Hello to all of you, about a month ago, I facilitated my first Open Space in Nairobi, Kenya. I worked with 40 engineers, medical doctors, technicians and administrators from the field of technical health for 1,5 days and it went really well. The feedback from the participants was very positive. We had 6 sessions and ended up with 32 topics. The first day of the conference was "traditional" with one expert in front and everyone else listening. So the people really experienced a change when the Open Space started and you could tell they were struggling with those 2 concepts. My impression was that in the field of developmental aid - certainly in the area I was working in - the people felt comfortable with the idea of an expert from the North (Europe) having the answer (and consequently the responsibility - ability to respond) for the problems in East Africa. Open Space questioned this assumption and invited them to acknowledge their own expertise and ability to find their own answers for their problems. After the first 4 sessions we had the evening news and in the discussion it became clear that the participants were torn between the "traditional" way and the Open Space way. I addressed this struggle on a meta-level with the participants the next day which was helpful to create some more discussion and insight... >From a systemic point of view it was quite startling to see how this "imperialism" of the European expert having the answers for the problems of East Africa was supported by the behavior of the European participants as well as of the African participants. Both sides contribute their share to keep this pattern stable which in the long run does not support sustainable independence... From that perspective the experience was rather sobering for me... Anyway, I am convinced that the Open Space conference was thought provoking not only on the level of healthcare technology...
Happy trails, Mayke ___________________________________________ essence - Beratung, Training, Coaching Mayke Wagner Hanser 3 88279 Amtzell GERMANY [email protected] Tel (+49) 07520 / 9232 02 visit us: <http://www.t-e-a-m.org> * * ========================================================== [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
