g'day again folks me again - another os today - and I'm 'rapped' in the energy of it all - so need to share it out to those who care to listen....
I was invited to facilitate, at very short notice (one week), an OPEN MEETING of a community (about 60 folks) who are in the process of forming an Eco-village - they were having some serious conflict about a whole heap of things, had written submissions to the Community Building Committee (in-house) and responses to the submissions and responses to the responses to the submissions and so on over the past months - circulated these to each other via email - and were mightily engrossed in 'adversarialism' , aggression, defensiveness, vitriol ...and so much more....complexity and conflict abounding - they were adding to their grief on a daily basis. Just the sort of challenge an Irishman living upside down in Australia loves.... Anyway - the mtg had been scheduled from 1130am - 4pm in a big tin shed they had erected on their 400 acre property - and I agreed to it on the understanding that they adopt the process I was offering - INVITATION TO CONVERSATION - they did - here's what happened - about 35 folks showed up and I figured they had enough ideas of what was going on from the mountain of emails to take some time out of their 'positioning' to get on with their grief stories first and then open some wider space: First from 1130am - 1pm - storytelling; firstly with a partner of your choice and/or an invitation to be open to someone who chooses you; 10 mins each telling your story of what it was like for you and how you were feeling about it - partner reflected this back to you, then switch roles; Next, you and partner join with another couple - each person introduces partner's story to the others and then make a collection of the significant issues and feelings emerging from the four shared stories (40 mins) Next, return to the circle and record your collective issues and feelings - everyone gets to hear these spoken by one member from each group - these were listed and left on the wall for all to hear/see... not discussed (30 mins) Next - break for lunch and much chatting, clarifying and cleansing... Next - back to the circle and opening of space on "what do we need to do next...?" Two x 40 min conversations, (not many of the BIG ISSUES from the morning were posted - the seven topics focussed on the future - how to rebuild community constructively and deal with conflict) - followed by a closing circle - that went on until 430pm - I reminded the group that the Law of Motion was still in play... The Closing Circle was soooo powerful and such a relief to everyone - they spoke of their anxiety coming to the meeting and the learning they had experienced throughout the process - they felt they were learning to deal with conflict through their participation in the process - they were mightily relieved, relaxed and resumed their hope for the future - in short, they had rediscovered TRUST in each other and in their capacity to grow and continue the journey towards their dream of an eco-village.... Wowwww - I'm off to bed before I float off with the fairies - or should I say, leprechauns..... * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
