Help! I need a couple of good stories

[Lisa Heft]

Michael - another thing to keep in mind - often when there is grief, loss,
rage, fear - it is important to have a 2 or 2.5 day Open Space.

Open Space or not - what people tend to do on Day 1 is name their story
.... sometimes over, and over, and over again.  They need to do this until
a point when they feel truly witnessed... Then, with a good dinner (will
you design that the food for dinner is shared? Amazing to break bread with
people to get a different sense for them), a good chat in the bar (or
whatever), a good sleep, and a nice warm shower...

...people tend to not let go of their old story entirely, but can carry it
with them, as it were, as they co-create a new story into the future.  On
Day 2, it is not as if things are solved - it is just ... a little ...
breathing room.  Day 2 you will often feel a shift.

So my recommendation is to - if you can - ensure there will be 2 or 2.5
days.  More room to name things, to feel things, to muddle through
together.

I also think that your framing of the day will help - your co-creation of
the theme / focusing question with your client, your way of opening the
circle.  And: if you can, if there are different languages, it will help
to include those languages on your posters / signs.  Inclusivity, respect,
presence.

Open Space will do the rest.

>From Kansas City, USA (where I am facilitating tomorrow an Open Space with
immigrant and refugee farmers from Somalia, Cambodia, Mexico and Central
America, Korea)

Lisa

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