New analogy...?

Ralph Copleman rcopleman at comcast.net
Thu Mar 11 14:09:13 PST 2010


Shared with future search and open space listserves...

Friends,

Lately I've had some conversations with representatives of various communities who are considering doing what we did here in my town to organize our community-wide sustainability effort.  We created the program with a Future Search in the spring of '06, and we have used open space both before and after that event.

Questions from people in other communities revolve around issues you have all heard before, namely:

	Do we really have to spend 2.5 days to do this, etc.?

I used to offer up a medical or dental analogy, along the lines of... if you come in with a toothache or need a new kidney, don't tell the doctor how much time you have available to fix it.

Now I think I may have stumbled on a more effective analogy, and I pass it along for what it's worth.  It goes like this:

Trying to meet your long-term needs by building a meeting around short-term concerns of convenience is like judging the likely success of a marriage based on what you are served at the wedding dinner.

Anybody got any other analogies or metaphors that really work?

Ralph Copleman

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