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Good morning, all:<br><br>
First and foremost I want to thank all of you who sent me your ideas on
the challenge that I shared with you a few weeks ago regarding the use of
OS as part of a major cultural transformation at a Central American Ag
University. I received dozens of letters, both on the list and
off-list (although I can´t imagine why so many people chose to share
their wisdom off-list). Some of the suggestions were excellent but
impractical due to the poverty level in Honduras and the unavailability
of many items. Others were very important and useful.<br><br>
I compiled (and translated) them and sent them to the organizers at the
University and together we finalized the strategies on-line.<br><br>
My colleague-wife and I travelled to Honduras a couple of weeks ago to do
the program. Right from the start there were several major
challenges, mainly with the previously agreed-upon and now undoable
logistics, so we had to modify (considerably) the original plan to
accomodate not only the logistic questions but also some last minute cold
feet from some of the fossilized members of the administration and the
alumni association that were all for change on paper but in flesh and
blood it was too threatening. <br><br>
The first day we spent mainly talking with students and faculty and
getting to know the 7000 acres of campus, crops, pastures, animals,
woods, jungle, etc. That evening we did just the first part of the
OS: 200+ of the 800 students, and almost no faculty members, responded to
the initial call. It was impossible to put them in a circle outside
in the center knoll between the principal buildings (thanks, Harrison,
for that great idea) as we had planned (no lights and no PA system were
working) so we put them in the auditorium. After a brief intro
about the "rules" and "roles" of OS we gave out 10cm
X 20cm cards to everyone with the invitation to mill around and get
together in groups to decide topics and "convene" the work
teams. The only restriction was that every card had to begin with
"How can we...". We received over 500 cards!!!<br><br>
The next day we met with the volunteer internal facilitators (dorm
supervisors, counselors, staff and faculty) and we briefed them on OS and
their role monitoring the "second part". Together we used
stickywalls to affinity-sort the cards and summarize them.
Amazingly, especially for adolescents, almost all the cards were able to
be summarized in 24 groups. We insisted that all 500 be published
immediately on the University Intranet, which amazed everybody with the
transparency of the process and the good intentions of the majority of
the University leadership. <br><br>
On the third day all classes and work were suspended at the Univ. and we
did the "rest" of the OS. We prepared 30 workspaces in
classrooms and sheltered outdoor spaces (24 subjects and 4 extras for
spontaneous subjects, which very commonly arise in Latin American
OS). At first, the students just milled around in
disbelief; in its 80 years, the University had never given
unstructured time to it´s students during a school day. Finally a
few first year students began to sit down and talk in several of
the meeting spaces. The facilitator served as "convener"
until a student or teacher agreed to take that role over.
Then, little by little, all the meeting rooms and overflow rooms were
filled by students from all four years, faculty and even staff that had
also been invited. There was a core of 10-15 students in almost all
of the groups and a VERY large number of roving bands (3-5) of bumblebees
(we call them hummingbirds) that went from group to group and
participated in many. By midday things wound down (as we suspected)
and a total of over 500 people had participated. In each group the
facilitator and the student or faculty "convener" then went and
posted their results to the Univ. Intranet. <br><br>
In the afternoon, the sessions were moved to the six dormitory blocks (a
kind of mini OS around dormitory-relevant topics chosen from the original
list of 24). Small groups began to organize around the topics and
at the close of the afternoon those results were also posted on the
Intranet but also a strategic plan was begun for each dormitory and
actions and responsibilities were agreed upon. A central
consolidating committee was also self-selected that included students
from all four years and six dormitories, faculty and staff, and they will
consolidate all of the information from the OS on the Intranet, into a
series of proposals to bring to the University. The President of
the University publicly thanked all the participants and agreed to
consider and respond to each one with the same responsibility with which
they were developed. Other followups are being planned
also.<br>
<br>
We left the school the next day with tearfull goodbyes (both from the
students and from us). In the days that followed the event we have
received many emails that have related how things are changing
already. I think the most moving one was from the president of the
Alumni Association (who also participated and who´s psychorigidity was
very prominant at the beginning) and said, in the close of his
letter: "I can now say the the words ´How can we....´
have become the symbol of the future of this University".<br><br>
It was the strangest OS we have ever done and not very
"kosher"...but it worked. If there was one lesson we
learned, it was: "Dare to try something different".
<br><br>
Warm regards,<br><br>
Gil<br><br>
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<b> **************************************<br>
<u>AMAUTA INTERNATIONAL, LLC<br>
</u></b> Gilbert Brenson-Lazan - Socio-Gerente<br>
Tel: (+57-1) 345-2724 - Fax: 345-2072<br>
U.S. Voice Mail and Fax: (206) 888-4386<br>
e-mail:
<gbl@amauta.org><br>
website:
<<a href="http://amauta.org/" eudora="autourl"><font color="#0000FF"><u>http://amauta.org</a></u></font>><br>
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