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Greetings Michael and Lisa<div><br></div><div>What a gnarly couple of words 'trust' and 'know'. </div><div>I know when I am teaching my mantra is 'trust the process' but I don't know that I know much at all really. </div><div>But I know I do have to trust that it will all work out in the end or I will just become a bundle of 'worry'.</div><div>I also like that smidgeon of doubt that keeps the nerve jangling a bit that is a part of 'trust' but to my mind not a part of 'know'.</div><div><br></div><div>Thinking of you all at WOSonOS.</div><div><br></div><div>Regards</div><div><br></div><div>Anne in Napier, New Zealand. The sun has just come out after a few hours of beautiful desperately needed autumn rain. <br><br>> Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 00:04:35 +0200<br>> From: mmpanne@boscop.org<br>> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Balloons as an Ice Breaker<br>> To: OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>> <br>> Dear Lisa,<br>> I wonder about the "trust". If I am good and wise and reflected I might <br>> be able to trust myself.<br>> What kind of relationship do I establish between me and something or <br>> between me and someone when I "trust" something or someone?<br>> What about "know", in the sense of "I know that selforganisation exists" <br>> or "I know that I and others do come alive, act and are productive under <br>> the condition of expanded time and space for selforganisation"?<br>> In the end, I might arrive at the same juncture regardless of whether I <br>> "trust" or I "know": open space itself is the most luscious icebreaker <br>> on earth (having seen this in the 170 events I facilitated for teachers, <br>> social workers, mediators, grade school students, doctors, politicians, <br>> government workers, architects, city planners, highschoolstudents, <br>> chemical plant workers, IT specialists, alcoholics, communications <br>> experts, ministers, volunteers, university professors, sanitation <br>> workers...I KNOW it).<br>> Seems to me that "knowing" is much less work for me than "trusting".<br>> Isn't knowing also more robust and reliabel than trusting?<br>> <br>> Good thing we can munch on this some more at the WOSonOS beginning tomorrow.<br>> You wont believe this but there were three more folks that signed in <br>> today, 2 from Berlin and one from London.<br>> Sleep tight<br>> mmp<br>> <br>> <br>> Lisa Heft schrieb:<br>> > Hi, Lucas - if you trust the process, and you trust the people, no need <br>> > to add any additional icebreakers - it is using precious minutes of <br>> > their time. Many of us have worked with government folks. My <br>> > recommendation is use every moment / don't waste any time / get to the <br>> > Open Space. Don't do something directive, or creative, or 'helpy', or <br>> > helping them feel something, or weaving them together or anything. Jump <br>> > into Open Space. Trust it. Trust them.<br>> > This ain't like other designed facilitated meetings. Open Space <br>> > delivers. Delivers creativity, discovery, interchange, emergent thinking.<br>> > As long as you are not morphing it or squishing it into too short a time <br>> > or rushing them or doing OS when it's really a situation best done with <br>> > a different (dialogue) tool.<br>> > <br>> > My two Euros, anyway (I'm WOSonOS-ing in Berlin at the moment)<br>> > <br>> > Lisa<br>> > PS: Brightly colored principles and laws signs jazz the place up. People <br>> > jazz the place up. Animated conversations jazz the place up....<br>> > <br>> >><br>> >> On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 12:36 PM, Lucas Cioffi <br>> >> <lucas@athenabridge.org> wrote:<br>> >> Howdy All,<br>> >><br>> >> Bottom line up front: How do you break the ice with participants <br>> >> unfamiliar to OS?<br>> >><br>> >> Here's one way I found helpful:<br>> >> I recently facilitated an open space workshop for sixty participants <br>> >> from roughly two dozen federal agencies. The topic was how to make <br>> >> government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative as part <br>> >> of the Administration's Open Government Directive.<br>> >> I'm a novice at OS, but I've learned a bunch from this list and I'm <br>> >> happy to offer an idea which may be helpful to others. OS can be <br>> >> intimidating, especially for government employees, so I opened with a <br>> >> collaborative exercise using balloons. The inspiration came from a <br>> >> landscape architect's presentation where he accented a landscape with <br>> >> huge balloon sculptures to give it a playful feel for adults.<br>> >><br>> >> Rules of the Game:<br>> >> Everyone gets 2 colored balloons in a sealed envelope.<br>> >> There is a point system posted on the wall (Red = 5, Orange = 4, <br>> >> Yellow = 3, Green = 2, Blue = 1).<br>> >> Collaboration through trading is heavily incentivized-- if someone <br>> >> ends up with a pair of balloons which are the same color, then their <br>> >> score is multiplied times three. This encourages people to mingle and <br>> >> create win-win scenarios. There are no restrictions on how balloons <br>> >> can be traded (for example trading 1 for 1, 2 for 1, or even 0 for 1).<br>> >> Participants are given three minutes to inflate and trade their <br>> >> balloons. The goal is to have the most points. (An alternate goal <br>> >> could be to maximize the number of points for the entire group rather <br>> >> than individuals.)<br>> >> Reasons why we opened with a game:<br>> >> Make it clear that this was a place where it's OK to be creative, <br>> >> unlike their standard government workplace<br>> >> Prime the audience for the subject matter of collaboration (learn by <br>> >> doing)<br>> >> Have some fun<br>> >> Build a bit of community among the participants who were mostly <br>> >> strangers (incentivize mingling).<br>> >> Create a shared experience.<br>> >> Create a little chaos.<br>> >> Jazz up the place visually with a few balloons (it needed some color)<br>> >> Reasons why we opened with this game for this workshop<br>> >> Thomas Jefferson had a saying that “He who receives ideas from me, <br>> >> receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights <br>> >> his taper at mine receives light without darkening me.” After the <br>> >> exercise I asked the participants what the difference was between <br>> >> trading a physical object (like a balloon) and sharing an idea; this <br>> >> exercise was lively and helped them understand that their purpose <br>> >> during the workshop was to share knowledge and benefit from others <br>> >> doing the same.<br>> >><br>> >> Each month a different agency hosts this workshop for all the other <br>> >> agencies, and to keep the workshops fresh, our next opener will <br>> >> consist of small collaborative teams competing to build the tallest <br>> >> marshmallow-spaghetti tower (here's a fascinating TED video which <br>> >> describes some stats behind this game).<br>> >><br>> >> Any thoughts? Do you open with games or collaborative exercises that <br>> >> you would recommend? As always, thanks for the discussion!<br>> >> Lucas<br>> >><br>> >><br>> > <br>> > <br>> > *<br>> > *<br>> > ==========================================================<br>> > OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>> > ------------------------------<br>> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,<br>> > view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:<br>> > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html<br>> > <br>> > To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br>> > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist<br>> > <br>> <br>> -- <br>> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg<br>> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany<br>> ++49-30-772 8000<br>> mmpanne@boscop.org<br>> www.boscop.org<br>> <br>> <br>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 393 resident Open <br>> Space Workers in 68 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide<br>> Have a look:<br>> www.openspaceworldmap.org<br>> <br>> *<br>> *<br>> ==========================================================<br>> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>> ------------------------------<br>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,<br>> view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:<br>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html<br>> <br>> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br>> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist<br></div> <br /><hr />Check on MSN NZ Money for a hand <a href='http://money.msn.co.nz' target='_new'>Feeling the financial pinch?</a></body>
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