<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p style="margin: 4pt 7.9pt 6pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'm just back from another trip to Monrovia where I am training a core team of Peacebuilders </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"> in Compassionate Listening and Restorative Circle practice as well as OST. We hosted </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;">the second Liberia
Peacebuilder Community Summit (after holding one last March). It was a great day, with well over 100 diverse
people in attendance - primarily community members, with a sprinkle of NGOs and
Western expats. Our theme was, <b><i><span style="color: rgb(23, 54, 93);">How can we Build Partnerships and Strengthen
Peacebuilding Together? NG0<span> </span>+ Business +
Community + Government</span></i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
day began with torrential rain and thunderstorms - despite our many
efforts to
influence the weather patterns through pleas, visualization, prayers and
any
ways we could imagine... WAWA was strongly at play. ("West Africa Wins
Again" - our code
word for the unavoidable complications and chaos that arise in a
developing
world with minimal infrastructure and different views of time)...
Arrival for
everyone was delayed well beyond the usual, due to the rain... Plus,
the
AV guy with the sound system was nowhere to be seen and the generator
was
locked up and no one present had the key (yet all parties had been
pre-paid for
their services). The noise from the rain was so intense that we felt we
couldn't begin the program without amplification. Fortunately, a
fabulous culture troupe was there - and they were great troupers indeed,
offering a
wonderful morning performance even before they had their costumes on.
(They also entertained at lunch and at the close of the day). Finally,
we decided we'd just have to make the best of it and get started with
the program, sound or no sound... And happily, in the middle of our
Liberian partner's welcoming remarks, the AV guy showed up.<span> </span>–all in all, a great work out for OS Principles:<span> </span>ultimately of course it
started at the right time and the right people were there!<u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 7.9pt 6pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
small group of our Core Team of<span>
</span>Peacebuilders had worked hard on the prior Saturday to
prepare all the signage – and to take on the facilitation.<span> </span>I prepared a sample script (adapted from Lisa
Heft’s wonderful offerings) and coached them Saturday afternoon, with the
assurance that I would be ready to intervene and support them on Monday.<span> </span>It was a thrill to witness them stepping up
to leadership as I stayed ‘in the wings’ and played a very minor role.<span> </span>We began with a World Café –which was a
powerful way to begin the morning and get everyone engaged and intermingling
across the many differences present in the room:<span> </span>men/women, elders/youth, educated/illiterate,
Christian/Muslim/Traditional – and 16 different ethnic groups, plus
Westerners.<span> </span>We used stones gathered near
the beach for talking objects.<span> </span>The
questions:<span> </span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 7.9pt 6pt 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);">Round 1)</span></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);"> Think of the times when you had successful
partnerships across sectors…Share the highlights. What made it possible?<u></u><u></u></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0in 7.9pt 6pt 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);">Round 2)</span></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);"> What are the challenges that keep you from
building stronger partnerships?<u></u><u></u></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0in 7.9pt 6pt 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);">Round 3)</span></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);"> What can you do to build better partnerships?</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(118, 146, 60);"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then we moved
to Opening Circle for the Open Space:<span>
</span>the group generated about 20 topics for the two sessions.<span> </span>It was great to see many in the group really
get the idea of the Law of Two Foot – and move around amongst sessions.<span> </span>Also, I noticed the questions were juicier
than last March when we held the first Open Space.<span> </span>However, what I noticed during many of the
sessions was a tendency for one person (typically an elder male) to become the
director of the session and, rather than generative conversation, the group
tended to just list ideas for the ‘director’ to record.<span> </span>It didn’t seem like new insights or ideas
emerged; rather more of a rehashing of what they began with.<span> </span>Observing this in so many sessions opened my
eyes again to how many skills and experiences we may take for granted that are
essential building blocks for the capacity for generative conversation:<span> </span>asking questions, taking turns, building on
each other’s ideas (rather than making parallel speeches), being open to new
ideas or uncertainty or not knowing, etc.<span>
</span>(The World Café is a great learning experience for all of this…)<span> </span>In any case, the day brought a sense of
community and empowerment to all who attended, and a number of ideas and action
plans were set into place<u></u><u></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">MY
QUESTION:<span> </span>Who has Opened Space in other
places where the culture is very patriarchal and participants have limited
education (many illiterate) – and what they do have is in a very didactic system,
where you learn by rote and never ask questions?<span> </span>Have you encountered the lack of generativity
in the sessions?<span> </span>Do you have any
suggestions?<span> </span>I am contemplating that in
the future, I would recommend that a Core Team member attend each session to
help serve as a facilitator with the goal of facilitating conversation and
brainstorming.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">PS<span> </span>If you’d like to see some pictures and read
the blogs posted from Liberia, go to:<span> </span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://globalcitizenjourney.org/category/new-blog/" target="_blank">http://globalcitizenjourney.<wbr>org/category/new-blog/</a>
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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