Congratulations, Maria, for stepping into the unknown of Open Space.
I understand what you mean about only "holding the space" but that
really is a major contribution for any group. You know that one of the
foundational beliefs of the ToP approach is that the wisdom is in the
group and that with good process they can determine their own answers.
With OS, the minimal structure, in essence, is saying that same thing
with maximum empowerment.
I'm looking forward to my June event with 300 people and only 4 hours -
a first for me to have such a large group. Am planning on having about
20 lap tops in the News Room and a co-facilitator (and hopefully a
volunteer). I, too, am grateful for this listserv and for Maureen
McCarthy and Zelle Nelson for their unending support and efforts to
help move from being a newbie to OS to being someone who uses it for
just about everything.
Kathleen
On Mar 11, 2006, at 4:09 PM, ORT MARIA wrote:
Dear Funda, Tree, Kerry, Phil, Harrison and Christine,
Just wanted to update you on the results of the OS with the Arizona
Refugee Resettlement group. The State Coordinator was hoping that the
outcome of this day and half retreat would be that the individual
providers would get to know one another better, be willing to
collaborate more effectively, and take responsibility for innovation
and action rather than expecting the State to tell them what to do.
You eased my fears. I took your advice to heart and simply kept the
space truly open throughout, never assuming anything about the group
or their cultural practices. Once the participants realized that they
were completely in charge of their own experience (and that didn't
take long), they took it on wholeheartedly. Day 1 didn't start until
after 10am and started with a general discussion around the report
of results with 8 focus groups (refugee groups and provider groups). I
invited participants to consider the results as potential context
(along with their own experiences) for the OP topic: In light of the
diversity of refugees coming to Arizona, what are the issues and
opportunities for providing responsible and appropriate refugee
resettlement?
The results: 30 attendees conducted and recorded 15 1.5 hour sessions
in the afternoon. The next morning we worked on identifying the
overarching themes emerging. They decided that the themes pointed to
the creation of a state-wide association where they could pool their
resources to offer the kind of training, education, advocacy and
resource coordination they couldn't do as effectively on their own.
This surprised me because I hadn't expected such a huge priority to
emerge. I'd imagined and prepared for 2-4 priority action groups to
form. So after a deep breath, I invited those who had the passion and
the willingness to champion its creation to sign up (9 people
immediately signed up). After a bit of conversation, it became evident
that the whole group wanted to talk about some start-up actions on
this priority, so we did. I invited some of the champions to come up
and "facilitate" the conversation, which worked well. Our time was
running out so I volunteered to host a 3 hour action-planning session
with anyone in the group who wanted to attend (along with the
champions) so we could get a broad cross-section of action ideas, then
form task groups. We meet on March 29th and will do the TOP project
action-planning method that works so well.
This was my first OST "convergence" experience. I don't feel entirely
comfortable with it yet but the participants were delighted with OST
results. They followed through within days to set the action-planning
meeting date. The "holding the space" part is still a challenge for me
but improving. I still feel a bit guilty about not doing anything but
holding them in my thoughts for the best outcome possible while
picking up coffee cups and moving chairs!
Happy days...it is finally raining in Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks again
for your coaching.
Maria Carpenter Ort
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