A Thanksgiving Story with a link

Wed Nov 25 15:32:07 PST 2009

Suzanne--

Wonderful job, but even more wonderful commitment to the gift of time! 

I am glad that you reported on this. We are always glad to get reports
on what happened when people opened space, so please, everybody,
contribute!

What are you planning to do to give people this gift of time more often?
What specifically do you have in mind, Suzanne?

			:- Doug.

On Wed, 2009-11-25 at 15:17 -0500, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
> I hesitated before sharing this story but as I have found it to be so
> often the case, it is just a way for me to pay it forward sharing my
> questions, vulnerabilities, fears and joys. I owe so much to this
> wonderful community. Its generosity, depth of insight, truth telling,
> healing, passion, spiritedness, etc. makes me just happy to be alive. 
> 
> Now to my story. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to
> participate in a university/community leadership program over a
> six-week period with 6 seventy-five minute sessions featuring Margaret
> Wheatley's work with the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg
> on community. Sharon Joy Kleitsch who heads up The Connection Partners
> in Florida had asked if I could help, indicating there might be an
> opportunity to do Open Space. The program involved close to 50
> students, 25+ community leaders and a dozen or more faculty/staff
> members.
> 
> The first week was a chance for the group to engage with Margaret
> Wheatley by Skype, second week was World Cafe and the third to fifth
> week, we did Open Space closing in the 6th week by spending 4 hours
> with Meg Wheatley on site in Florida.
> 
> When I was in Taiwan, I spoke to some experienced OS facilitators
> about the wisdom of facilitating an Open Space in 75 minutes with this
> group. Gently they suggested it might not be such a good idea because
> of the limited time; perhaps I could engage the opening of
> conversations some other way.   Well, I'd already committed so I
> decided we'd go ahead with it anyway.  Michele Young (a
> co-facilitator) and I worked like crazy to imagine everything we could
> do to give the participants maximum time during those 75 minutes. It
> meant hours and hours of pre-work to have everything ready in order to
> maintain the invisibility and intention of Open Space to self-organize
> and for people to find their passion. Initially we didn't know we'd be
> doing 3 sessions of Open Space.
> 
> In 10 minutes, each in our separate classrooms, Michele and I had
> introduced attendees to the basics of Open Space.  We called it a
> "Mini Taste of Open Space". Next they were writing their topics
> (nearly 50 in total; 25 in each class); shopping the marketplace and
> before we knew it, there they were intensely engaged in conversations.
> In those 30 minutes or so, they shared and even managed to summarize a
> few key points on flip chart sheets that were immediately posted on
> the wall. We closed the circle and the comments were touching and
> validating. We decided to repeat the experience the following week
> allowing them to deepen their discussions.
> 
> In the second week with the entire group in 1 room, we re-opened the
> marketplace, more topics were added and two more rounds of
> conversations happened. Because the participants had not connected as
> a larger group yet, there were fewer topics but the discussions did
> not appear to be less spirited or intense. 
> 
> In week 3, we did a convergence giving everyone 3 tickets asking them
> to identify which topics/projects they had the most passion for and
> which might be most feasible and have the most impact in creating a
> Sustainable Tampa Bay community which was our theme. Ten top topics
> emerged and from this more discussions and some quick action plans.
>  
> In summary, three weeks of Open Space created opportunities for
> connecting with others on community issues that people were passionate
> about, generating 60 topics, 25 summary reports and 10 action plans.
> 
> The final week, Margaret Wheatley spent face-to-face time with the
> group engaging them in personal leadership conversations and inspiring
> them with examples of community leadership work around the world . 
> 
> How do I feel today looking back at this Open Space experience?
> Mixed. Yes it was magical to have people get so engaged, so fast and
> to see them in diverse groups sharing and talking.  Yes the feedback
> from the participants was heartwarming. But then, how hard it was to
> see them have so little time even though I know they were moved and
> touched by the opportunity they had to connect, no matter how short. 
> 
> Having just spent two and a half days as a participant in Open Space
> in Taiwan before this work and then another two and a half days in
> Toronto afterwards, I was able to compare how and what it felt like to
> have more time. Each of these experiences, in their purest intention
> and utter simplicity, taught me so much. I realized that to change a
> world, create real passion, drive action requires time: time to
> connect, time to discover, time to think, to share and to celebrate,
> to trust and to take personal responsibility.  Our intentions were
> good with the university project but now I feel I owe it to myself and
> this wonderful Open Space community to shoot for the moon and try my
> best to invite people to give themselves this precious gift of time --
> helping them choose to open space in their lives. It's not easy to do
> especially when we know that we can never truly understand what Open
> Space is all about until you live it therefore hard for leaders and
> others to commit time and money. Yes, I will continue to settle for
> less sometimes but as sure as can be, I will try harder to offer
> more. 
> 
> Hopefully by continuing to share our stories, capture the images and
> speaking with courage what we believe to be true, more people will see
> the benefit of opening space in their lives so we can enjoy life and
> not be so stressed by life. Then it will truly be a joyful "dance"  --
> this dance of chaos and order. 
> 
> Again sorry for being so long winded! Felt it was a "harvest" story
> worth sharing on this Thanksgiving eve. 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt- 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Suzanne
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Suzanne Daigle
> NuFocus Strategic Group
> 7159 Victoria Circle
> University Park, FL 34201
> FL 941-359-8877;  CT 203-722-2009
> www.nufocusgroup.com
> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
> 
> 
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