Story of a 2.5 day Open Space with an Aboriginal Organization

[Chris Corrigan]

Colleagues:

I have just completed a 2.5 day open space with an Aboriginal
organization here in British Columbia with excellent results.  It was an
interesting exercise on a number of fronts, and so as usual I am writing
to share the results and some of my learnings.

The British Columbia Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres
(BCAAFC) represents almost 30 "Friendship Centres" here in BC.
Friendship Centres are organizations that have been around since the
1950s, providing services to Aboriginal people in the towns and cities
of Canada.  During the 1950s, there was a mass migration of First
Nations people away for isolated and remote reserve communities to the
cities as people set out to look for jobs and better lives for their
families.  In short order, these people formed communities and then
community organizations.  Friendship Centres were among the first to be
formed, to provide assistance to individuals and families making the
transition from reserve life to city life.  These days Friendship
Centres provide a huge range of services and programs and in many ways,
look like Aboriginal YMCAs, although not as well funded, and generally
not attracting as much of a middle class clientele.

Here in British Columbia we are embroiled in disputes about land rights,
aboriginal title and self-government.  Friendship Centres, as Aboriginal
organizations, are trying to find a role for themselves in this debate.
In order to further their ideas and vision, the BCAAFC hired me to
facilitate a 2.5 day Open Space around the theme:  "Aboriginal
Friendship Centres and Self -government in BC."  Executive Directors and
Presidents from each Centre were invited as was the BCAAFC Executive
Committee and the staff.  In short, most of the BC Friendship Centre
leadership was gathered in one place.

DAY ONE

We had 41 people, who proposed 36 topics during the opening on day 1 (31
topics were eventually reported upon).  I had the two meeting days
divided in the four sessions of 1.5 hours each with 1.5 hours for
lunch.  My opening was complimented by a prayer from our Elder and an
official welcome to the territory of the Lil'wat Nation, on whose land
we met in Whistler, BC, north of Vancouver.  (We were actually meeting
in the same facility where I first experienced OST five years ago).  As
has been my experience, people took to the process immediately and got
down to work on the issues with no trouble at all.  I had a partner
working with me who was learning OST, and he helped to organize the
agenda wall and see about an even distribution of topics throughout the
8 time slots we had available.  He also remained in charge of the
proceedings for the entire event.

I received several comments during the first day about the process
including comments about how well it allows everybody to participate and
how free of conflict the discussions were.  One woman said that she had
been coming to these meetings for years and met the same people and
never heard any of them speak.  This was the first time she heard from
some of them.  I asked her why she thought that is and she said it had
to do with the safety that was created.  She felt that because
individuals proposed topics that they were passionate about, a great
deal of respect was brought to the discussions, and that the whole group
held the space, not just the facilitator.  When facilitators work in
controlling processes, participants sometimes feel that they can lose
themselves in conflict.  Not so in Open Space, where the whole group
takes responsibility for keeping the space safe and therefore, conflict
is often eliminated, as was the case for this meeting.  And there were
some contentious issues!

Another interesting comment came for a seasoned veteran of the
Friendship Centre movement, an Elder who has served on the Executive at
all levels, local, provincial and national.  He said that this was the
first meeting where he learned something.

(As an aside, and by way of demonstrating how easy it is to get into
Open Space, comes this story: My three year old daughter was with me and
at one point, while groups were moving around, she came into the room
with her mother, and asked what the paper and the nice coloured markers
were doing on the floor in the centre.  I told her that people used the
markers to write down things that they wanted to talk about on the
paper.  She then proceeded to dictate to me a list of topics she wanted
discussed.  She was interested in the following:

   * How pens work
   * How she can get her friend's allergies to go away
   * How buildings are built
   * How colour goes in
   * How the inside of your body works
   * How hinges work
   * How bones grow back together crooked.

She then returned to our hotel room with my partner where I am told that
they held their own discussion groups on these topics.  I relate this to
make the point that OST is easy enough for a three year old to
understand with very little instruction.)

We gathered in the circle for a closing prayer at the end of the day, as
is our tradition.

DAY TWO

Day two began in a novel way for me, because we had to change rooms.
Our large meeting room had been overtaken by a conference of McDonald's
Restaurant's managers from Western Canada (more on this below).  We
moved to a smaller room which involved some work to prepare, but,
despite my anxieties, worked out fine.  Day two began early with a sage
smudge and a prayer.  The smell of sage permeated the facility, and its
bittersweet (and slightly cannabis-like) smell confounded the McDonald's
managers who were by now virtually swarming around our meeting space.

Playing fast and loose with time, the groups met at 9 instead of 9:30
and finished at 10:30 for the first session, taking a half hour break
before convening the 11:00 sessions on time.  As the news started to go
up on the wall, one woman commented how different the reports were from
the actual discussions in the groups.  I have always suspected that this
is the case and I wonder if anyone else has figured out how to capture
the energy and passion that forms in the groups and is not reflected in
the reports?

It seemed as the second day progressed, that the group discussions
became more intense and the breaks between discussions became lighter.
This was in contrast to day one, when people seemed to be feeling their
way around, and were more aloof in both the groups and the breaks.  I
can really see how extending the discussions over two days brings a
totally different qualilty of experience to people.  It is deeper and
richer and the relationships become stronger so that people feel freer
with each other outside of the meeting.

The whole notion of personal responsibility intensified over day two.
One participant, who missed convening her session because she was
actually attending to another participant who was suffering a nasty
reaction to a bee sting, used the evening news to apologize for "acting
irresponsibly" by not convening her session.  The apology was offered
with great respect and humility to the group.  It opened my eyes to how
serious the "responsibility" part can get taken.

As day two came to a close, I checked my "Open Space Evaluation" sheet:
a piece of blank chart paper with the question "What do you think of
Open Space?" on the top.  The paper contained a couple of doodles of a
happy face and a light bulb and these telling words: "It's really
round!"

DAY THREE

Again, we opened with a smudge and a prayer.  I'm lucky to have these
openings available to me as it aligns people's thoughts nicely at the
beginning of the day and helps ground the crown for the work ahead of
them.

Convergence consisted of the following steps:


   * posters with topic names and numbers were placed around the room
   * participants read reports (roughly 50 pages) for a half hour
   * reflect and use the dots to indicate passion
   * some topics were converged
   * top dot getters were brought off the wall and placed in the centre
     of the circle (there were ten of them)
   * I invited champions to come forward to see these through the action
     planing phase
   * Nine champions came forward and a few more topics were converged.
     Convergence was highly conservative, as is my preference.  Only
     topics that were closely related were converged.
   * The orphaned topic was placed with the others with a meeting space
     post it note on it in case anyone wanted to take the issue
     forward.  As it turned out, no one did.
   * Discussions lasted 45 minutes.  Several participants wished that
     they could have had the whole day to actions plan.

(Note to OST facilitators who may be working with Carrier speaking
people: the word "dot" sounds a lot like the Carrier word "D'ogh" which
is a rather vulgar term for female genitalia.  So when I suggested that
folks grab seven dots and indicate where their passion lay, it resulted
in a truly inspired outburst of belly laughs from one person!)

The closing circle was profound.  I had wanted to use a talking stick (a
real one!) for the closing circle, but the organization did not bring
theirs.  Instead I used a piece of lava rock.  The Whistler area is
covered in old lava flows and the rocks lie everywhere, pitted from air
bubbles that were trapped in the molten lava.  As it turns out these
rocks are great for using in sweatlodges as they hold heat.  So when a
number of people went out on day two to collect sweat rocks for future
use, the BCAAFC ED gave me one.  And I used it for the closing circle.

I opened by stating that lava is rock made from material that has welled
up from deep within the earth and taken form.  It does not crack under
extreme heat and it is malleable and flexible.  In my mind this summed
up the organization nicely.

As the rock went around, people shared very deeply.  I was especially
touched by the Elder who said that the process was a new role model for
First Nations communities to show us how we could be together.  Another
participant said that she was tired from the mental strain of the past
few days, and had even forgotten where we were in the month ("somewhere
in the middle!" she said).  Later the ED of the organization remarked
that he thought that this comment represented the fact that she was no
longer thinking linerally.  It fact, the ED recognized OST as a tool
with tremendous possibility for decolonizing First Nations people and
communities because it creates the environment for people the THINK in
traditional ways.  I have said that before, and I am buttressed in that
belief now.

Several people saw possibilities for using OST and have vowed to use
it.  There was an almost fiercely protective sense that came over the
group regarding the process.  They recognized it as theirs, as one which
is, in both form and content, real indigenous self-government.

We closed the third day with a prayer.

Now about those McDonald's managers: There could not have been a more
contrasting state of affairs.  Hundreds of managers were milling around
the conference centre being pampered (almost parented it seemed) by
corporate staff.  The whole place was full of golden arches, and
incentive plan recognition posters.  And their grand kick off event was
in the huge ball room above us as we were closing.  I could hear loud
music pounding through the ceiling, and my partner, who went to have a
look, said that she saw all the managers standing and cheering and
waving different coloured flags.  Then she was told to move away by
security guards who were actually standing at the entrance to the ball
room.  It was chilling.  You could not have imagined a more closed
space, one which generated a frightening totalitarian feeling.  And I
don't use the term lightly.  It looked like a nationalist rally,
complete with thugs at the door to keep out the rabble.

It was the sharpest contrast possible.

Chris

PS I will shortly post this story on my website with some pictures from
the event.  It will be at
http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan/osstories.html with the rest of
them.

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036
corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan

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