Moving along with OST in Indonesia (longish)

Tue Dec 28 12:25:05 PST 2010

So good poem, I remind all my relaitives and friends, also Brien Bainbrige,

Galina.

2010/12/28 Peggy Holman <peggy at peggyholman.com>

> Dear Suzanne,
>
> I come late to offering condolences on your father's passing.
>
> When my mother died, someone, I don't remember who, gave me a poem that
> moved me.  I hope you find solace in it.
>
> Peggy
>
>
>  GIVE WHAT'S LEFT OF ME AWAY
>
> When I die
> Remember me with a smile and laughter.
> If thoughts of me provoke no love,
> Only sadness and tears,
> I ask that I be soon forgotten.
>
> Give what's left of me away
> To children and old men who wait to die.
> And if you must cry, cry for your brother
> Who walks in grief beside you.
> And when you need me,
> Put your arms around anyone,
> And give them what you need to give me.
>
> I want to leave you something.
> Something better than words or sounds.
> Look for me in the people I've known or loved,
> Or helped in some special way.
> And if you cannot give me away,
> Let me live in your eyes for awhile,
> As well as in your mind.
>
> You can love me most
> By letting love live
> Within the circle of your arms
> Embracing the frightened ones.
>
> Love doesn't die, people do.
> So when all that's left of me is love,
> Give me away.
>
>             -- Jack Link
>
>
>  On Dec 13, 2010, at 3:40 AM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
>
> Dear Alan and all in the Open Space family,  (long and personal....!)
>
> Where to start, how to start and what to say.  On many fronts Alan, I have
> much to say and share.
>
> *First and most important*, is this work in Health Care, globally,
> nationally, regionally and locally that you are connecting us to.  In the
> past 10 years or so, I have spent weeks and months in the hospital
> accompanying my aging parents undergoing various medical interventions. When
> you live and sleep in the hospital, you see and feel many things. You see
> the kindness of staff, you know the deep intention to do good and you feel
> the powerlessness and sheer exhaustion of many overwhelmed by a system that
> is struggling most days: struggling at how complicated medicine has become,
> with so many procedures and processes, advanced technology that saves lives
> and extends lives and yet often crashes with the "day-to-day basics" when we
> often lose sight of and the loving care that is such an important part of
> Health Care. Big business with its fervor to manage, predict and control
> often intervenes in ways that are not helpful. If we could only trust the
> human spirit more, I believe costs would be better managed and care would
> have its noble place thus making us all "healthier" and "happier" in the
> long run.
>
> Alan I applaud what you are doing;  I applaud the conversations you convene
> between human beings with human beings in so many places, in so many ways.
> I honor Open Space and all that it does. I know that Positive Deviance,
> though I am not deeply familiar with it but plan to be, offers a path to
> change and transform health care and so many other areas in a way that lives
> and breathes the very principles of Open Space. And then finally, I know
> that Conversare is a gift from the heart, a gift to say that in life it is
> okay to have fun, to enjoy being together and simply revel in this place
> called life. We often forget that to "save the world" and "address all the
> problems",  the simple act of "enjoying each others' company and just "being
> ourselves" goes a long way to get things done. When we appreciate each
> other, we stop fixing and we start creating.
>
> *Now this is where my story becomes more complicated and personal.  *I
> share it with you because it is through Alan that I met Joelle Lyons Everett,
> a great source of comfort and friendship these past weeks, and it is through
> Open Space that I met Gail in Taiwan, Lisa from San Francisco who is also
> living parent care, and of course Harrison and so many others in the Open
> Space community.  As I have often done in the past, I will share vulnerably
> with you again now.
>
> A week ago tonight, my father passed away in hospice at the hospital. A few
> short months ago, he was the picture of health pushing my mom's wheelchair,
> racing up stairs and still the guy very much in charge.  Those who know me
> and have read me on this Open Space international list, know my close
> relationship with my dad, this man, the doctor who revered facts, data,
> science and medicine, the rebel at heart always battling the system, the one
> who did not always understand the "emotional and spiritual ways" of his
> daughter or large system change achieved not through "force and might" or
> "right and wrong" but rather using Harrison's Wave Riding words through an
> understanding that "high performance is the productive interplay of diverse,
> complex forces, including chaos, confusion and conflict, characterized by
> wholeness, health and harmony." These past few years, dad and I found each
> other through Open Space. What fun he had reading the Italian Version of
> Open Space Technology and then grilling me as a stern teacher would a
> trembling student.
>
> What I also know now is that on the other side of pain lies a brand new
> life, one where I will be released from this desire to please and appease
> that happens so often between daughters and fathers, between sons and
> fathers -- something that often gets carried into the rest of our lives.  I
> will know "freedom" and "choice" no longer seeking approval, passionately
> engaged in this important work of Open Space. But first I will rest and sink
> into this complicated grief work realizing perhaps for the first time that
> in death as in life, all is not always as it appears. Soothed by re-reading
> what Harrison has written in many books including Spirit (
> http://www.openspaceworld.com/Spirit.pdf) about  the process of grief work
> which was inspired by the late Elisabeth Kubler Ross, I will know that I am
> like so many others, just human and by knowing this, I will be better in the
> future at "opening, holding and closing" space.
>
> So Alan, hopefully you will not feel that I high jacked your posting with
> my personal life story. I never knew Alan that meeting in Taiwan at WOSonOS
> with us raising our martini glass with a salute to our pal HO would lead to
> this long distance friendship and collegial relationship.
>
> In closing, it seems appropriate to shift away from my story or what Alan
> described to what a few Sumatra participants said which speaks a common
> truth that we hear all the time and in many ways are our "raison d'être" for
> Opening Space and why we, in this wonderful Open Space community of ours, do
> what we do:
>
> "Until this experience I had always thought that only the most intelligent
> members of a class were capable of coming up with ideas on a topic such as
> the one we addressed. Now I know that anyone may do so."
>
>
> "When my colleagues and I do research we usually look at the negative side
> of issues. I can now see that looking for positive aspects would be very
> valuable."
>
>
> "I have never before imagined myself coming forward to talk to an audience
> this large. Today I have done it."
>
>
> *Simple truths indeed!
> *
>
>
> Affectionately and appreciatively signed,
>
> Suzanne Daigle
>
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 8:55 PM, Alan Stewart <alanmstewart at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hello All
>>
>>
>> Further to my being in West Sumatra in May of this year to give a keynote
>> address at an international conference on ‘The Health Care Revolution in
>> Indonesia’ …at which I suggested that OST is a very effective means by which
>> to enable communities to communicate their perceived needs for health care
>> services. See:
>>
>>
>> http://openspaceworld.ning.com/forum/topics/sewing-seeds-for-ost
>>
>>
>> The organizer of the conference was Prof Dr Elfindri (like many people in
>> Indonesia he has only one name) who was one of my PhD students when I was an
>> academic nutritionist in a medical school in Australia in the early 90s.
>> While his background is in economics he wished to better understand the
>> relationship between the nutritional status of communities and their
>> productivity.
>>
>>
>> In the course of his studies I passed on to him the concept of Positive
>> Deviance (PD). He used this approach in the field work for his PhD thesis
>> and subsequently in further studies. So successful did this prove that he
>> published widely on the approach and also set up his own publishing company
>> to produce books on the topic.
>>
>>
>> Elfindri is now a well respected and well connected person in Sumatra and
>> beyond in Indonesia.
>>
>>
>> He invited me back late last month to present, jointly, a series of
>> seminar/workshops on OST and PD in several cities around this island, all to
>> audiences comprising mainly staff and students of private universities. My
>> role was to cover matters to do with OST, his on PD. We both also introduced
>> our respective perspectives on ‘soft skills’ or ‘people skills’
>>
>>
>> Here are brief points about these elements of our presentations: ‘Experiential'
>> OST, PD, roles of Dania Pratiwi.
>>
>>
>> 1. ‘Hands on’ experience with OST
>>
>>
>> In only one of the four sessions was there opportunity to provide this,
>> given limitations of time and space. Nonetheless I touched on OST as a means
>> of communicating with communities and its potential significance for health
>> care practitioners wherever possible.
>>
>>
>> In the first of the presentations, scheduled for a morning only, in
>> Padang, while 500 participants were expected 1300 materialised. No
>> possibility! In two others the time was even more limited and so no prospect
>> either.
>>
>>
>> In the one where there was an opportunity (a full day event in Pekanbaru,
>> in Riau province), the time allocated was two hours only. And with an
>> audience of some 250 - in a theatre with fixed seats that did not swivel -
>> there was no possibility of having a circle! This audience comprised staff
>> and students of nursing, midwifery and health education.
>>
>>
>> Very briefly – the OST experience happened and happened well. I had
>> mentioned in a talk in the morning that it would take place, immediately
>> after lunch, and what the potential value to them could be.
>>
>>
>> And had shown John Engle’s lovely video<http://openspaceworld.ning.com/video/john-engles-short-sweet>at the Mennonite Health Assembly Open Space. (Also to the 1300 strong
>> audience earlier). John, even while you and your family are in a precarious
>> situation in Haiti your influence is percolating nicely in Indonesia.
>>
>>
>> In introducing the ‘hands on’ I:
>>
>>
>> . suggested to the audience that they imagine that they were in a circle!
>>
>> . walked up and back up the centre isle of the theatre, in lieu of the
>> circle, making eye contact with as many of the audience as possible.
>>
>> . spoke to the principles and associated ideas which Dania – see below –
>> had produced beautifully and which were on display on the front of the
>> stage.
>>
>> . indicated that the theme was ‘How may health care practitioners improve
>> the nutritional status of children?’
>>
>> . also indicated that there was time only for one breakout session of
>> about 75 minutes.
>>
>> . invited everyone to come down to the front where there were paper and
>> pens, and write what they thought was important to explore.
>>
>> . encouraged those who had a topic to offer to come to the front again to
>> announce it.
>>
>>
>> Whoosh! Immediately I had finished saying these things about 15 people
>> from all parts of the audience ran (no leaped!) down, picked up their paper
>> and began to scribe furiously.  And then came forward to announce –
>> through a hand held microphone – their topics. Having done this they pinned
>> their papers to a board.
>>
>>
>> What to do next? With only about 75 minutes for the break out session and
>> about 15 topics I suggested that we pick five of them, randomly, to become
>> the agenda items. These were then typed up by Dania and projected onto a
>> large screen.
>>
>> Once this was done I invited the proponents of each to come down the front
>> and allocated them a number from 1 to 5. I then asked them to follow me up
>> the centre isle, where I ‘deposited’ them - each holding a piece of paper
>> with their number on it- about 10 metres apart.
>>
>>
>> When all were in position I invited everyone to go to join with the person
>> whose topic attracted them, find a place to gather and get on with it!
>>
>>
>> (As an aside I would add that, while this was happening, I felt a totally
>> unexpected attack of diarrhea coming on. The food in Sumatra – similar for
>> every meal of the day – is very spicy, normally no problem for me.  Having
>> finally said ‘go to it’ I had to dash and only just made it!).
>>
>>
>> On my return, much relieved, to the hall I found that all the groups were
>> sitting on the floor between the stage and the first row of seats, and were
>> thoroughly engaged.When the time was up I asked them to hand in their
>> reports. At least one of these was ‘voluminous’ in that the scribe had
>> recorded several pages of notes.
>>
>>
>> And then invited anyone to come down to the microphone to express their
>> experience of being a participant. As this was all done in Bahasa
>> Indonesian I did not follow the details. What I did gather were three
>> comments:
>>
>>
>> . Until this experience I had always thought that only the most
>> intelligent members of a class were capable of coming up with ideas on a
>> topic such as the one we addressed. Now I know that anyone may do so.
>>
>>
>> . When my colleagues and I do research we usually look at the negative
>> side of issues. I can now see that looking for positive aspects would be
>> very valuable.
>>
>>
>> .  I have never before imagined myself coming forward to talk to an
>> audience this large. Today I have done it.
>>
>>
>> Who knows what the principals of this private university made of their
>> observations of this event? (The three of us had to leave immediately after
>> to appear in a live local TV program). In my experience the chances of
>> receiving direct feedback are not great. Nonetheless I always invoke my own
>> primary measure of success: It happened!  Being invited back would be
>> another indication of impact.
>> 2. Positive Deviance Referring to my post: ‘OST and PD (Positive
>> Deviance)’ 11 Nov 2010 and the comments on this:
>>
>> While PD and OST are highly complementary they are different approaches.
>> PD, in my understanding, provides a powerful framework for conceptualizing
>> what is ‘working’ well, what to look out for and how to use insights and
>> knowledge of why some people do better than others in seemingly similar
>> situations.
>>
>>
>> Implementing such knowledge in particular contexts requires a different
>> skill set from facilitating OST forums. Joelle Lyons Everett, in Seattle,
>> does both and says that her background in OST serves her well for her work
>> as a coach of PD in addressing MRSA infections in hospitals. I suspect
>> that Henry Lipmanowicz and Lisa Kimball would say the same, *nes pas?
>> *
>>
>> *
>> *
>>
>> 3. Roles of Dania Pratiwi
>>
>>
>> Dania, a recent graduate from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, was
>> the ‘logisitics’ person on this enterprise. See
>> http://conversare.net/?p=448 for more information on how this came about
>> and to gain a sense of who she is.
>>
>>
>> She was the most personable and capable person imaginable to do this. She
>> took everything in her stride, mainly translating what I was saying but
>> plenty more, as an integral member of ‘The Three Amigos’.
>>
>>
>> Something which I learned during our several most enjoyable days together
>> was that Dania’s one and only experience of OST to date was at the Second
>> World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace<http://www.imamsetrabbins.org/en/congresses/detail/1/10/7>in Seville, Spain in March 2006. This was as a 19 year old member of an
>> organization called ‘Children of Abraham.’
>>
>>
>> There she met Harrison who facilitated an OST session. And also, for the
>> first time in her life as a Muslim, Rabbis. “I met a lot of Great Imams and
>> Rabbis there and learned a lot of things from them. I learned that we can
>> always turn our enemies into friends. I also learned that we may be
>> different, but inside we are brothers.”
>>
>>
>> This experience prompted Dania to join the OSlistserv, which is how she
>> came to offer her assistance when she saw that I would be working in
>> Indonesia in May of this year.
>>
>>
>> As you may surmise doing this work with Elfindri and Dania was likely to
>> be eye-opening for many people, and certainly was truly wonderful
>> experiencing for us. The portents are that there will be follow-ups next
>> year.
>>
>> Go well
>>
>>
>> Alan
>> Hong Kong
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> 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
> twitter @suzannedaigle
>
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