Great story Susan! Thank you for the attention to detail and for sharing it like this.
Chris On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Susan Partnow <[email protected]> wrote: > Last Saturday my partners and I hosted over 120 community leaders at an > Open Space Community Meeting here in Monrovia, Liberia. My small non > profit, Global Citizen Journey, in partnership with the Liberian > organization, Population Caring Organization, are launching the Liberia > Peacebuilder Initiative to help grow a network of leaders that cut across > all of the many divides here: traditional, Christian, Muslim; 16+ ethnic > groups; men/women; youth/elders; educated/illiterate; ex-combatants; > returning refugees. We have recruited 35 leaders from the Interfaith > Council of Churches, Tribal Elders Council, National Council of Tribal > Governance, and several NGOs plus the Kofi Annan Graduate school of Peace > Studies. These 35 received a 5 day training in Compassionate Listening, > Restorative Circles, Trauma Healing, Forgiveness & Reconciliation – and I > will return in 2 months to continue this train-the-trainer program. One of > the components they will learn is how to facilitate Open Space and World > Café, so they will have these powerful tools to share with their communities > and bring their groups together in dialogue. To introduce them to this > practice, they were invited to attend with their invited guests to a > Community Meeting last Saturday with the convening question, > > “It’s up to us – you and me. We have challenges and opportunities. > > *What can we do now to begin to create the Liberia that works for all of > us”* > > > > For this first week, I was accompanied by a group of students and two > professors from Salem State University (in Massachusetts) – led by Dr. Greg > Carroll, chair of the Intercultural and Peace studies program there – and we > offered a 3 day training to the Salem students plus students from the Kofi > Annan School of Peace Studies at the University of Liberia. > > For the community meeting, we started the morning with a World Café – to > help connect everyone across the diverse groups present in the room – and to > begin giving them the experience and skill of dialogue, i.e. each person > having a turn to have their voice heard, each person listening to one > another, weaving together thoughts into a dialogue – vs. their usual habit > of orating, with each speaker giving their own little speech without > connection to the speaker before or after. We had three rounds with these > questions: > > *Round 1)** What do you love about Liberia?* > > *Round 2)** What keeps us from making Liberia what we want it to be?* > > *Round 3)** How can we begin to work together to make these ‘better > Liberia’ dreams come true?* > > * * > > Before we began the first round, we had everyone move around so they would > be in a circle that included men and women and people they didn’t know. > This took a while, but with help from the Salem students and PCO staff, we > got them into the small groups of 4. I introduced and explained the use of > a talking object (we had stones picked up at their beautiful beaches). > After I explained in my US English, a local party translated into the local > vernacular creole (“everybody talk small small time with ‘talking object-o’ > and listen each other-o”). Still, there was clear lack of understanding – > this was out of everyone’s experience – so we went around to each group to > help them get it: so someone would actually pick up their talking object > and begin – and pass it around, no cross talk… It was fascinating to see > how –by the third round—everyone in the room had caught on to the idea – and > the groups were fully engaged, one round with the talking object, then > really juicy and connected/coherent conversation… We had a great debrief > and discussion… Then we moved into a large double circle and I introduced > Open Space – so thrilled to tell them how it was really coming back home to > them – since Harrison Owen learned so much from Liberia (where he was the > head of Peace Corps) that he wove into the process… > > They were very responsive to step right up and offer topics… After creating > the market place, we had lunch with some fabulous Liberian drumming and > dancing… and then moved into the first session. Again, it took a while for > them to really understand how they could move from session to session – and > how they could choose a session to attend – not just their own topic! But > by ~15-20 minutes into it, everyone was fully engaged in a topic of their > choice… > > > > For the Open Space, 26 topics were generated: > > 1. How can we bring fair justice in Liberia to make peace > 2. Living as an ambassador of genuine peace > 3. How to resolve land dispute > 4. Creating peace among learners > 5. Conflict Resolution > 6. How can we reconcile? > 7. What is the future after 2011 elections? > 8. How can we build peace in Liberia? > 9. Peace begins with us > 10. Culture into education > 11. Improvement of education sector > 12. Good working relationship > 13. What you can do to bring above peace? > 14. What it takes to be a community leader? > 15. Peace brings unity > 16. National reconciliation > 17. Forgive one another > 18. How to avoid bad governance > 19. How can Salem State University help Liberia? > 20. Methods of building peace > 21. Promoting peacebuilding implementations @ workplaces/ schools & > Universities/ communities/ churches/ government & institutions > 22. Democracy & good governance, leadership with integrity to have a > peaceful environment in Liberia > 23. Peace in the family > 24. Peace in 16 counties > 25. How do we protect the peace we enjoy? > 26. What Liberians stand to benefit should the peace process become > successful? > > > > Since there were no computers available and many people do not write, we > had a helper in each group help create a flipchart with key points discussed > and any action steps identified. Our Liberian Partners will create a report > that contains much of this information and will disseminate it to each of > the key groups that sent participants. I’ll keep you posted on outcomes we > hear of. Though already we heard there was quite a buzz about what a > successful and engaging event it was – and how people are introducing the > idea of circles and talking objects to their communities. > > > > All for now, > > Susan > > Susan Partnow > > Founding Director, Global Citizen Journey > > 4425 Baker Ave NW > > Seattle, WA 98107 > > tel. 206-783-8561 > > fax 206-782-7786 > > www.globalcitizenjourney.org > > join our mailing list <http://oi.vresp.com/?fid=fb96ddc75f> > > > > www.susanpartnow.com Partnow Communications, Organizational Development, > Consulting & Facilitation > > www.conversationcafe.org Co-Founder > > www.compassionatelistening.org Sr. Certified Facilitator > > > > *"When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our > seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly > necessary we are to each other."* --Margaret Wheatley > * * ========================================================== > [email protected] ------------------------------ To > subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > [email protected]: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about > OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist -- CHRIS CORRIGAN Facilitation - Training - Process Design Open Space Technology Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
