Seconding this. Someone in a hat once told me that the way to peace was to have more time and more space. For resolving conflict time is your ally. If you cannot afford a large amount if time to deal with a large dynamic you will get a short fuse and few answers and maybe more cynicism. Tread deliberately and do good pre work here.
Chris -- CHRIS CORRIGAN Harvest Moon Consultants www.chriscorrigan.com Art of Hosting - Participatory Leadership and Social Collaboration, Bowen Island, BC November 11-14,2013 > On May 11, 2014, at 6:37 AM, "Harrison Owen" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Sounds like business as usual, unfortunately. I fear the constraints you > mention will render anything you do something less than useful. When you have > real pain and anger with a senior management largely the cause (as I heard > it) – gathering the troops for a few hours without senior management present > just won’t make it. Open Space is wonderful, and miracles do happen – but I > am afraid that neither wonder nor miracle will show up. If they really want > to do something, at least make a good start, you will need 2 days and > certainly a night in between. Finding ways around anger and pain usually > require sleeping on it. And the senior management should be there for the > whole time. If they are the problem, they have to be part of the solution. > > Harrison > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Dr. > Potomac, MD 20854 > USA > > 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) > Camden, Maine 04843 > > Phone 301-365-2093 > (summer) 207-763-3261 > > www.openspaceworld.com > www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST > Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Bronwyn Pagram > Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2014 8:39 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [OSList] Pain and Anger > > Hi there. I have quietly enjoyed os-list for a couple of months now - thank > you for all the open sharing. Very valuable for a 'newby' to open space like > me. > > I have been asked to facilitate several regional open space workshops for an > organization where there is a lot of deep-seated pain and anger behind the > scenes. People feeling very unsupported by their hierarchy, lack of > recognition by senior management that they are part of the problem, lack of > responsiveness to past recommendations for action, and deep cynicism that > anything will come from 'yet another talkfest'. The topic is staff wellbeing. > The workshops are being done in the context of middle management concern for > their people (they are the sponsors) as well as an organisational strategy > refresh for which staff wellbeing will form part for the first time (senior > managers are aware of concerns and also of several stress-related illnesses > and staff leaving). > > There is no prior experience of open space in this organisation, although the > middle-manager driving these events has been exposed elsewhere. I would be > grateful for any suggestions as to how to best structure the day (5.5 hours - > limited by considerable travel time to come in/go home). I am thinking to > include both talking/listening circles as well as traditional open space. > > Ideally participants would take away some actions themselves... as well as > there being some meaty inputs to senior mgmt for the strategy refresh. > > Thanks a lot. Bronwyn > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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