OK - Two more questions. Who was the sponsor? "People like us?" "Official Agency?" "NGO?" Second Question: What were they promised? Or put another way, what were they led to think might happen? Your point #5 (about the education system) got me thinking - The Kenyan Education System is not alone in subjugating its prisoners. I mean students. And Open Spaces in such an environment and sponsored by "the powers that be," can lead to behaviors that are "supposed" to be appropriate. Not always, not everywhere, and more than occasionally, the people will seize their freedom and passion, often to the surprise and chagrin of said "powers." But it can be a drag.
Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 04843 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 <x-msg://63/www.openspaceworld.com%20> www.openspaceworld.com <x-msg://63/www.ho-image.com%20> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Celia Bray CEO Omni One Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 3:39 PM To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list' Subject: Re: [OSList] inquiry OS Thanks so much for your feedback. To answer your questions so far. 1) Participation was voluntary, although the culture in Kenya is that people expect to get a payment to attend forums, so some of them were misinformed and may have come for the expected money. This is a culture started by foreign aid and is now endemic. The first thing people ask if there is a forum is 'how much money will I get' to attend. While the money thing makes true motivation for attending cloudy, there were some that did know there was no financial gain for attending. 2) The theme was peace in the community and it was 2 days before the elections in Kenya. The theme was relevant and something that a lot of people were directly effected by from the post election violence in the 2007 elections. So relevance was there but that does not mean it is something that people are passionate about. 3) It was an open community forum, not within an intact system. 4) I noticed also that people stayed in their small clusters of people they knew. They did not mix or move around to work with other people. Not sure what that was about or how normal that is. 5) Kenya has an education system where children are told what to think and what to do. It is not a culture that naturally lends itself to people making their own decisions and breaking out of the usual tribe. 6) Another observation is that people seem to finish their discussions very quickly and merge sessions so that they cover all the topics in one or 2 sessions, leaving the later sessions as a blank space where there is nothing to discuss. It feels like there is a very superficial discussion of topics rather then getting into the heart of it. In a forum of 100 people, to cover all the topics in a couple of sessions is a surprise to me. Any further ideas would be much appreciated. I am a westerner working in Kenya, so culturally I am still learning a lot. I know I am missing something important. I think it is helpful to draw my attention to the question of passion. It does feel like passion is missing, and also the hunger to get to the bottom of things is missing. Peace Celia Bray CEO Omni One Ltd Peace, Enterprise and Community Development P +254 735 191 344 E [email protected] W www.omni-one-consulting.com OmniC84a-A08aT06a-Z 'The best way to predict the future is to create it' Peter Druker From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christine Whitney Sanchez Sent: Monday, 4 March 2013 7:08 PM To: World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: Re: [OSList] inquiry OS Celia, Adding to Harrison's and Chris's questions about invitation and voluntary participation, I wonder whether the participants are working together on something and truly understand the process and benefits of cross-pollination? Are you working with public forums or within an intact system? And I wonder if it might be counter cultural (within the system or in the larger culture) in some way? Thanks for bringing the discussion to the list. I love a good mystery! Warm wishes from the air from Phoenix to DC, Christine On Mar 4, 2013, at 10:35 AM, Chris Corrigan <[email protected]> wrote: Agreed.sounds like a passion deficit. In my experience, when people are gathered to discuss an issue that just burns within them, OST meetings fly. We are never bored by immediate need! My advice in the pre-meetings with your sponsor is to ask - "Why do we need to hold this meeting? What is happening that makes this meeting important for everyone who will attend?" From there, your invitation process should be to reach all of those for whom this issue matters greatly. The key is not in doing Open Space, it is in invitation. If the structure of Open Space is a fireplace, invitation is the wood and passion is what lights it. If one of the three is missing, your OST will fizzle (or work anyway, but with low energy, if you want to put it that way). Chris On 2013-03-04, at 9:21 AM, Harrison Owen wrote: Celia - Odd indeed! My first thought is two questions: A) Is participation totally voluntary, or have the people, in some way or another, been "told" to come? B) Is the subject (Theme) of the OS something that the people truly care about? If the answers are No, No - then I am not very surprised with the results. On the other hand, if the answers are Yes, Yes - this is definitely weird and worthy of study. ho Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 04843 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 www.openspaceworld.com <x-msg://105/www.openspaceworld.com%20> www.ho-image.com <x-msg://105/www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Celia Bray CEO Omni One Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 2:05 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSList] inquiry OS Dear OS community HELP NEEDED. I have been working in Kenya for the last 8 months and facilitated a few open space forums. I have noticed a pattern developing in my OS forums that is not great. I am not sure if i am doing something wrong when opening the space. It seems that when it is time to start session 1, if people don't have their own topic in session 1 they just sit there. People only really engage in the topic they put up themselves and sit around being butterflies for the rest of the forum, complaining they are bored and waiting for their session. Also, when they have finished their discussions they don't join other people's group to contribute. It has happened a few times. I wonder if it is normal or if I am missing something. I do explain that if they are not discussing their topic they can look at other people's topics and go to other groups, but it seems to not be heard. It is not just a few, it is many people, sometimes half or more of the forum are sitting waiting for their topic. Please help me to understand what might be going on or what I might be doing wrong. Thank you Celia Bray CEO Omni One Ltd Peace, Enterprise and Community Development P +254 735 191 344 E [email protected] W www.omni-one-consulting.com <http://www.omni-one-consulting.com/> <image001.jpg> 'The best way to predict the future is to create it' Peter Druker _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
_______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
