dominant and shy/Cultural Differences

Tue Feb 27 04:47:13 PST 2007

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 
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-----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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