bernhard, seems like there are some similarities to our situations. we are both from financially rich industrialized countries working in financially poor countries.
we wield huge amounts of power as you well know. when we are in an informal conversation with a national we wield power. when we are the actual facilitator of a group of nationals, yikes! talk about a lack of balance. you know how easy it is easy to get quick results with such power. our challenge is to get durable results which do not require our continued interventions. every situation is different for sure. i am in a unique position of having the luxury to follow my instinct and wait for initiative. sometimes it comes quickly. sometimes it comes slowly. sometimes it does not come at all in terms of ongoing projects. in terms of open space meetings, i have sat in silence with groups for 1-5 minutes before anything happened. i wait. i do not intervene once i have opened the space. i am always prepared to sit and ponder indefinitely, or to excuse myself to go get other work done if folks present are not yet ready or not interested in engaging. no hard feelings. at least that's how i feel in theory. we'll see how i actually respond when the time comes that 10 minutes or more of silence passes and no subjects posted. i am a white north american (USA) working in haiti for nearly eight of the last ten years. welcome insights from anyone else on what i've shared here. is it possible to become too detached from outcomes? look forward to continuing the conversation. john _________________________________________________________________ Téléchargez MSN Explorer gratuitement à l'adresse http://explorer.msn.fr/intl.asp. * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
