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<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr"><FONT face="Arial Cyr"></FONT></FONT>Hi Julie!</DIV>
<DIV>Thanks for your response! I didn't quite get what you meant here:</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>"what I really wanted to<BR>say was that learning or
remembering open space doesn't seem to me to be<BR>directly related to what
training a facilitator has or has not received, and<BR>that focusing on the
training aspect might not be the most helpful thing to<BR>do. I think that
it is more closely linked to your experience and approach,<BR>and to whether you
as a facilitator can actually believe what you say to<BR>participants - that
they really can self manage and come up with something<BR>great on their
own."</FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2>There was an important thought or several
thoughts in this paragraph; but I am not exactly sure what you meant.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>You say you went to a Quaker school, but you don't say you are
a Quaker. I came to Quakerism in Russia, but for a variety of reasons do not
practice it (in the sense of going to Meeting for Worship). One of the things I
have wondered about is why Quakers (maybe the Quakers on this list will reply!)
don't use OS regularly in the life of the Meeting, as another tool for
conducting Meeting for Worship for Business. While I think discerning the spirit
of the group and using consensus is very powerful, conscious use of OS is also
about Spirit. I sometimes find meeting for worship for business, well, boring
frankly. Maybe that's a reflection of much innerwork that I need to do, to truly
understand how passion reflects itself in this type of meeting. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2>Raffi Aftandelian</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Cyr"><FONT size=2>Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004
08:46:15 +0000<BR>From: Julie Stuart <</FONT><A
href="mailto:juliesstuart@hotmail.com"><FONT
size=2>juliesstuart@hotmail.com</FONT></A><FONT size=2>><BR>Subject: Re: use
of OS in a training for trainers<BR><BR>Raffi,<BR><BR>I think that it's
wonderful that you felt able to conduct part of a training<BR>session in open
space despite some misgivings. I just wanted to reply to<BR>the last part
of your mail, about "learning" to facilitate open space.<BR><BR>From my
experience in facilitating various types of off-the-shelf<BR>participative
processes (as well as hybrids that we develop to suit a<BR>particular purpose),
open space is not necessarily something that you need<BR>to be formally trained
to use. I have several colleagues who have been to<BR>learning workshops
on open space, and yet of everyone in the organisation it<BR>is me who
invariably takes the baton and runs with it when an opportunity<BR>arises to
open space with a client. I think that this is because open space<BR>is
something that resonates with me personally and I especially enjoy
the<BR>challenge to my normal ways of control that it offers me. On the
other<BR>hand, my colleagues find it very difficult to let go and trust in
the<BR>process and the people to self-manage, and they know themselves that
while<BR>they get it in theory they just don't quite believe in it. I have
never had<BR>any formal training in open space - I just go with what I've learnt
from the<BR>books, from OSonOs in Swenmark last year, and from the wisdom I've
gathered<BR>from lurking on this list for the past couple of years. I have
had lots of<BR>training in general facilitation skills and in other processes so
perhaps<BR>this gave me the confidence to jump into open space more quickly
than<BR>otherwise.<BR><BR>So, in case I've missed my point and rambled off, what
I really wanted to<BR>say was that learning or remembering open space doesn't
seem to me to be<BR>directly related to what training a facilitator has or has
not received, and<BR>that focusing on the training aspect might not be the most
helpful thing to<BR>do. I think that it is more closely linked to your
experience and approach,<BR>and to whether you as a facilitator can actually
believe what you say to<BR>participants - that they really can self manage and
come up with something<BR>great on their own.<BR><BR>I'd also like to thank you
for the links to AVP information. Although I<BR>grew up and live in
Northern Ireland and went to a Quaker school, I had<BR>never heard of the
project before. Good luck with all your work,<BR><BR>Julie
Stuart<BR><BR>*<BR>*<BR></DIV></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>
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