OST for Office Conflict. Yes or No?

[douglas germann]

Elwin--

A few years back before I knew about OS, I had a similar event. We had
10 or 12 employees and there was one bad boy--who happened to be the
boyfriend of the mother of one of the owners of the business!

We called a listening stick circle. I gave them some questions for warm
up like "Tell us what you would do if you had a free day and money and
freedom enough to do anything." 

Then after one or two of those we got into something along the lines of
"How can we work better together?" It went around the circle with a mix
of These are my best friends in the world, If there were a need in
another department, I'd jump right in, and Well, if the boss asked me I
would help out, but not on my own initiative. It came around to the bad
boy near the end and he let it be known he didn't much care for the
other folks. And they didn't act too upset by that. No blows, but people
pretty much knew where everyone else stood.

I called my client a week later and the bad boy had resigned his job.

Not exactly Open Space, but not exactly a firing either. 

				:- Doug. Germann
				What wants to happen in your
				 communities?

On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 14:31 -0700, Elwin and Joan wrote:
>  Dear Colleagues,
> 
> A few days back, while I was on assignment in Ethiopia, a consulting
> firm I have long association with emailed to say they needed me to
> cover a 2 day management training and team building job with a US Gov’t
> office in DC.
> 
> Fair enough I thought. The consulting firm knows me well and our
> history together has always been one of success.
> 
> I asked for and received a Statement of Work (SOW) that was the usual
> referencing of interactive approaches to building cooperation, respect
> and a sense of teamwork.
> 
> Based on the SOW, I wrote a proposal for a 1 1/2 day Open Space
> conference with the theme, “Looking for Opportunities to Improve Our
> Teamwork”.  
> 
> The proposal was accepted by the client.
> 
>  I am now Stateside. I just talked with the client and things look
> pretty ugly. 
> 
> I now  know the “real” interest in this exercise is to get rid of one
> or two of the office employees. These two people are viewed by a new
> management (my clients) as subversives, if not terrorists. The new boss
> wants them “gone.”
> 
> In 5 days I am scheduled to do this Open Space with six employees
> including the boss.
> 
> I am not at all reluctant to change my proposal and do my “hard hat”
> management consultant routine. 
> 
>  On the other hand this might be a perfect OST opportunity.
> 
> What say you?
> 
> eg
> 
> 
> Elwin Guild
> Future Development International
> Baltimore
> elwinandjoan at yahoo.com
> 
> *
> *
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