My lived experience is that Open Space is ideal for turning conflict into opportunity. I’d say that conflict generally exists because people care passionately. They stick around in spite of differences because the commitment to an idea and/or a person trumps the discomfort of engaging.
We know the law of two feet is about passion and responsibility. Harrison generally talks about the ability to use your feet to walk away if things get too heated. I find they’ll often return after cooling down. Anne Stadler gave me another perspective on the law of two feet: stand for what you care about. We use our two feet for both. I see them as yin and yang responses to conflict and we need them both. A real life example: A colleague, Sono Hashisaki, was working with four Pacific Northwest tribes who have joint responsibility with NOAA’s Office of National Marie Sanctuaries (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for the waters off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They’d had a conflict that was in its second year. NOAA agreed to fund a meeting to deal with it. Sono asked me to join her in facilitating the meeting. When I got the gist of what was going on, I was clear that Open Space was the best possible approach. We had a day. And feedback from people involved that no one thought anything useful would happen at the meeting. When we arrived at the site, people from the tribes were in a circle getting their “position” firmed up. They wanted to be sure they were all in lockstep. We knew the Feds were doing the same thing elsewhere. I looked at Sono, knowing we were in for an interesting time. When we began, a tribal leader welcomed everyone then apologized saying he had a conflict and had to leave. One of the key people gone! Sono and I opened the space and people began their first session. Sono briefed me from the sidelines on the relational dynamics at play: who sat with whom, who was left alone. As the second round began, the tribal leader was back in the room, sitting with the senior person from NOAA. Virtually everyone else was sitting around the two of them listening. After 20 minutes, the two men got up and shook hands. They had a path forward through the conflict. The participants canceled their final round of breakout sessions, and we “circled up” for a closing reflection. During the closing, several people thanked their counterparts, saying it was one of the most respectful meetings they had ever had. A representative from the Bureau of Indian Affairs complemented all of them on the most productive meeting between federal officials and Native Americans he had ever witnessed. Peggy ________________________________ Peggy Holman Co-founder Journalism that Matters 15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 206-948-0432 www.journalismthatmatters.org www.peggyholman.com Twitter: @peggyholman JTM Twitter: @JTMStream Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity <http://www.engagingemergence.com/> > On Feb 2, 2018, at 12:01 AM, Bhavesh Patel via OSList > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > > I am sure it does... I am sure it encourages each one of us to be free to > take responsibility for whatever we feel passionate about, or not... > > > > On 30 January 2018 at 23:07, Daniel Mezick via OSList > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org>> > wrote: > I am hearing this pointed criticism from some quarters: That OST actually > encourages conflict-avoidance via the Law of 2 Feet. In other words, people > who need to be resolving conflict (or at least discussing it) can just avoid > the touchy topic... and each other. > > Could this actually be true? If not why not? > > > -- > Daniel Mezick > Culture Strategist. Author. Keynoter. > (203) 915 7248. Bio. <http://www.danielmezick.com/> Blog. > <http://www.newtechusa.net/blog/> Twitter. <https://twitter.com/DanielMezick> > Book: The Culture Game. <http://theculturegame.com/> > Book: The OpenSpace Agility Handbook. > <http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336> > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > <mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org> > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > <mailto:oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org> > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org > <http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
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