Sorry to have missed your pre-event conversations while you were
here, but delighted to read about what happened! Thanks for sharing.
Gail
I hesitated before sharing this story but as I have found it to be
so often the case, it is just a way for me to pay it forward sharing
my questions, vulnerabilities, fears and joys. I owe so much to this
wonderful community. Its generosity, depth of insight, truth
telling, healing, passion, spiritedness, etc. makes me just happy to
be alive.
Now to my story. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to
participate in a university/community leadership program over a
six-week period with 6 seventy-five minute sessions featuring
Margaret Wheatley's work with the University of South Florida, St.
Petersburg on community. Sharon Joy Kleitsch who heads up The
Connection Partners in Florida had asked if I could help, indicating
there might be an opportunity to do Open Space. The program involved
close to 50 students, 25+ community leaders and a dozen or more
faculty/staff members.
The first week was a chance for the group to engage with Margaret
Wheatley by Skype, second week was World Cafe and the third to fifth
week, we did Open Space closing in the 6th week by spending 4 hours
with Meg Wheatley on site in Florida.
When I was in Taiwan, I spoke to some experienced OS facilitators
about the wisdom of facilitating an Open Space in 75 minutes with
this group. Gently they suggested it might not be such a good idea
because of the limited time; perhaps I could engage the opening of
conversations some other way. Well, I'd already committed so I
decided we'd go ahead with it anyway. Michele Young (a
co-facilitator) and I worked like crazy to imagine everything we
could do to give the participants maximum time during those 75
minutes. It meant hours and hours of pre-work to have everything
ready in order to maintain the invisibility and intention of Open
Space to self-organize and for people to find their passion.
Initially we didn't know we'd be doing 3 sessions of Open Space.
In 10 minutes, each in our separate classrooms, Michele and I had
introduced attendees to the basics of Open Space. We called it a
"Mini Taste of Open Space". Next they were writing their topics
(nearly 50 in total; 25 in each class); shopping the marketplace and
before we knew it, there they were intensely engaged in
conversations. In those 30 minutes or so, they shared and even
managed to summarize a few key points on flip chart sheets that were
immediately posted on the wall. We closed the circle and the
comments were touching and validating. We decided to repeat the
experience the following week allowing them to deepen their
discussions.
In the second week with the entire group in 1 room, we re-opened the
marketplace, more topics were added and two more rounds of
conversations happened. Because the participants had not connected
as a larger group yet, there were fewer topics but the discussions
did not appear to be less spirited or intense.
In week 3, we did a convergence giving everyone 3 tickets asking
them to identify which topics/projects they had the most passion for
and which might be most feasible and have the most impact in
creating a Sustainable Tampa Bay community which was our theme. Ten
top topics emerged and from this more discussions and some quick
action plans.
In summary, three weeks of Open Space created opportunities for
connecting with others on community issues that people were
passionate about, generating 60 topics, 25 summary reports and 10
action plans.
The final week, Margaret Wheatley spent face-to-face time with the
group engaging them in personal leadership conversations and
inspiring them with examples of community leadership work around the
world .
How do I feel today looking back at this Open Space experience?
Mixed. Yes it was magical to have people get so engaged, so fast and
to see them in diverse groups sharing and talking. Yes the feedback
from the participants was heartwarming. But then, how hard it was to
see them have so little time even though I know they were moved and
touched by the opportunity they had to connect, no matter how short.
Having just spent two and a half days as a participant in Open Space
in Taiwan before this work and then another two and a half days in
Toronto afterwards, I was able to compare how and what it felt like
to have more time. Each of these experiences, in their purest
intention and utter simplicity, taught me so much. I realized that
to change a world, create real passion, drive action requires time:
time to connect, time to discover, time to think, to share and to
celebrate, to trust and to take personal responsibility. Our
intentions were good with the university project but now I feel I
owe it to myself and this wonderful Open Space community to shoot
for the moon and try my best to invite people to give themselves
this precious gift of time -- helping them choose to open space in
their lives. It's not easy to do especially when we know that we can
never truly understand what Open Space is all about until you live
it therefore hard for leaders and others to commit time and money.
Yes, I will continue to settle for less sometimes but as sure as can
be, I will try harder to offer more.
Hopefully by continuing to share our stories, capture the images and
speaking with courage what we believe to be true, more people will
see the benefit of opening space in their lives so we can enjoy life
and not be so stressed by life. Then it will truly be a joyful
"dance" -- this dance of chaos and order.
Again sorry for being so long winded! Felt it was a "harvest" story
worth sharing on this Thanksgiving eve.
<http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-%C2%A0>http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-
<http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/daigle_Suzanne-268460-usf-sp-wheatley-leadership-series-connection-parners-education-ppt-%C2%A0>
Suzanne
--
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877; CT 203-722-2009
<http://www.nufocusgroup.com>www.nufocusgroup.com
<mailto:s.dai...@nufocusgroup.com>s.dai...@nufocusgroup.com
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--
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE gwestica
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