OST and conflicts

Tue Dec 16 12:28:36 PST 2003

Two quick stories:

Once I was facilitating an OST event between mayors and councilors from
municipalities around Vancouver's along with local First Nation chiefs
and band councilors.  This was a gathering of something like 40 people
from the political leadership of this region.  There had been a lot of
tension between the non-Aboriginal governments and the Aboriginal
governments.

In the first discussion group, which was about something mundane like
agreements to pick up garbage, a shouting match erupted between a
non-Aboriginal city councilor and one of the First Nations Chiefs.  It
was hard to hear what was being said, but there were some pretty
offensive comments that made it to my ears.  Not far off outright
racism.  The conflict lasted for a few minutes and then the chief, who
is a friend of mine, came over to me and said “I know you aren’t going
to intervene, but could you just remind me of the principles of active
listening?”  I coached her as well as I could, trying to remember the
principles myself and she went back to the fray.  The heated
conversation continued and then got really quiet.  Later, someone from
the group told me that after the conflict, people were wondering if I
was going to intervene, and finally someone in the group said, “You
know, he isn’t coming over here.  This is our problem, and if we can’t
solve it, no one can.”

I try to think very carefully about situations like this, with the
mantra “One thing I do for the group is one less thing they know they
can do for themselves.”  This is especially critical in conflict.  I had
faith that the group had the inner resources to move beyond the
shouting, I knew it in fact because the Chief had asked me to remind her
of her own resources.  So I stayed out of the conflict and they got
beyond it themselves, with a lovely observation about the process.

In the second story, a group in deep grief wondered how they could
improve communication in their office.  They asked me to sit with them
and I did, but I said very little.  At one point, I suggested that the
look into a Non-Violent Communication workshop in their office.  I
explained what I knew of that process and they thanked me for my advice.
I wouldn’t explicitly suggest to a group that people use any dialogue
tool in Open Space other than those which come naturally to them, but it
would be a great thing to have a bunch of NVC folks in open space around
an issue of conflict and see how the processes work together.

Welcome to the list.  Keep those questions coming.

Chris

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Dominique Proudhon
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 9:57 AM
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 f ?
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
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

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

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