[OSList] OS in Liberia... plus some QUESTIONS

[Susan Partnow]

I'm just back from another trip to Monrovia where I am training a core team of Peacebuilders  in Compassionate Listening and Restorative Circle practice as well as OST.  We hosted the second Liberia Peacebuilder Community Summit (after holding one last March).  It was a great day, with well over 100 diverse people in attendance - primarily community members, with a sprinkle of NGOs and Western expats.  Our theme was, How can we Build Partnerships and Strengthen Peacebuilding Together? NG0  + Business + Community + Government

The day began with torrential rain and thunderstorms - despite our many efforts to influence the weather patterns through pleas, visualization, prayers and any ways we could imagine... WAWA was strongly at play.  ("West Africa Wins Again" - our code word for the unavoidable complications and chaos that arise in a developing world with minimal infrastructure and different views of time)... Arrival for everyone was delayed well beyond the usual, due to the rain...  Plus, the AV guy with the sound system was nowhere to be seen and the generator was locked up and no one present had the key (yet all parties had been pre-paid for their services).  The noise from the rain was so intense that we felt we couldn't begin the program without amplification.  Fortunately, a fabulous culture troupe was there - and they were great troupers indeed, offering a wonderful morning performance even before they had their costumes on.  (They also entertained at lunch and at the close of the day).  Finally, we decided we'd just have to make the best of it and get started with the program, sound or no sound...  And happily, in the middle of our Liberian partner's  welcoming remarks, the AV guy showed up.  –all in all, a great work out for OS Principles:  ultimately of course it started at the right time and the right people were there!

A small group of our Core Team of  Peacebuilders  had worked hard on the prior Saturday to prepare all the signage – and to take on the facilitation.  I prepared a sample script (adapted from Lisa Heft’s wonderful offerings) and coached them Saturday afternoon, with the assurance that I would be ready to intervene and support them on Monday.  It was a thrill to witness them stepping up to leadership as I stayed ‘in the wings’ and played a very minor role.  We began with a World Café –which was a powerful way to begin the morning and get everyone engaged and intermingling across the many differences present in the room:  men/women, elders/youth, educated/illiterate, Christian/Muslim/Traditional – and 16 different ethnic groups, plus Westerners.  We used stones gathered near the beach for talking objects.  The questions: 

Round 1) Think of the times when you had successful partnerships across sectors…Share the highlights. What made it possible?

Round 2) What are the challenges that keep you from building stronger partnerships?

Round 3) What can you do to build better partnerships?

Then we moved to Opening Circle for the Open Space:  the group generated about 20 topics for the two sessions.  It was great to see many in the group really get the idea of the Law of Two Foot – and move around amongst sessions.   Also, I noticed the questions were juicier than last March when we held the first Open Space.  However, what I noticed during many of the sessions was a tendency for one person (typically an elder male) to become the director of the session and, rather than generative conversation, the group tended to just list ideas for the ‘director’ to record.  It didn’t seem like new insights or ideas emerged; rather more of a rehashing of what they began with.  Observing this in so many sessions opened my eyes again to how many skills and experiences we may take for granted that are essential building blocks for the capacity for generative conversation:  asking questions, taking turns, building on each other’s ideas (rather than making parallel speeches), being open to new ideas or uncertainty or not knowing, etc.  (The World Café is a great learning experience for all of this…)  In any case, the day brought a sense of community and empowerment to all who attended, and a number of ideas and action plans were set into place

MY QUESTION:  Who has Opened Space in other places where the culture is very patriarchal and participants have limited education (many illiterate) – and what they do have is in a very didactic system, where you learn by rote and never ask questions?  Have you encountered the lack of generativity in the sessions?  Do you have any suggestions?  I am contemplating that in the future, I would recommend that a Core Team member attend each session to help serve as a facilitator with the goal of facilitating conversation and brainstorming.

PS  If you’d like to see some pictures and read the blogs posted from Liberia, go to: 

http://globalcitizenjourney.org/category/new-blog/

Susan
Susan Partnow
Founding Director, Global Citizen Journey
4425 Baker Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
tel. 206-783-8561
fax 206-782-7786
www.globalcitizenjourney.org
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www.susanpartnow.com   Partnow Communications, Organizational Development, Consulting & Facilitation
www.conversationcafe.org   Co-Founder
www.compassionatelistening.orgSr. Certified Facilitator
 
"When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness.  Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other."  --Margaret Wheatley



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