Ralph Copleman is off on his 60th birthday tour of the US. But he had a parting note for us and asked me to post it, which I am doing. I assume that Ralph will find some InterNet Cafes along the way, and join us from time to time. Ralph wrote:
Today I facilitated an OS meeting for about 65 people, the complete employee group of a long-time nonprofit client. This was the first time the entire group had participated in an open space meeting together. The theme was all about moving forward together as they recover from shocks and changes of the previous year. They posted about 23 sessions on all the familiar topics: improving service, better communications, finding more resources, taking better advantage of technology, etc. -- all important concerns, of course. In the middle of the mild tumult that so often characterizes the writing and posting of the topics, one fellow almost slipped past without reading his "passion" paper aloud, and I asked him if he'd read it. He shrugged and held it up for all to see. All he'd written on the page was a large question mark and his first name. A couple of hours later his session convened. Nearly half the entire group had come to participate. I found out later that he started by asking if anyone had any questions. The group then generated about 18 questions - things that were on their minds, I guess, about life in the changing organization, and then they did their best to answer them for each other. Together. From a distance I could hear yelling, clapping, laughing, and cheering coming from their area. I'm curious to know if anyone on the List has seen anything similar in open space. I ask that the group copy me on any responses that they post on the List. ___ Ralph's email is rcople...@comcast.net Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20845 Phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
