Self-Organization is What Consciousness (Spirit) Does

Julie Smith jsmith at mosquitonet.com
Wed Jan 2 08:57:50 PST 2002


Greetings Birgitt,
 
Thank you for your detailed explanation of how conflict resolution and
OST weave together in your practice.  You captured what has been the
deepest learning for me about OS when you said:  
 
Most frequently, conflict is resolved in either of these processes by
the participants themselves, without anyone else needing to be involved.
It is not because the people necessarily wanted to resolve the conflict,
but because they want to get on with the business  opportunities for
which they have passion and recognize for themselves that the conflict
needs to be resolved to get on with it. Their passion takes them beyond
their attachment to victim behavior, their passion takes them beyond
their attachment to conflict
.
 
When I think about some of the employment mediations I’ve been involved
in, I think of the myriad overlapping issues and people who were talked
about as contributing in some way to the conflict, but who were not
involved directly in the mediation because they were not the primary
participants in the conflict.  And I think about the people who would
sit in my office drawing diagrams of how the organization could work if
things were restructured to better suit the people who worked there, and
then throwing up their hands because their ideas were too big for the
process that was offered to them.  Those issues felt too big for
mediation because the stated task, the given, was to resolve the
conflict between a small group of people, and not to restructure the
organization.  I can see how in these kinds of situations, opening up
the space and invoking the law of two feet could lead to dramatic and
positive change within an organization.  I can also see how upper
management might resist large-scale opening space and change, and might
desire and ask for mediation as a way to resolve the most obvious and
pressing conflicts within the organization without requiring THEM to
significantly engage or change.  
 
Someone here recently said something about working at providing people
as much space as they can take.  I think that’s right.  For example,
mediation is often much better for individuals and organizations than
the grievance process.  If management is willing to go with mediation,
but isn’t ready for OS, then mediation might be the best we can do.
I’ve also seen organizations engage staff in collaborative negotiation
trainings, to help people learn to solve problems on their own before
they turn into larger problems.  That also seems to me to be a
health-inducing decision very much in keeping with the values of OS
..
in OS lingo, a way of teaching people how to open space in a circle of
two.
 
I think mediation also has a place in situations that OS doesn’t
approach (or hasn’t yet approached, to my knowledge).  I’m thinking of
situations where people perceive it is not in their best interest to
invoke the law of two feet.  Sometimes the conflict really does need to
be dealt with openly and directly between the people who are in it.  In
those situations, mediation can be a very simple, elegant, and powerful
process.  In many ways, like OS.  Also a little different.  I think
people who are in intense conflict who come to mediation experience
considerable stress and anxiety about the conflict and the mediation.
>From what I know so far, they need more support than the typical OS
participant.  As a result, most mediators openly engage at a deeper
level with participants than does an OS facilitator (as I understand
it).  Mediators don’t engage in an effort to control or to solve the
problem, but to provide enough understanding and emotional safety that
each person can tolerate the stress of sustained interaction with the
person they are in conflict with.  
 
Sometimes I think of mediation as creating circles of two: me and A, and
then me and B, and then back again, talking about what has happened, how
it felt, and how it feels.  As those circles become comfortable and A
and B relax within their individual circles with me, learning to trust
that they will be listened to and understood, they gradually reach out
to each other.  For a time, they hang onto their relationship with me as
support, and we create a circle of three.  As they become more
comfortable, they leave me behind, and create their own circle of two.
(This is my favorite part.  I think of myself as blending into the
wallpaper of the room
.. present but unnoticed.)   Often something
difficult will be said, fear will rise, and one or both will reach back
to me for support, and we’re back to a circle of three.  I will help
summarize or clarify or validate, working toward deeper understanding,
the fear will diminish, and they go back to their circle of two.
Eventually, if they choose to, they will reach a new understanding, and
perhaps a formal or informal agreement.  
 
It seems to me that OS and mediation and other processes are tools.  My
husband, the carpenter, has many tools.  Each is ideally suited for
different tasks.  His skill is to understand the best use of each tool,
and to use it accordingly.  I think the same is true of the work we do.

 
Julie
 
 
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