John Engle Associates:

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Indifference

Conflict

Confusion

Apathy

Discord

Prejudice

Distrust

…Transforming groups

opening space

and

inviting…

constructive conversation, clarity, creativity, trust and mutual respect, participation, collaboration, experiential learning

Open Space can:

Energize a company/institution struggling with mediocrity.

Mobilize a nonprofit in need of focus and energy.

Facilitate a school’s dealing with conflict.

Lead a church/faith community through a time of change and dispute.

Help a neighborhood as it seeks to heal and/or build community.

"An experience like we have lived today in Open Space helps us to think better, to better understand others as well as ourselves. These are the type of activities we need to turn our ideas into concrete actions." Edwidge Marcelin, 9th grade student, The Louverture Cleary School in Santo, Haiti

Open Space is:

An approach that helps all kinds of people in any type of organization to create effective, even inspiring, meetings and events. The facilitation method assumes great things happen when people who genuinely care about an issue and are willing to take responsibility are provided the opportunity to do so. Devised 15 years ago, Open Space is being used around the world to help ordinary people and organizations achieve extraordinary results.

Open Space has been used in more than 80 countries. The participant group can be of any size, from seven to a thousand or more. The gathering is usually held during a morning or afternoon, or even lasting up to three days. Learn more at http://openspaceorld.org.

Participants in Open Space will:

Create their own program of self-managed sessions related to a central theme such as “What are the issues and opportunities facing our school/organization?”

Discuss issues of heartfelt concern.

Share ideas, knowledge, and experience.

Develop plans for collaborative action.

Begin to develop into a community of learning and practice, which is a group of people committed to improvement who are engaged in an ongoing process of reflection and action. They are intentional about cultivating and sharing their individual and combined talents, skills, wisdom, and passions.

“The human and intellectual openness of the Open Space promoted attentiveness and helped the two sides abandon the positions in which they were respectively entrenched. We discovered an effort to connect one with the other and to develop an awareness of the individual hardships perpetrated by the conflict.” Peera Chodorov, Senior Advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres

John Engle Associates will:

Help your group to create a committee (representative of all the sub-groups involved) to decide who is invited, the theme, and where and when to hold the Open Space event.

Facilitate creation and distribution of invitations, prepare the meeting space, and arrange other logistical details.

Coach your group’s leaders on their role in the Open Space event.

Facilitate the event.

Help with follow-up and evaluation.

Be available for further consultation about implementation or future Open Space events.

During the past decade, John Engle has opened space for a wide range of groups and organizations with a variety of needs/topics. Here are a few:

BAI (International Bureau of Attorneys), Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Helping victims organize

Berry College, Rome, Georgia

How will we make a difference in the world?

Beyond Borders/Limye? Lavi, Norristown, Pennsylvania and Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Organizing annual Open Meetings

FONHEP (Haitian Foundation for Education) , Port-au-Prince, Haiti

How will FONHEP participate in Haiti’s bicentennial celebration?

Fonkoze Bank for the Organized Poor, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Strengthening leadership team

International Labor Organization and Ministry of Social Affairs, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Eliminating the practice of domestic servitude

Journey into Freedom, Portland, Oregon

Transitioning from national to local board

Louverture Cleary School, Santo, Haiti

Developing a culture of shared leadership

Ministry of Money, Germantown, MD

Celebrating the past, envisioning the future

Rotalpha, Rotary Clubs of Haiti

Building broad-based literacy initiative

Shimer College, Waukegan, Illinois

Semiannual staff retreat

John Engle is cofounder of U.S.-based Beyond Borders, Haiti-based Limye Lavi Foundation, Reflection Circle Project, and Rotalpha, a literacy initiative of Rotary Clubs of Haiti. He serves on the board of directors of the Open Space Institute (USA) and is a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams. As part of his project, The Experiment in Alternative Leadership, he continues to support networks of Open Space practitioners throughout Haiti.

“With Open Space, we are creating a culture in which we look forward to meetings because we know that we’ll be free to get things done.” Dr. Steven Werlin, Dean of the College, Shimer College, Waukegan, Illinois

John Engle Associates

Doing Good Better

P.O. Box

Washington, DC 20015

Tel. 717.433.0059

John@TheExperiment?.info

www.JohnEngle.info

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