A Thanksgiving Story with a link

Wed Nov 25 23:59:04 PST 2009

Sorry to have missed your pre-event conversations while you were 
here, but delighted to read about what happened!  Thanks for sharing.

Gail

>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-%C2%A0>http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-
>
>
><http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-%C2%A0>
>
>
>
>Suzanne
>
>
>
>--
>Suzanne Daigle
>NuFocus Strategic Group
>7159 Victoria Circle
>University Park, FL 34201
>FL 941-359-8877;  CT 203-722-2009
><http://www.nufocusgroup.com>www.nufocusgroup.com
><mailto:s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com>s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
>
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-- 
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE   gwestica

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