SESSION TOPIC: Incorporating OS Concepts into Our Everyday Lives

Host: Susan Hughes

Scribe/note taker: Susan Hughes

Participants: Lucy Burton, Susan Hughes, Barbara Emanuel, Doug Germann, Nancy

Discussion Highlights: OS is about teaching responsibility, questioning authority, and realizing it won't be perfect.

Adopt the principles in your own life. Keep an "open" attitude.

Recommendations: Create a "marketplace" in the household to post topics that people need discuss, but it might not be the right time right now.

Don't use "I need to talk to you later" without "posting the topic."

Use OS for packing -- whatever is in the suitcase is what should be in the suitcase. Use it for parceling out household tasks -- agree what needs to be done and allow family members to sign up for tasks. Use it in the office for staff communication opportunities. Use it for holiday planning, family gatherings, vacations.

To use OS for traditgional meetings, conduct necessary business first -- perhaps using a consent agenda for as much as possible. Then do creative work through OS.

Powerful quotes:

"One of the biggest bugaboos is artificial expectations." "Ask 'what if?'"

Barbara: "OS feels right -- it's something you internalize rather than what you do. Every one of the four principles is useful in life. It's not about changing others; it's about changing YOU."

"OS is about letting go of the need to control other people."

Barbara shared some guidelines from LaLeche? League and will post them. "We have the right to be kind to one another."

"It's hard to be who you need to be."

Unanswered questions: