Hi Chris, Having an OST would work well. No matter what the invitation says, on Day One, they will end up airing what they need to air. Then Day Two and beyond is where they will start to find their way. It is not the invitation that matters so much as the amount of time. People, given time and space, and a common purpose, will find their way in an OST meeting, with the facilitator aware of holding a resonant energy field of a frequency that is at harmony. On the flip side, curtailing the amount of time compresses the conflict energy. Birgitt -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Corrigan Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 11:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Conflict in community Hi Folks:
An inquiry for you. I've had a couple of conversations this week with people involved with local school boards in the United States. The common themes in these conversations include high degrees of local conflict, positional politics, an extreme lack of resources over which no one locally has any control and labour relations that are best described as toxic. IN a conversation today, one man said that he wanted to try Open Space simply as a way to have all the parts of the system understand each other. I suggested that this might not bring the peace he was looking for, as people who would come to that kind of meeting hoping to convince others of their righteousness would feel at the end of the day that they were either winners or losers. I thought that result wouldn't necessarily be transformational. When I asked him if instead we couldn't issue an invitation to invite people essentially to answer the question "how can we BE together differently in this system" he balked a little at the notion of a smaller group of "like minded" individuals. Of course I don;t see this as starkly black and white, but nevertheless, he thought an "airing of the issues and a shared understanding" were most important. So my question goes to people who have worked in this situation, with groups that are highly wedded to positions. What are the kinds of invitations that allow for "airing," generated shared understanding, and perhaps lead to transformative relationships? By the way, I told him I would do this for less than 1.5 days. Thoughts and reflections welcome. Chris -- CHRIS CORRIGAN Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology Weblog: HYPERLINK "http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot"http://www.chriscorrigan.com/pa rkinglot Site: HYPERLINK "http://www.chriscorrigan.com"http://www.chriscorrigan.com Open Space Resources: HYPERLINK "http://tinyurl.com/r94tj"; http://tinyurl.com/r94tj * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.2.5/284 - Release Date: 3/17/2006 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.2.5/284 - Release Date: 3/17/2006 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
