Nelson, New Zealand
Just completed a 1.5 day OST training workshop here in Nelson with 9 folks from this region and Tauranga, The Bay of Plenty, on the north island.
One of the outcomes from the gathering, and following on from the Te TauIhu economic summit, has been the establishment of a local network of indigenous practitioners here in Aotearoa. We have already set up a web page at OpenSpaceWorld.NET where projects can unfold.
Nelson, New Zealand
Blogging on a sunny fall afternoon from Te Tau Ihu, or the Top of the South Island region of New Zealand. The beautiful weather here – including a brisk warm wind off the Tasman Sea coming over the light blue waters of Nelson Bay – kind of nicely reflects my mood at the moment.
I was invited here to facilitate a day of Open Space for an Maori economic summit which brought together entrepreneurs, iwi trusts, government folks and Pakehea (or non-Maori) businesses for the tourism, and resource sectors. Our day in Open Space was yesterday and it was a blast. People connected like crazy, including one woman whose topic was “I need a job.” in her session, four people joined her and created a business plan to get her into a viable self-employment situation. That experience wasn’t at all unique with other business plans drafted up around Te Reo (language) funding opportunities, and the creation of a Maori economic development forum in this region to support enterprise.
Like the use of Open Space in other indigenous communities, people in the closing circle claimed it as Maori, and in order to leave it here and support that idea, we are just now finalizing the logistics for a two training workshop that starts tomorrow to train folks in community agencies and government in the process.
More reports if I get a chance or when I get home. In the meantime have a look at the work being done by Wakatu Incoirporation, one of the sponsors of the Summit which is a trust that acts on behalf of five iwi (tribes) in this region.
I’m heading off to New Zealand for 10 days, so blogging might be light. I’ve collected another ten intereting links for your perusal. So here is the latest edition of Parking Lot linkage:
Enjoy!
We’re really humming now. Harrison Owen replied to my stories post on the OSLIST with these comments, among others:
But I am not sure that Smits appreciates the full depth of Storytelling as meaning making. First of all, although it is true that stories can be told with words, this in my experience is just the tip of the iceberg. Powerful stories which shape and form cultures (otherwise known as myths) appear in the rich garments of ALL modes of human communication — the total dance of a peoples’ life. This may seem just an academic quibble, but I think it has some real implications concerning our ability to fully understand what is taking place. In a word, we are faced with a level of complexity (even with a small group of humanoids) that simply boggles the mind. And when it comes to the role of the facilitator, the boggled mind is not helpful, particularly if the facilitator’s role is as Smits describes it —
“But, in order for Facilitators to participate, as a listener, a ‘neutral’ narrator or focaliser, they need to be able to understand the language, power relationships, semiotics, etc. in the group of people. In other words, they need to be ‘external insiders’. As the name suggests this is a very paradoxical role (see Figure 6). By somehow becoming an ‘insider’ there is potentially an element of ‘risk’ for the Facilitator with the outcome (emergent action). A delicate balance.”
A “delicate balance” indeed — and one which I suspect is neither possible nor necessary. Does that mean then that as facilitators in Open Space there is nothing we can do? If “doing something” means acting as the “focalizer,” then I believe the answer is, Yes. Bluntly stated, we simply do not have the horsepower to do that — to say nothing of the mental capacity. But there are realms where we can and do “do something.” Specifically, we can create the space for storytelling. We can even shape that space when we work with the client around the theme. And lastly, we can also create a space for reflection. But when it comes to telling the story, interpreting the story, and acting on the story — I think the people do it all by themselves. Which, after all is what self organization is all about.
As the man says, interesting soup. There is a piece of Smits’ paper that I haven’t addressed yet, and that is the way stories are contextualized in power relationships. Here’s the idea:
This is amazing, because it gets at some of the writing and thinking I have been doing about “living in truth.” I don�t see the term “threatened” as being a bad thing. I see it as inviting a decentering of organizations away from command and control models where the stories are churned out of a high level communications suite and the drones are expected to buy the stories. These stories can be about anything: the organization’s mandate, the way it is in the world, the kind of people we are, the kinds of things we make and do, where we have come from and where we are going…all the ripe fields of human mythmaking and meaning making.
Complexity and diversity in participation threatens the organization’s identity because it pokes holes in the large assumptions that the powerful pieces of an organization can sometimes hold over everyone else. These power stories could be societal and cultural myths or beliefs as well, and they could inhibit a huge set of opportunities and potentials. By inviting a large diversity of people into the shared meaning-making storyspace, we invite challenge to the myths and a much more dynamic process of social and organizational truth telling that makes organizations or societies very robust. And I think that is a very good thing. It’s good for democracy, it’s good for productivity, it’s good for engagement. People recover their agency, groupthink becomes a thing s of the past, minds are opened and passion AND responsibility is engaged.
The story of the OST meeting I did last weekend illustrates this writ small, but I think we cannot underestimate the power of letting go of that power of control over the stories and the myths. People might ask “but where do we then find stability for our organization or society?”
And in a changing world I would have to reply “thank me later…”
Yes to this from Carla Verwijs:
