Dear listers, I just wanted to share that I had another "first" today. Conducted my first OS facilitator "training" (that is if you can "train" others in OS)! So exciting to see others excited about doing OS. Did the world change radically? I don't know. But, I think people's notion of the now indeed became a NOW.
I conducted it for about 15 people for the Soldiers Mothers of St. Petersburg, Alternatives to Violence Project, and for the Women's Crisis Center. There are lots of little things that I would've done differently about the training, but ultimately I think participants got the idea of the challenge of just holding space, not doing. And what's important is that there are a few OS'ers in Petersburg, folks to consult with should they need support. I brought in elements of different OS colleagues' work in the training. Pieces that I got from Birgitt's training: getting participants to articulate for themselves their understanding of OS, OS's key ingredients, its essence. Drawing on Michael and Jo's training- I had participants draw straws, and one participant facilitated an OSonOS within the training and received feedback. I translated Peggy Holman's OS preparation checklist into Russian (available on request; apparently its a bearable translation). I know I have a long way to go before I use OS as a tool confidently and well, but from my work already with organizations I see that it brings about natural and needed change. Indeed the necessary emergent structure come out of OS, maybe not immediately. But, it's exciting to witness a few months down the line with the organizations I've worked with subtle but powerful change as a consequence of OS... >From a the Zebra Internet cafe at the Moskovski train station in Petersburg, Raffi * * ========================================================== [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
