OST and conflicts

Mike Copeland mcopeland at doc.govt.nz
Tue Dec 16 12:04:28 PST 2003


G'day Dominique

You remind me of a French, Canadian, Kiwi guy I know who lurks and pot shots
this list serve from time to time.

Great to see you launch into the list full blown. Welcome and keep on asking
your questions.  I found it very scary at first but was amazed at the
response from this list.  OST is a responsive process!

This leads me to your question of conflict and intervention during an OS
event?!

I will give you my experience of this. I have been ruined for life by OST
around intervention. OST is killing my tolerance and desire to intervene in
meetings! Indeed, now when I'm in a meeting where some facilitator
intervenes I start to feel my blood boil.

In the past I felt intervening at the right time and steering things was an
admirable trait. "I am sensitive to the groups needs, I can see they need to
go on this path, I will direct them gently and subtly to my way." How
arrogant I was!

OST has relieved me of this burden. One of the principles is very clear
about this "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have."

Conflict is often seen negatively; some destructive force that will blow
things apart if expressed. Problem is, if conflict is stuffed it comes out
in all sorts of  disguised forms that can create very toxic environments. No
doubt you've experienced such places and states. Quite honestly, if an
actual physical fight broke out during an OST event (which could not be
ruled out in my rural earthy place) I would be loathe to intervene. If I
trust the process I'm sure the combatants will self mange the situation.
If the potential for conflict were so great that an OST meeting would be
tantamount to giving the green light to a riot I may suggest the sponsor
prohibits violence to self and others in their givens.

I know this may sound extreme, but conflict/anger is a form of passion.
Passion is an expression of spirit. At a personal level my life is so much
the richer now I allow myself to feel my anger and express it. Personally
I'd get really hacked off if a facilitator intervened while I were having an
argument with someone!

Reminds me of an old adage; "If you pick up someone else's pain you'll get
beaten up" Grimm Brothers

All the best Dominique
Mike Copeland


-----Original Message-----
From: Dominique Proudhon [mailto:dominique at DPROUDHON.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, 17 December 2003 6:57 a.m.
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: OST and conflicts


OK, Harrison, I won't wait long then. Here is a question:
Sometimes, conflicts do arise during subgroup discussions in an OS event. It
is certainly not a problem per se, since, in my experience, they often
reveal areas of greater creative potential. Still, a question remains: how
to best handle them in order to prevent escalation and allow the group to
own and discuss the issues in a solution oriented manner? I had a case once
where I felt obligated to intervene because the conversation was feeding on
blame and getting increasingly aggressive. A subgroup came to discuss the
issue of  "clans" excluding others and disrupting the overall group
effectiveness. Although my intervention went very well (the subgroup decided
to discuss the issue with the entire group, which agreed, and we went on
with a mediation process in the circle where I helped the group clarify
issues around clans and developing solutions to prevent/heal the negative
side effects of natural grouping within the larger group), I felt like we
had stepped out of the OS process, burnt a lot of energy, and lost some of
the creative power of the OS process. No regrets though, since what was most
alive at that time in the team was the conflict and they needed some way to
cope with it productively. It was not OS for a time, since I became actively
involved in the process. Even if I love doing mediation, I would much rather
see people solve their conflicts by themselves.  Is there any way to do all
of it in "OS mode"? Can OS function when communication patterns in a group
lead to blaming, finger pointing and retaliating? I am curious to hear about
other practitioners' experience with this. Also, what happens if you're the
only facilitator and you have two or more conflicts at a time in different
subgroups? You shoot them all :-) ?
To resonate with Agneta Setterwall's post, I believe that communication
processes such as the Non Violent Communication (NVC) can be great
complementary tools to OS. They significantly improve people's capacity to
communicate from their own needs and expectations, rather than from blaming
others for what they do not get in the relation. I believe running an OS
event with subgroups talking NVC would be a kick! (have to try out that
one). Any experience with "communication training/practice" in preparation
for an OS event out there? Or what about having NVC practitioners to
participate in subgroups as needed?

All the best to all.
Dominique.

 Dominique Proudhon
Group Facilitation
Problem solving
Conflict resolution
Dampierre
38470 Notre Dame de l'Osier
France
(33) 4 76 36 71 34
(33) 6 78 91 48 77

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Harrison
Owen
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 2:05 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: New member

Dominique wrote:

". I now would like to share this approach with others in France and
starting a French Open Space Institute (web site in preparation for sometime
next year). Of course, I have plenty of questions around OST, but I'll wait:
This post is already long enough, you guys are busy, and I need to read more
of the documentation to make sure I am not asking questions that have
already been answered 20 times. "

Don't wait too long. Never met a question I didn't like, even an old one.
Actually, most particularly The Old Ones. They give everybody a chance to
revisit old familiar places - and usually discover that what we took to be
"established wisdom" was actually just the tip of an iceberg. Also good luck
with OSI/France. As you can see already from this LIST, folks will be more
than helpful. And on the journey, you might want to make contact with
Christopher Schoch. Mdlschoch at aol.com <mailto:Mdlschoch at aol.com>
Christopher lives in Paris and was responsible for Executive Development (or
something like that) for Accor Hotels. We did an Open Space together around
the time of massive merger for that corporation. You can read the story, if
you want, in Tales from Open Space. http://openspaceworld.com/tales.htm
<http://openspaceworld.com/tales.htm>

Good Luck!

Harrison


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Dominique
Proudhon
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 2:58 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: New member

Good day all,

I joined the OSlist a few days ago and have been lurking for a while. I am
very impressed with the quality of the exchanges on this list and find
myself drawn to participate. Several threads called my attention; in
particular the one questioning the list itself (what are we doing? Aren't we
loosing our spirit, Should we split?) -I find these conversations very
healthy. And also the one about Civil Conversation, which resonates with an
old questioning of mine around ways to implement real participative
democracy - I am dreaming of initiating some real debate around the question
"what world do we chose to build for tomorrow?". I believe we humans are
caught up in our own contradictions: after centuries of evolving faster and
faster technically, and having more transformative power than ever, we are
now facing the essential question of  Meaning: How do we participate in the
world and to what end? What is our responsibility in regard to what is
happening in our world? Especially all the "not so nice" little things like
irreversible destruction of earth resources, loss of entire species, wars
and weapon builders, starving, and all that noisy ongoing disconnected
stupidity on our tv and radio shows that take people away from being...  I
believe that for the first time, we, at least in "developed" countries, have
won the freedom to look beyond simply working for survival, to ask
ourselves: how do I want to also make this place a little better?

Anyway. I'll stop here for today. My goal was actually to introduce myself:
I am French and leave in Grenoble. After a PhD in molecular/cellular biology
and 6 years of research. I decided to do something else with my life and
moved to human resources development. I actually did that career move in the
US: I lived 10 years in North Carolina. I wanted to understand why people so
often get into conflicts because of "films" they make in their heads that
have little to do with reality. I wanted to find ways to work on
re-establishing lost connections, especially in the workplace, where they
could serve common projects and goals. I trained with Will Schutz,
originator of the Human Element, became a mediator, trained in various
psychometric tools and got to work with various groups. Two years ago, just
before I came back to France, I bought a book that called my attention: Open
Space Technology, a user's guide. I read it in the plane. It was one of
those "ha ha": I found something I was looking for. A piece of extreme
simplicity that called on very ecological principles to set the stage for
real connection between people and for meaning to happen. On top of that,
this approach was shared openly without any bind, just as a gift to
humanity, which seduced me even more...  I decided to try it as soon as I
would get the opportunity, here, in France. Starting a new business as a
group facilitator/team consultant has not been easy thing. Things are slow
going and I often get discouraged. But I finally got the opportunity to run
two different open space events for two different clients in the last year
(30 people and 36 people). Both very energizing experiences and both around
the question "How could we improve the way we function as a team?": I loved
the first moments of surprise in people's eyes, and then the sudden rush to
bring up issues as they understood that the event was theirs. Several
persons approached me at the end telling me how much this work had moved
them from a negative reactive position to an engaged position and telling me
about a number of places they would see such work as useful. Thanks to
Harrison, they got a gift they deserved. Felt quite good to serve in such a
meaningful way. I'll continue. I now would like to share this approach with
others in France and starting a French Open Space Institute (web site in
preparation for sometime next year). Of course, I have plenty of questions
around OST, but I'll wait: This post is already long enough, you guys are
busy, and I need to read more of the documentation to make sure I am not
asking questions that have already been answered 20 times.

All the best to each of you,
Dominique

Note: I am a guy, for those who would wonder.

Dominique Proudhon
Group Facilitation
Problem solving
Conflict resolution
Dampierre
38470 Notre Dame de l'Osier
(33) 4 76 36 71 34
(33) 6 78 91 48 77

* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * *
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * *
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * *
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

##############################################
This e-mail (and attachments) is confidential
and may be legally privileged.
##############################################

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20031217/9bdff977/attachment-0016.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list