topic was something
> pretty mundane like "roads and where to build them" -- but the experience
> was something else. Towards the end one of the Chiefs came up to me in a
> friendly way, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "What took you so
> long, White Man?"
> 
> And some folks think that Open Space is a brand new idea???
> 
> Harrison  
> 
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20854
> Phone 301-365-2093
> Skype hhowen
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> Personal website www.ho-image.com 
> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
> archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Anne A
> Hiha
> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 9:44 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: dominant and shy/Cultural Differences
> 
> Kia ora Harrison
> 
> I recently had the experience of opening space with a group of trainee 
> secondary school teachers and a number of them thought it was a [New 
> Zealand] Maori process because of experiences they had had on marae 
> (traditional Maori communal areas) and I would guess that they linked
that, 
> with my Maori ethnicity and came to that conclusion.  Anyway, it would
seem 
> the the 'Law of two feet' was a clincher because voting with ones feet is 
> the modus operandi in many Maori communities including my own.  It can get

> us to gatherings and away from them and is just part of what we do around 
> here.  When they discovered that it brought into the western
organisational 
> world from over yonder they were gobsmacked.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Anne
> 
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
> Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: dominant and shy/Cultural Differences
> Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:23:28 -0500
> 
> There is no question that cultures make a difference, but over the years
as
> I have participated in Open Spaces in more cultures and places than I care
> to remember -- I have been struck by how much the same it all is. For
> example, when people first hear about The Law of Two Feet the almost
> universal and immediate reaction is -- "Sounds great, but we don't do
that!"
> And of course the feet do move everywhere and every time. Sometimes
faster,
> and sometimes slower, but at the level of overall group behavior, it is
same
> old, same old. Of course there are individual differences, but that seems
to
> have more to do with personal preference, the challenge of the topic, as
> well as how hungry they are, the need for a cigarette, or the Toilette. So
> what could that tell us about culture and Open Space?
> 
> Harrison
> 
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Drive
> Potomac, Maryland   20854
> Phone 301-365-2093
> Skype hhowen
> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> Personal website www.ho-image.com
> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
> archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Arno
> Baltin
> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 4:25 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: dominant and shy
> 
> Hi,
> 
>  > I would benefit from hearing a little bit more. Like Raffi, I sense
>  > that you're communicating something significant here, something that
>  > can help us to better understand ourselves and how we might be
>  > perceived by others.
>  >
>  > john
> 
> Well, I'll try some more.
> 
> As I am not sure, where the misunderstunding lies I'll try two ways.
> 
> 1. Lets take another examples of participant behaviour at OS: the bee.
> Some people feel at easy to change discussion groups, to listen some
> here and then move to next discussion, add something to it and move
> again. And then there are ones just staying from the beginning till the
> end in one group. Again it is possible to search for individual motives
> and preferences. Another way of reflecting on these differences is to
> find a cultural value dominant in particular group (where thesse persons
> come from). An interesting idea which comes from  cultural difference
> descriptions is that there are groups (cultures) where it is OK do many
> different things at the same time (multitasking)  versus on thing at
> time cultures (a person should finish on business before turning to
> another). So we could expect more bees on OS when participants share the
> "multitasking"  cultural norm. And for participants from  "one business
> cultures"  to become bee is a challenge.
> 
> 2. Could be the my speculations are not easy to follow as i am not good
> at explaining the idea of the impact of  cultural  differences on
> organizational behavior. Although there are several different  models,
> the  one I am most familiar is  the G.Hofstedes one (and everyone can
> find more hints here):
> http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?CulturalDimensions
> What I am trying to say is that participants form different cultural
> background percieve OS differently. The same thing (law of two feet)
> might be a normal thing for one person, challegenge for other and tabu
> for third. And it depends not so much on the personality of this
> particular person but on the cultural norm he is accustomed to.
> For example here in Estonia (and this is just my opinion) discussions
> turn often into "fight" as we are prone to "one truth" as a value. One
> should discuss a topic till The Truth is found. It is rather hard to
> tolerate many equally right viewpoints at the same time. (And there are
> cultures where this is not the problem at all). So this cultural norm
> leads often to not writing anything down on the paper till The Truth is
> reached. At the end we will get too few proposals ...
> 
> thank you for taking time to follow,
> 
> Arno
> 
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--




Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de


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