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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>It is great to hear from you, Romy, and
thank you for sharing about your opening space at Cranfield University.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>And brother Chris, thanks for your examples
of using OS at the University of British Columbia, with the First Nations House
of Learning and the Dalai Lama Centre.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>I forgot to add in my own experiences with
using Open Space in university settings:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>I have used OS with
Columbia University School of International Relations and Conflict Resolution (New
York) for exploring what their impact is on the international communities they
serve with their conflict resolution services. A number of students
coming through that program have taken my Open Space workshops to learn more
about and use the method in their work, and I have consulted with their
conflict resolution program on Open Space events in Northern Iraq and East
Timor.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>I have facilitated OS for
San Francisco State University’s Institute for Holistic Healing Studies, to
help them explore opportunities and issues and areas of learning they wish to
include in their programs.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>I have facilitated OS and
given OS learning workshops for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century Leadership Center
at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, which builds capacity of
community leaders to facilitate transformation in local underserved
communities.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>I have also facilitated different
Open Space events for university and university-aged folks meeting off-campus
for such things as a leadership series on healing from and dealing with racism
and a conference on issues and opportunities for young lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender leaders.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.25in'><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>And I have shared learning with
and mentored folks building their own capacity for facilitating Open Space at such
places as University of Michigan, San Francisco State University, Portland
State University and University of Florida.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>And I totally agree – so many of our
prospective clients at first say, “well that Open Space sounds great, but
it would never work with <u>my</u> people” (with engineers, or with corporate
folks, or with policepersons, or whomever). </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>And collectively, we have found that as long
as it has been chosen as the right tool for the right reasons, Open Space works
in (as far as we have found in our 20+ years collectively of using it) any
culture, country or setting.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>But I agree with you, Chris – it seems
as if the hardest people to convince (before they experience it and find how
well it works) are academics. Indeed we of OSLIST have had similar
conversations about this in the past. Is it because so many academics
live in a world of needing to describe what is already known? I can’t
tell – obviously scientists and doctors live in this world, too, and
really wonderful scientists and doctors have invited Open Space into their
worlds full of proving, describing and knowing. Similarly, all academics
are not alike – certainly there are those we work with who invite Open
Space – who believe in the power of not-knowing partnered with
deep-knowing. So who can say…</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>But I do find that facilitation requires the
client to trust in the possibility, in the unknown potential, without being
able to first see something concrete and tangible. An architect can show
plans or a model to describe similar successful projects; a chef can make a
recipe for a tasting. But in our case it is often the sharing of the
stories of “yes, here are some situations like yours and some people like
your community who have found this to be successful for tasks like yours”
that provides some support for clients who try to imagine the success of something
they have not yet experienced.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>One of the projects I have ‘on the
back burner’ <font color=red><span style='color:red'>*</span></font> (Life,
she is so full of things to do) is a collection I am making of all the stories
we share on the OSLIST when any one of us asks ‘who can share stories of
using OS with…’ for different kinds of clients, situations and
organizations. I will one day give this back to you all as a database of
examples you can dip into whenever you have this sort of question. In
this lifetime, I will launch that service to you all…(whenever it starts
and all that…)</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Lisa</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=red face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:red'>*</span></font><font
size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>
“on the back burner” is a saying in the States, for those of you
who do not speak English as your home language – like a pot bubbling away
on the back burner of a stove to create a nice hours-long-cooked stew or soup</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:black'>___________________________</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=blue face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:blue;font-weight:bold'>L
i s a H e f t</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:blue'>Consultant,
Facilitator, Educator</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face="Trebuchet MS"><span
lang=ES-MX style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:blue'>O p e
n i n g S p a c e</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'><a href="mailto:lisaheft@openingspace.net"><font
color=black><span lang=ES-MX style='color:black'>lisaheft@openingspace.net</span></font></a></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'><a href="http://www.openingspace.net"><font
color=black><span lang=ES-MX style='color:black'>www.openingspace.net</span></font></a></span></font><font
size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=ES-MX
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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