From: ingrid ebeling ebus [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 6:03 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Is whatever information present the right information??
Well Harrison, I was thinking of an Expert Story and pushed the wrong - may be not - button. Here it is: I was asked to facilitate an Open Space about "Money", it was meant about "Alternative Money"- two years ago. One Expert, a famous professor, many books etc. was asked to join in. After a while I heard they had engaged all together twelve experts, well known professors, banking directors etc. Since I saw no chance to change it, I made as facilitator a contract with each of them: 1. each expert will bring in ten theses, maximum seven minutes 2. when I will open the Space they will be just part of the community They struggled but accepted after all, this was in advance. I started with vision work; the experts have been part of it and enjoyed it, they survived giving their short input of ten theses which was very hard for them - and we got a wonderful patchwork theory. After that I opened the space, the community created a rich agenda. But when I opened the marked one person began to fight, he just came for the expert professor xy, etc .., more people fell in. I stepped back and let it go. What happened, they organized a presentation of that professor for those who were interested (80%) and found out all together how to deal with parallel offers. Some of them took place. All together they accepted their agenda and we had a wonderful three days Open Space on alternative money. That it was, Harrison, what you could not see. I am not sure whether it is an answer to Búi, but it is a story anyway. Ingrid EBUS Institut für Entwicklungsberatung und Supervision Ingrid Ebeling Am Alten Gehäge 6 D - 30 657 Hannover Tel.: +49-511-336 03 30 Fax: +49-511-336 03 47 e-mail: [email protected] <http://www.institut-ebus.de/> http://www.institut-ebus.de Am 15.03.2007 um 22:32 schrieb Harrison Owen: Ingrid Always nice to see you here but somehow the message didnt get through. At least not to me. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ingrid Ebeling Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Is whatever information present the right information?? EBUS Institut für Entwicklungsberatung und Supervision Ingrid Ebeling Am Alten Gehäge 6 D - 30 657 Hannover Tel.: +49-511-336 03 30 Fax: +49-511-336 03 47 e-mail: [email protected] <http://www.institut-ebus.de> http://www.institut-ebus.de Am 15.03.2007 um 21:22 schrieb Bui K. Petersen: I actually I couldn't agree with you more. And very well worded as well. I also agree with your comment on experts. I guess my main concern is with short OST (one day or less), I don't expect that the people I will be working will be able to do anything longer than that. In the cases where "people do need some more help", it unlikely that they can reach the people with more information the same day. Especially if they are meeting on the weekend as I expect will be the case in my situation. But going back to my question, I realize that even if you were able to ensure the attendance of some "expert(s)", you can never be sure what kind of "expert" is needed, and even then why would some "expert" attend something for a whole day just for the possibility that they may provide some "expertise" for as little as 2 minutes. Unless, of course, they are otherwise interested and would be one of the "whoever comes". But anyway, you said it so eloquently which hopefully will help me explain this to others Thanks, Búi Harrison Owen wrote: Ah The Expert Syndrome! And experts can be helpful if you clearly understand the question for which they have the answer. But more often than not I find that people are foggy about the question. So when it comes to the right people particularly in a community setting the ones with the question, a question they really care about are the right ones for a start. And then strange things can happen, particularly if the people discover that the answer to their question lies right in the middle of their own experience, contacts, and energy. At that point, they turn out to be The Expert. And that is called empowerment. And who knows, the people may well come up with a solution (answer) that nobody every thought of before. Experts, on the other hand, tend to provide answers to questions they know about and if you dont fit into their box, you just dont fit. Of course if the people do need some more help, there are such things as phones and internet. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bui K. Petersen Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 7:11 PM To: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] Subject: Is whatever information present the right information?? Thanks to everyone on this list, I am learning more and more about OST. But every couple of weeks I get a new question. "Whoever comes is the right people" totally makes sense. But what about the information needed? We have all been at "conventional" meetings where nothing was accomplished due to lack of proper information. How do we deal with that in Open Space? Obviously the invitations is critical but we can't really be sure that the people with expertise will show up unless we pay them. Can we? When we are working with groups or communities with few resources, how can we make sure that the right information (legal, technical etc.) is in the room? Looking forward to everyone's wonderful and enlightened responses. Thanks, Búi -- Búi K. Petersen, Cert. ConRes. mediator and facilitator -------------------------------- c.solutions Vancouver, B.C. Canada Phone: 604.724.4954 Web: <http://www.buildconsensus.ca> www.buildconsensus.ca * * ========================================================== <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of <mailto:[email protected]:> [email protected]: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: <http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of <mailto:[email protected]:> [email protected]: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: <http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist -- Búi K. Petersen, Cert. ConRes. mediator and facilitator -------------------------------- c.solutions Vancouver, B.C. Canada Phone: 604.724.4954 Web: <http://www.buildconsensus.ca> www.buildconsensus.ca * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: <http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [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 * * ========================================================== [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 * * ========================================================== [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
