<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: [OSLIST] A Thanksgiving Story with a
link</title></head><body>
<div>Sorry to have missed your pre-event conversations while you were
here, but delighted to read about what happened! Thanks for
sharing. </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Gail</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I hesitated before sharing this story but
as I have found it to be so often the case, it is just a way for me to
pay it forward sharing my questions, vulnerabilities, fears and joys.
I owe so much to this wonderful community. Its generosity, depth of
insight, truth telling, healing, passion, spiritedness, etc. makes me
just happy to be alive.<br>
<br>
Now to my story. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to
participate in a university/community leadership program over a
six-week period with 6 seventy-five minute sessions featuring Margaret
Wheatley's work with the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg
on community. Sharon Joy Kleitsch who heads up The Connection Partners
in Florida had asked if I could help, indicating there might be an
opportunity to do Open Space. The program involved close to 50
students, 25+ community leaders and a dozen or more faculty/staff
members.<br>
<br>
The first week was a chance for the group to engage with Margaret
Wheatley by Skype, second week was World Cafe and the third to fifth
week, we did Open Space closing in the 6th week by spending 4 hours
with Meg Wheatley on site in Florida.<br>
<br>
When I was in Taiwan, I spoke to some experienced OS facilitators
about the wisdom of facilitating an Open Space in 75 minutes with this
group. Gently they suggested it might not be such a good idea because
of the limited time; perhaps I could engage the opening of
conversations some other way. Well, I'd already committed
so I decided we'd go ahead with it anyway. Michele Young (a
co-facilitator) and I worked like crazy to imagine everything we could
do to give the participants maximum time during those 75 minutes. It
meant hours and hours of pre-work to have everything ready in order to
maintain the invisibility and intention of Open Space to self-organize
and for people to find their passion. Initially we didn't know we'd be
doing 3 sessions of Open Space.<br>
<br>
In 10 minutes, each in our separate classrooms, Michele and I had
introduced attendees to the basics of Open Space. We called it a
"Mini Taste of Open Space". Next they were writing their
topics (nearly 50 in total; 25 in each class); shopping the
marketplace and before we knew it, there they were intensely engaged
in conversations. In those 30 minutes or so, they shared and
even managed to summarize a few key points on flip chart sheets that
were immediately posted on the wall. We closed the circle and the
comments were touching and validating. We decided to repeat the
experience the following week allowing them to deepen their
discussions.<br>
<br>
In the second week with the entire group in 1 room, we re-opened the
marketplace, more topics were added and two more rounds of
conversations happened. Because the participants had not connected as
a larger group yet, there were fewer topics but the discussions did
not appear to be less spirited or intense.<br>
<br>
In week 3, we did a convergence giving everyone 3 tickets asking them
to identify which topics/projects they had the most passion for and
which might be most feasible and have the most impact in creating a
Sustainable Tampa Bay community which was our theme. Ten top topics
emerged and from this more discussions and some quick action
plans.<br>
<br>
In summary, three weeks of Open Space created opportunities for
connecting with others on community issues that people were passionate
about, generating 60 topics, 25 summary reports and 10 action
plans.<br>
<br>
The final week, Margaret Wheatley spent face-to-face time with the
group engaging them in personal leadership conversations and inspiring
them with examples of community leadership work around the world .<br>
<br>
How do I feel today looking back at this Open Space experience?
Mixed. Yes it was magical to have people get so engaged, so fast and
to see them in diverse groups sharing and talking. Yes the
feedback from the participants was heartwarming. But then, how hard it
was to see them have so little time even though I know they were moved
and touched by the opportunity they had to connect, no matter how
short.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Having just spent two and a half days as a participant in Open Space
in Taiwan before this work and then another two and a half days in
Toronto afterwards, I was able to compare how and what it felt like to
have more time. Each of these experiences, in their purest intention
and utter simplicity, taught me so much. I realized that to change a
world, create real passion, drive action requires time: time to
connect, time to discover, time to think, to share and to celebrate,
to trust and to take personal responsibility. Our intentions
were good with the university project but now I feel I owe it to
myself and this wonderful Open Space community to shoot for the moon
and try my best to invite people to give themselves this precious gift
of time -- helping them choose to open space in their lives. It's not
easy to do especially when we know that we can never truly understand
what Open Space is all about until you live it therefore hard for
leaders and others to commit time and money. Yes, I will continue to
settle for less sometimes but as sure as can be, I will try harder to
offer more.<br>
<br>
Hopefully by continuing to share our stories, capture the images and
speaking with courage what we believe to be true, more people will see
the benefit of opening space in their lives so we can enjoy life and
not be so stressed by life. Then it will truly be a joyful
"dance" -- this dance of chaos and order.<br>
<br>
Again sorry for being so long winded! Felt it was a "harvest"
story worth sharing on this Thanksgiving eve.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href=
"http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-%C2%A0"><span
></span
>http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-s<span
></span>p-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-</a
><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<a
href=
"http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-%C2%A0"><br>
<br>
</a></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<br>
Suzanne<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Suzanne Daigle<br>
NuFocus Strategic Group<br>
7159 Victoria Circle<br>
University Park, FL 34201<br>
FL 941-359-8877; CT 203-722-2009<br>
<a href="http://www.nufocusgroup.com">www.nufocusgroup.com</a><br>
<a
href="mailto:s.daigle@nufocusgroup.com">s.daigle@nufocusgroup.com</a><br
>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>* *
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To
subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Gail West<br>
ICA<br>
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road<br>
Taipei, Taiwan 111<br>
8862) 2871-3150<br>
SKYPE gwestica</div>
</body>
</html>
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist