Why do I attend OST Learning Exchanges?

[Jo Toepfer]

Dear colleagues,

Raffi invited me to put some thoughts together about the question in the 
subject line to post it on the NING website of the Russian facilitator 
community. We wanted to attract more people to the upcoming WOSonOS 2010 
in Berlin.

I found it an interesting question and tried to answer honestly. The 
result is here - thanks to Raffi's translation it is also available in 
Russian language: here:
http://intertraining.ning.com/forum/topics/why-do-i-attend-ost-learning

After finishing this we thought you might be interested in this topic as 
well.

Greetings
Jo
***********************************
Why do I attend OST Learning Exchanges?

Whenever an OST Learning Exchange (LEX) is going to take place in my 
region I try to attend these type of events. And, I always try to 
convince my co-workers and clients to do so. There are a couple of good 
reasons for this:

First, I have a chance to be at an OST event as participant. This is a 
rare chance for me as facilitator to be just a participant. But it 
implies a massive learning opportunity to concentrate on my sensations 
and feeling while I am just there. I also learn more about my own needs 
how and when to apply the law of two feet. This gives me significant 
food for thoughts for my work as facilitator.

Second, it is a brilliant opportunity to deepen my knowledge of OST. 
Every single LEX is a practical exercise in Action Research. I discover 
new countries, situations and fields where OST has been applied. I learn 
more about possible occasions where OST is appropriate. Colleagues tell 
my about their experience and their ways of applying OST in different 
countries, situations and fields.

Third, since a whole bunch of colleagues with different backgrounds show 
up the LEX represents a chance to meet new and old friends. OST folks 
are normally easy going people and it is very easy to get in touch. The 
LEX itself transforms into a playground for new ideas and projects that 
I would never ever have been able to create on my own. When I go home 
and browse through the Book of Proceeding with all the projects and 
agreements made I am normally surprised and feel gifted with a lot of 
new opportunities.

Fourth, at a LEX I advance my facilitation skills. I have a chance to 
reflect upon the way to facilitate OST events. This includes reflection 
about pre- and after work and logistical aspects. We tell each other the 
way we work and this is a tremendous rich resource of differences. This 
includes not only behavioural aspects of the facilitation work but also 
technical details of materials used, timing for set-up and take-down, 
size of the team, type of paper used, computing and software applications.

Fifth, there is normally an issues like "One thing less to do" and I 
love it. For me this represents a very productive mental exercise to 
find out things that are not necessary to do and we can call the result 
still an OST event. This makes life much easier for me.

Sixth, Every single LEX is a good chance to spread OST. Since the group 
of participants is diverse it includes not only facilitators (which 
would turn the event into a boring occasion) but also assistants, 
helpers, sponsors, to name just a few. I walked never away from a LEX 
without at least a prospect of a future assignment. It simply have the 
chance to advertise myself for free and this supports my business.

I hope to see you at one of these events in future!
Jo Toepfer


-- 
Jo Toepfer, boscop eg
Dolziger Str. 40, 10247 Berlin
++49-30-42018000
www.boscop.org

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