G'day Dominique You remind me of a French, Canadian, Kiwi guy I know who lurks and pot shots this list serve from time to time.
Great to see you launch into the list full blown. Welcome and keep on asking your questions. I found it very scary at first but was amazed at the response from this list. OST is a responsive process! This leads me to your question of conflict and intervention during an OS event?! I will give you my experience of this. I have been ruined for life by OST around intervention. OST is killing my tolerance and desire to intervene in meetings! Indeed, now when I'm in a meeting where some facilitator intervenes I start to feel my blood boil. In the past I felt intervening at the right time and steering things was an admirable trait. "I am sensitive to the groups needs, I can see they need to go on this path, I will direct them gently and subtly to my way." How arrogant I was! OST has relieved me of this burden. One of the principles is very clear about this "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have." Conflict is often seen negatively; some destructive force that will blow things apart if expressed. Problem is, if conflict is stuffed it comes out in all sorts of disguised forms that can create very toxic environments. No doubt you've experienced such places and states. Quite honestly, if an actual physical fight broke out during an OST event (which could not be ruled out in my rural earthy place) I would be loathe to intervene. If I trust the process I'm sure the combatants will self mange the situation. If the potential for conflict were so great that an OST meeting would be tantamount to giving the green light to a riot I may suggest the sponsor prohibits violence to self and others in their givens. I know this may sound extreme, but conflict/anger is a form of passion. Passion is an expression of spirit. At a personal level my life is so much the richer now I allow myself to feel my anger and express it. Personally I'd get really hacked off if a facilitator intervened while I were having an argument with someone! Reminds me of an old adage; "If you pick up someone else's pain you'll get beaten up" Grimm Brothers All the best Dominique Mike Copeland -----Original Message----- From: Dominique Proudhon [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, 17 December 2003 6:57 a.m. To: [email protected] Subject: OST and conflicts OK, Harrison, I won't wait long then. Here is a question: Sometimes, conflicts do arise during subgroup discussions in an OS event. It is certainly not a problem per se, since, in my experience, they often reveal areas of greater creative potential. Still, a question remains: how to best handle them in order to prevent escalation and allow the group to own and discuss the issues in a solution oriented manner? I had a case once where I felt obligated to intervene because the conversation was feeding on blame and getting increasingly aggressive. A subgroup came to discuss the issue of "clans" excluding others and disrupting the overall group effectiveness. Although my intervention went very well (the subgroup decided to discuss the issue with the entire group, which agreed, and we went on with a mediation process in the circle where I helped the group clarify issues around clans and developing solutions to prevent/heal the negative side effects of natural grouping within the larger group), I felt like we had stepped out of the OS process, burnt a lot of energy, and lost some of the creative power of the OS process. No regrets though, since what was most alive at that time in the team was the conflict and they needed some way to cope with it productively. It was not OS for a time, since I became actively involved in the process. Even if I love doing mediation, I would much rather see people solve their conflicts by themselves. Is there any way to do all of it in "OS mode"? Can OS function when communication patterns in a group lead to blaming, finger pointing and retaliating? I am curious to hear about other practitioners' experience with this. Also, what happens if you're the only facilitator and you have two or more conflicts at a time in different subgroups? You shoot them all :-) ? To resonate with Agneta Setterwall's post, I believe that communication processes such as the Non Violent Communication (NVC) can be great complementary tools to OS. They significantly improve people's capacity to communicate from their own needs and expectations, rather than from blaming others for what they do not get in the relation. I believe running an OS event with subgroups talking NVC would be a kick! (have to try out that one). Any experience with "communication training/practice" in preparation for an OS event out there? Or what about having NVC practitioners to participate in subgroups as needed? All the best to all. Dominique. Dominique Proudhon Group Facilitation Problem solving Conflict resolution Dampierre 38470 Notre Dame de l'Osier France (33) 4 76 36 71 34 (33) 6 78 91 48 77 -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Harrison Owen Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 2:05 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: New member Dominique wrote: ". I now would like to share this approach with others in France and starting a French Open Space Institute (web site in preparation for sometime next year). Of course, I have plenty of questions around OST, but I'll wait: This post is already long enough, you guys are busy, and I need to read more of the documentation to make sure I am not asking questions that have already been answered 20 times. " Don't wait too long. Never met a question I didn't like, even an old one. Actually, most particularly The Old Ones. They give everybody a chance to revisit old familiar places - and usually discover that what we took to be "established wisdom" was actually just the tip of an iceberg. Also good luck with OSI/France. As you can see already from this LIST, folks will be more than helpful. And on the journey, you might want to make contact with Christopher Schoch. [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Christopher lives in Paris and was responsible for Executive Development (or something like that) for Accor Hotels. We did an Open Space together around the time of massive merger for that corporation. You can read the story, if you want, in Tales from Open Space. http://openspaceworld.com/tales.htm <http://openspaceworld.com/tales.htm> Good Luck! Harrison -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dominique Proudhon Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 2:58 AM To: [email protected] Subject: New member Good day all, I joined the OSlist a few days ago and have been lurking for a while. I am very impressed with the quality of the exchanges on this list and find myself drawn to participate. Several threads called my attention; in particular the one questioning the list itself (what are we doing? Aren't we loosing our spirit, Should we split?) -I find these conversations very healthy. And also the one about Civil Conversation, which resonates with an old questioning of mine around ways to implement real participative democracy - I am dreaming of initiating some real debate around the question "what world do we chose to build for tomorrow?". I believe we humans are caught up in our own contradictions: after centuries of evolving faster and faster technically, and having more transformative power than ever, we are now facing the essential question of Meaning: How do we participate in the world and to what end? What is our responsibility in regard to what is happening in our world? Especially all the "not so nice" little things like irreversible destruction of earth resources, loss of entire species, wars and weapon builders, starving, and all that noisy ongoing disconnected stupidity on our tv and radio shows that take people away from being... I believe that for the first time, we, at least in "developed" countries, have won the freedom to look beyond simply working for survival, to ask ourselves: how do I want to also make this place a little better? Anyway. I'll stop here for today. My goal was actually to introduce myself: I am French and leave in Grenoble. After a PhD in molecular/cellular biology and 6 years of research. I decided to do something else with my life and moved to human resources development. I actually did that career move in the US: I lived 10 years in North Carolina. I wanted to understand why people so often get into conflicts because of "films" they make in their heads that have little to do with reality. I wanted to find ways to work on re-establishing lost connections, especially in the workplace, where they could serve common projects and goals. I trained with Will Schutz, originator of the Human Element, became a mediator, trained in various psychometric tools and got to work with various groups. Two years ago, just before I came back to France, I bought a book that called my attention: Open Space Technology, a user's guide. I read it in the plane. It was one of those "ha ha": I found something I was looking for. A piece of extreme simplicity that called on very ecological principles to set the stage for real connection between people and for meaning to happen. On top of that, this approach was shared openly without any bind, just as a gift to humanity, which seduced me even more... I decided to try it as soon as I would get the opportunity, here, in France. Starting a new business as a group facilitator/team consultant has not been easy thing. Things are slow going and I often get discouraged. But I finally got the opportunity to run two different open space events for two different clients in the last year (30 people and 36 people). Both very energizing experiences and both around the question "How could we improve the way we function as a team?": I loved the first moments of surprise in people's eyes, and then the sudden rush to bring up issues as they understood that the event was theirs. Several persons approached me at the end telling me how much this work had moved them from a negative reactive position to an engaged position and telling me about a number of places they would see such work as useful. Thanks to Harrison, they got a gift they deserved. Felt quite good to serve in such a meaningful way. I'll continue. I now would like to share this approach with others in France and starting a French Open Space Institute (web site in preparation for sometime next year). Of course, I have plenty of questions around OST, but I'll wait: This post is already long enough, you guys are busy, and I need to read more of the documentation to make sure I am not asking questions that have already been answered 20 times. All the best to each of you, Dominique Note: I am a guy, for those who would wonder. Dominique Proudhon Group Facilitation Problem solving Conflict resolution Dampierre 38470 Notre Dame de l'Osier (33) 4 76 36 71 34 (33) 6 78 91 48 77 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html ############################################## This e-mail (and attachments) is confidential and may be legally privileged. ############################################## * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
