[OSList] inquiry OS

Lourdes Adriana Diaz-Berrio Doring adriana at diazberrio.com
Mon Mar 4 19:45:29 PST 2013


Lisa: Thank you for all this sharing, you make me fell safe, it is
strange but that is how reading this makes me fell, I fell that open
space is something that you get to understand much better when you
accumulate experience as you have and I like this explanations that
are precises, clear and very helpful to me.
Adriana

2013/3/5 Lisa Heft <lisaheft at openingspace.net>:
> Celia - thank you so much for sharing your reflections, observations,
> learning and interest with us. We all learn together, in this sharing.
>
> So many things can affect how a dialogue-based event goes, Open Space or
> otherwise.
>
> I agree with what brother Chris and others say about invitation - to me,
> invitation - is an essential, important, key part of any dialogue-based
> event. Messaging, strategy, how, whom, why, giving enough advance time for
> people to plan for attending, and many other things. Pre-registration is
> also useful - finding out about people, engaging them with outreach and
> relationship during and after the registration process, and so on.
>
> Then there is the selection of what process best fits the overarching
> objective (reason for this particular meeting), Open Space or otherwise.
> Based on an analysis of why, for whom, to what end, context, what came
> before and what follows, how will the information / ideas / relationships
> generated at this event be used post-event, and so on. Then the choice of
> best-fit process to fulfill that - plus documentation design to support
> that, and so on.
>
> Then there is the way - if Open Space is the process that fits the situation
> - how we explain the Principles and Law, how we hold the space, and so on.
>
> Harrison is correct - there is hierarchy and cultural reasons for being not
> used to self-organization, education systems that do not engage people in
> critical thinking or dialogue, power dynamics - across all cultures. Not
> just Kenya.
>
> And there are other cultures where people are expected to be paid for things
> - take for example some clients of some NGOs for whom vouchers are given so
> they can attend, or for whom meals or child care or bus money is offered so
> they can attend... But this in itself does not seem to change the dynamics
> of engagement. It just changes who attends and who cannot or who chooses not
> to.
>
> I have facilitated Open Space in Mozambique and South Africa and other
> dialogue-based processes in Zambia. I have not worked yet in Kenya. All has
> gone very well, no problem with culture and and not only that: Open Space,
> when it has been used - has broken through power dynamics and hierarchal
> dynamics and intercultural differences and class and academic level and
> everything else.  So I do not see it as different in Africa - although of
> course wherever we work - whomever we work with - it is important to be
> aware of our own cultural filters, expectations and lenses. But Open Space
> itself has a way of working even if we are not the same culture as the
> people for whom we facilitate - because the facilitator very quickly becomes
> invisible - though completely present.
>
> There is also the idea of timing. In so many countries such as so many
> African countries - the time of elections is fraught with memories of
> violence and corruption and grief. Could this event have been timed at the
> right time? Would another time of the year have been best?
>
> There is also the question of - was it full, complete form of Open Space -
> or was it compressed into a very short time, was it not the complete form,
> and so on - because if not, that can change the dynamics, productivity and
> results.
>
> A million questions. A million things for you to share and explore.
>
> What does all of our sharing of ideas and questions bring up for you? Upon
> reflection, what would you yourself say? What are your theories about why it
> may not have worked, or worked in the way you thought it would?
>
> You teach us so much, in your discovery and learning,
>
> Lisa
>
>
>
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-- 

Adriana Díaz-Berrio Ph.D. CRHA
(514) 739 2268
www.diazberrio.com



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