Day 2 of Workshop on Democracy in Asia: Opening the Space

[Holger Nauheimer]

On Day 2 we shifted the gears. We prepared the Open Space together, using
the wonderful task cardset of Michael M Pannwitz. went into Open Space,
which I opened in the classical way that Harrison Owen has described 20
years ago. Our theme was:

Increasing the Impact of Our Work: Promoting Freedom and Responsibility in
Asia


Like always, it took a few minutes until 26 people have found 18 topics they
were passionate about:

*	How to make "politics" interesting to attract the youth?
*	How to improve right of expression in the region?
*	How to increase "responsibility" in our society?
*	How to further promote our brand (of the Friedrich Naumann
Foundation?
*	How to make our country "unity"?
*	How to organize an interactive (interesting) conference?
*	How to strengthening and spreading liberalism in the region?
*	How to do a nice blog?
*	Which message can persuade people of liberal values
*	What medium for what message?
*	Optimize use of new media, make use of technology (Mac) less
intimidating?
*	To have frequent skills training in the region
*	How to improve my technical knowledge?
*	Is a one fits it all approach politically suitable for every county
in the region?
*	Contiune to build and promote local elite
*	How to overcome authoritarian attitude of people?
*	How to produce a popular video for promoting democracy
*	Shall we ignore or integrate religiouls values in our liberal
advocacy?
*	How to improve IAF alumni participation?
*	How to change myself?

We had three slots of 1 hour each, interrupted by a delicious Indian meal in
the 26th floor of our hotel. By the way - here is a little bit of promotion:
The  <http://www.rembrandtbkk.com/> Rembrandt Hotel in Soi 18 Sukhumvit is a
great hotel for conventions. The staff is very experienced and flexible. The
downside - like in many Asian hotels is that our large room does not have
any daylight - quite tiresome.

 

Here are a few participants' voices:

 

This is what a Thai participant wrote as a reflection:

 

The power of passion

 

Most people tend to believe that to achieve a constructive and fruitful
discussion you need an organised framework. Until this morning, I belonged
to this group of people.

 

On the first day, our facilitator talked about the importance of passion and
responsibility. Just today, I realized how powerful it could be if someone
is passionate about something. It's empowering when people who share the
same passion get to talk and share ideas with each other.

 

I came to realize that passion actually inspires people to take
responsibility, and that we do not always need a set framework or assigned
resource person to achieve a fruitful discussion. We can be each other's
resource persons.

 

The most important thing is "passion'

 

It's a human nature that when we are passionate about something, we are
driven to act and take responsibility.

 

There is a German saying "Liebe kann Berge versetzen," which means love can
move mountains.

 

What I learned today was that when it comes to work, passion can move
mountains of obstacles and clear the way for success. </blockquote>

 

 

Another participant wrote:

 

Having participated myself in three different rounds of discussion which
only took about an hour each, it became apparent that all of those issues
were in fact closely related. During all discussions, it first seemed as if
the groups were entering other groups' themes or that some were promoting
the topic of other discussion rounds. However, a little while later it
became apparent that the whole aim of the exercise would inevitably lead to
systemic thinking. This proved the enormous value of Open Space Technology
for the FNF Asia team.

 

Regardless of whether we discussed the issue of adequate branding of FNF in
Asia, whether we wanted to clarify the culturally adequate way of
communicating liberal values, or whether we addressed the specific role of
religion in the advocacy of liberal values, in all these discussions the
systemic interdependency within the organization became amply apparent.

 

We have learned to use a wonderful tool for organizational development that
we can apply in our programme work in our respective project countries.
Meanwhile we have also strengthened our capacity to learn from our
colleagues and to appreciate their wisdom in matters that are also close to
our heart.


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