bernd, see engle, john. http://www.globalchicago.net/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000007.html
for 'opening space without the props - with non-readers/writers in haiti' m WB-TrainConsult wrote: > Dear os-list > > my client asked me to write this email to the os-list. > > I have meanwhile facilitated several small OST events here in > central Mozambique and started some os-sensibilization and > ost-training (by doing) for community development facilitators of the > Rural Development Program and a national ONG collaborating with them > in land-right issues and I have roughly presented various other > "organization transformative large group facilitation techniques" > (that is my way to speak about the 18++methods) to this group. > > They decided, that OST (and Future Search) could play an important > role in a Sofala-Community-Development-Model, which we are about to > construct together at the basis-level of an SIAD-approach (Systemic > Integrated Area Development), which is networking at three levels > I. Community Development (fighting poverty, producing the social > energy) > II. District Development (bundeling and coordinating it) > III. Provincial Level (supporting it) > > After having paired the Community Development Facilitators (who are > part of the Rural Area Development Programme) with the Community > Development Animators (who are part of the communities) the next step > would be to realize do help prepare these tandems to open space again > and again in the communties of the focal districts as part of the > community animation/development process. > > So there arise several questions related to the one basic question: > "How to realize OST-events in very poor rural communities, where > people have a purely oral tradition?" > that is: they do not write, do not read, have no access to money > (well: less than 0,2 USD/family and day) and technology (well, I saw > portable radios around some necks)? > > I discussed it this morning with the internal consultant (JPV). We > are an internal/external OD-consultancy-tandem which is the nucleus > of the OD-consultancy system within the Rural Development Programm. > The next circle of the Development System around us (at > implementation level) are already the Community Facilitators and > their District Coordinators). > > JPV said: "It is impossible! How should they write and post the > "temas de paixao"? They can not even write their name! These people > from the 'interior' can not interprete x/y-grids like the time/space > slots of the bulletin board! How can they organize their working > groups without the bulletin board? They can not documentate their > working results! They have no watches! They can not start another > group in one and a half hour! Forget it!" > > I said: "Calma! Wait! Describing people as illiterates focuses on > deficits from our point of view. But what is the function of fixing > the themes of the working groups? What is the function of written or > visual documentation? It substitutes mental operations which we, the > non-oral people can not any longer realize. We lost a lot of > complexity of our memories. And the people in the communities would > not be stranger groups. They know each other. So if one of them goes > to the center of the circle and tells them, what he/she wants to do > in the group, there is already a mental framework of reference in > place, they will easily remind which problem this and that guy wanted > to resolve together with others. They are able to manage 20 or 30 > person-related items! (I gave examples of tremendous memory acts I > had experienced with illiterate people here)...WE are not! And with > the breakout-room organization it is somehow the same. They all know > their territory, so they will be able to memorize the triples > person-item-space (who-what-where). And since it will start at the > right time and be over when it is over, we have just to install the > basic breathing rhytm of the community. Coming together and breaking > out, coming together and breaking out." > > After breathing a little for my-self, I continued: "You know, > Harrison insists that he did not invent but discover OST. And he > speaks of its African roots. And in my interpretation Harrison's OST > with its postings on the bulletin board and its report-system is an > adaptation of a stone-age-time social innovation of feasable > face2face self-organization of communities for people of an > industrialized culture, reminding them of their often forgotten > capacities to self-organize. So why not try to go back to the roots? > I believe, it is possible" > > Well, I was in vision-mood and -energy, there and when I said that. > But up to now it is only a deep conviction. So perhaps it is not > true. And perhaps we will not be able to materialize such a vision. > > So I am at the point where > > I REALLY NEED HELP FROM YOU OUT THERE! > > My questions (for now): > > 1) Should I take the responsibility to invite my client to go for > such a journey? > In other words: is it possible to realize open space with people who > are completely illiterate? > > 2) Are there practical experiences I can rely on? > > 3) Wouldn't it be necessary (and great) to make OST even simpler? > (Putting a part of the external instrumentation back into the heads) > > Bernd > > ----- > [email protected] 16.09.2002 at 14:59:39 (GMT/UT + 02:00) > 1) attached to this e-mail : No file > 2) All attached files are mentioned by name in the lines above.Please > do not open any other attachment! > 3) Please send text documents in RichTextFormat/*.rtf, if possible. > This also facilitates communication between the mac- and ms-world. > > ---- > Bernd Weber > Organization Development Consultant > > "DEVELOP YOUR CAPACITIES - MATERIALIZE YOUR VISION" > > C.P. 1462, Beira, Sofala, MOZAMBIQUE > fone: +258-3-32 98 59, cellfone:+258-82-43 79 77 > > ----- > WB-TrainConsult > management- & human resources > training, consulting & development > ----- > Gumpendorfer Straße 88b/18, AT-1060 Wien, AUSTRIA > fone & fax: +431 596 86 57, cellfone: +43 0662 7667872 > ----- > Inscricao no grupo de discussao "Sistemas organizacionais": > Escrever um email para o endereco <[email protected]> > > * > * > ========================================================== > [email protected] > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of [email protected], > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -- Michael Herman 300 West North Avenue #1105 Chicago IL 60610 312-280-7838 voice 312-280-7837 fax http://www.michaelherman.com ...an invitation. * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
