I'm just back from another trip to Monrovia where I am training a core team of
Peacebuilders in Compassionate Listening and Restorative Circle practice as
well as OST. We hosted the second Liberia Peacebuilder Community Summit (after
holding one last March). It was a great day, with well over 100 diverse people
in attendance - primarily community members, with a sprinkle of NGOs and
Western expats. Our theme was, How can we Build Partnerships and Strengthen
Peacebuilding Together? NG0 + Business + Community + Government
The day began with torrential rain and thunderstorms - despite our many efforts
to influence the weather patterns through pleas, visualization, prayers and any
ways we could imagine... WAWA was strongly at play. ("West Africa Wins Again"
- our code word for the unavoidable complications and chaos that arise in a
developing world with minimal infrastructure and different views of time)...
Arrival for everyone was delayed well beyond the usual, due to the rain...
Plus, the AV guy with the sound system was nowhere to be seen and the generator
was locked up and no one present had the key (yet all parties had been pre-paid
for their services). The noise from the rain was so intense that we felt we
couldn't begin the program without amplification. Fortunately, a fabulous
culture troupe was there - and they were great troupers indeed, offering a
wonderful morning performance even before they had their costumes on. (They
also entertained at lunch and at the close of the day). Finally, we decided
we'd just have to make the best of it and get started with the program, sound
or no sound... And happily, in the middle of our Liberian partner's welcoming
remarks, the AV guy showed up. –all in all, a great work out for OS
Principles: ultimately of course it started at the right time and the right
people were there!
A small group of our Core Team of Peacebuilders had worked hard on the prior
Saturday to prepare all the signage – and to take on the facilitation. I
prepared a sample script (adapted from Lisa Heft’s wonderful offerings) and
coached them Saturday afternoon, with the assurance that I would be ready to
intervene and support them on Monday. It was a thrill to witness them stepping
up to leadership as I stayed ‘in the wings’ and played a very minor role. We
began with a World Café –which was a powerful way to begin the morning and get
everyone engaged and intermingling across the many differences present in the
room: men/women, elders/youth, educated/illiterate,
Christian/Muslim/Traditional – and 16 different ethnic groups, plus Westerners.
We used stones gathered near the beach for talking objects. The questions:
Round 1) Think of the times when you had successful partnerships across
sectors…Share the highlights. What made it possible?
Round 2) What are the challenges that keep you from building stronger
partnerships?
Round 3) What can you do to build better partnerships?
Then we moved to Opening Circle for the Open Space: the group generated about
20 topics for the two sessions. It was great to see many in the group really
get the idea of the Law of Two Foot – and move around amongst sessions. Also,
I noticed the questions were juicier than last March when we held the first
Open Space. However, what I noticed during many of the sessions was a tendency
for one person (typically an elder male) to become the director of the session
and, rather than generative conversation, the group tended to just list ideas
for the ‘director’ to record. It didn’t seem like new insights or ideas
emerged; rather more of a rehashing of what they began with. Observing this in
so many sessions opened my eyes again to how many skills and experiences we may
take for granted that are essential building blocks for the capacity for
generative conversation: asking questions, taking turns, building on each
other’s ideas (rather than making parallel speeches), being open to new ideas
or uncertainty or not knowing, etc. (The World Café is a great learning
experience for all of this…) In any case, the day brought a sense of community
and empowerment to all who attended, and a number of ideas and action plans
were set into place
MY QUESTION: Who has Opened Space in other places where the culture is very
patriarchal and participants have limited education (many illiterate) – and
what they do have is in a very didactic system, where you learn by rote and
never ask questions? Have you encountered the lack of generativity in the
sessions? Do you have any suggestions? I am contemplating that in the future,
I would recommend that a Core Team member attend each session to help serve as
a facilitator with the goal of facilitating conversation and brainstorming.
PS If you’d like to see some pictures and read the blogs posted from Liberia,
go to:
http://globalcitizenjourney.org/category/new-blog/
Susan
Susan Partnow
Founding Director, Global Citizen Journey
4425 Baker Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
tel. 206-783-8561
fax 206-782-7786
www.globalcitizenjourney.org
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www.susanpartnow.com Partnow Communications, Organizational Development,
Consulting & Facilitation
www.conversationcafe.org Co-Founder
www.compassionatelistening.orgSr. Certified Facilitator
"When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly
separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to
each other." --Margaret Wheatley
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