so how would open space handle this?

[Chris Corrigan]

Peg:

I don't know how "open space" would handle this, but here's how I would
handle it.

Based on the text your brother sent, I don't believe that the two sides
(and there ARE more than two sides) are ready to open space.  It strikes
me that they are stuck at the beginning of the grief cycle with each
other.  Shock and anger leads to shock and anger, which leads to shock
and anger.  There is much pre-work to be done focussing the parties on
moving to a more healthy place in the grief cycle, where Open Space
Technology stands a chance.  I'm not talking about moving them through
it against their will either.  They have to be ready.  To paraphrase,
when the time is right, it starts.

By the way, the same holds true for the politician whose words are
quoted.  And also for the rest of the world who have done such a
marvelous job in dehumanizing the conflict by making general statements
about Palestinains and Jews, and by drawing on specific examples to
support those general statements.  How can we engage in Open Space with
shadow people, people who come to us not through assumptions and filters
but AS assumptions and fiilters.  Israelis and Palestinans are regularly
used as filters through which the world sees itself.  And that is what
this politician is doing too.  I thank him for his reaction, but I also
know that what he describes is true only for him.  You notice how he
only describes the conflict in terms of two sides, for example?  What is
he talking about REALLY?  And who would we invite to an Open Space
Technology meeting to solve this problem?  Palestinans and Israelis?
What about Americans. Iraqis, Jordainians, Russians, Britons,
Canadians?  Officials or regular folks?  Peace loving Jews and Arabs?
War loving Jews and Arabs? Who made this conflict?  Who has the power to
resolve it?  What is it REALLY about?  What do WE assume?

I have given up following the twists and turns of what is happening in
the Middle East, because I never get the truth.  What I get is both
sides selling me a version of their own truth.  I don't live there, I
don't have access to the stories except through mediatied processes like
the news or the Internet, and therefore I am not confident I KNOW what
is happening.  I know that based on what the politician is saying, I
would not open space...not yet.

The parallels for me echo quite deeply in the work I do with the
Aboriginal community.  People see us as First Nations people full of
assumptions and through a myriad of filters, and some of the
facilitation I see from people who are unaware of these assumptions and
filters is tough to take.  Operating from that place leads to behaviours
that are commonly called "colonization," which is not always a term that
refers to bad intentions.  In our country a large amount of the reason
for residential schools, which plucked First Nations children away from
their families to "civilize" them, was well intentioned.  Churches saw
the traditional way of life disappearing, and wanted to help First
Nations people make the transition to fully assimilated members of
mainstream Canadian society.  Seperate and apart from the bad things
that happened in those schools, the results of those well intentioned
nfolks have been devastating in terms of the destruction  of First
Nations culture, and ruinous to the lives of many individuals.

Maybe I am begging the question about how much you need to know about a
client before you work with them?

Maybe I am just rambling....:-)

In closing though, I am struck by the idea that someone has asked how
"open space" would handle a situation.  That to me is symptomatic of all
I am saying...it is in fact people that have the answers.  Processes are
there to help them.  Open Space handles nothing.  It is the nothing in
which things can be handled.  And a space that is too small, limited by
a huge number of unstated givens and assumptions, is not going to be a
space in which any real solution to this problem will arise.

That's my two cents.

Chris

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

http://www.chriscorrigan.com

108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036
corcom at interchange.ubc.ca

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