Very long story of a 1.5 day OST with deep conflict

[Chris Corrigan]

Colleagues:

It's been a while since I posted a story of a recent Open Space, but I
have a few saved up, including this one, which I undertook with my
erstwhile partner Chris Robertson.

I just returned from northern British Columbia, in a region known as
"The Peace," named for the mighty river that drains northeastern BC to
the Arctic Ocean by way of Athabasca Lake and the Mackenzie River
system.  It's the edge of what is the true north in Canada; the northern
horizon stays alight at night with a ribbon of pale yellow as the sun
traverses Asia.

Ironically, we were called up to the Peace to help resolve a long
standing conflict between contractors who work in the oil and gas
sector.  Oil and gas are the primary economic engines of the Peace
region, and First Nations are big players in the field. Oil and gas
companies have deals with the First Nations of northern BC to hire First
Nations contractors for work out in the traditional territories.  It's a
cutthroat business and lucrative too, with a good contract netting over
$1000 a day in profit from clearing seismic lines for oil and gas
exploration, or opening up the forest for a gas or oil wells, or
clearing corridors across the land for pipelines.  But there is a
limited season for work, and there is not enough to go around.   In an
area where a traditional way of life is still practiced and hunting and
trapping feeds the family but only barely supplements the income, work
in the oil patch is a ticket for independence and self-sufficiency, if
you can get it.

For ten years or more the contractors within one First Nation have been
at each other's throats over the work in the oil and gas sector.  The
fierce competition within the small community has been devastating.  The
Chief and Council have tried over the years to assist the contractors in
working out their differences, in creating fair systems for dividing up
and sharing the work, all the while trying to keep the community
together.  They have met with limited success.  Usually contractor
meetings degrade into shouting and threats and folks storming out.
Violent behaviour has been broached on a few occasions.  It's tiring.
For these guys, the fighting makes it feel like every dollar earned is
worth a bucket of blood.

It's pretty clear now that the contractors need to have a policy in
place to settle their differences about how work should be divided up.
There is a fledgling Contractors Association, but the infighting has
made it ineffective and the oil and gas companies have only limited
patience for getting dragged into the mess.  Work is continuing all
around this First Nation, with other Aboriginal contractors getting the
jobs.  Everyone knows that the fighting is costing big money, big stress
and lost opportunity.  The oil boom will only last another 35 years at
the most.  Every year lost to fighting is another year off the clock.

We were invited to open space.  The Council asked specifically for us to
try something different with the contractors.  They weren't sure who
would show up, but they wrote up the invitation as "Seeking Agreement:
Issues and Opportunities for meeting the economic challenges in the oil
and gas sector."  The contractors were told that they had to show up to
pre-qualify for a big upcoming job.  In fact the company representative
was to meet with the contractors right after we finished on the second
day.

I was worried.  This was perhaps the most conflicted group I had ever
worked with in Open Space, and I had my doubts about the local
organization of the meeting and the motivations of the contractors in
being there.  As if to signify an omen, the meeting got postponed on the
eve of us traveling up there due to a death in the community.  We
scrambled to find another date and rescheduled.  When it turned out that
the meeting room we would be in was too small, the local organizers
tried to get us into the almost completed community centre, which was
due to house the First Nations government offices, a gym and a
preschool.  As it turned out, the postponement of the meeting meant that
the paint would dry in time for us to use the new building.  With no
furniture in the offices, and a wide open space to form a circle in, we
had a tailor made facility, but I still wasn't comfortable.

Opening space on day one was nerve racking.  I was up late into the
night (watching the glowing horizon) turning my opening over in my head.
These were heavy equipment operators, chainsaw wielding oil and gas
industry workers.  They were hard nosed, competitive and in deep
conflict with each other.  I needed to be very grounded to believe that
we could actually make this work.  My self-critic had a field day with
my self-esteem until I managed to get him back in the bottle.

We got started about a half hour late which was fine by me, and as the
guys trickled in the air began to crackle.  At about 9:30, the Chief and
Council indicated that we could get to work with the 20 or so
contractors that were there.  I stood to do my opening.

I can't remember exactly what I said, but I remember beginning by
inviting everyone to follow me around the room with their eyes and make
visual contact with each other.  I said that I am no expert in oil and
gas issues, in heavy equipment work or in the dynamics of their
community.  I am a process guy, and when the process goes sideways,
sometimes I can offer something to straighten it up again.

I continued by talking about what it's like to have to scrap with each
other for bits and pieces of work.  I acknowledged the feelings in the
room, despair, anger, frustration and stress.  I asked people to look
ahead into the future and imagine themselves in this condition 20 years
down the road.  I offered the thought that sometimes the price to pay
for independence can be too high.  The cost is in shorter lives,
miserable conflict and work that is drudgery.  I invited them to think
about what it would be like if it were different.

There was lots of nodding in the room, so I continued on my little roll.
I said that the only people who were going to solve these problems were
the ones sitting around the circle.  No one was going to parachute into
this situation with the answer.  I explained that the next day and a
half was the opportunity people had been asking for to see if there
couldn't be another way of doing things.  I said that if we arrive at
lunch time tomorrow and there is light shining through a door cracked
open, then we will have done something really significant.  Then I sat
down.

My partner Chris stood and explained the process, the principles and the
law and then I rose again and reiterated the theme and ended saying that
it was entirely possible that nobody here believes that what we are
about to do is possible.  I said Chris and I would hold that belief.  We
would stay in the belief that in a day and a half, there would be a new
way of being together.  I said I believed in the people in the circle
and believed they could solve these problems and then I invited the
issues.

It was more than I expected.  Guys were quick to come out of their seats
and pen the big issues they needed to resolve.  By the time the dust
settled we had 23 issues.  When the market place opened they immediately
converged them in about 15 issues.  Folks grabbed coffee and then we
were underway.

The first sessions were heavy going, but they stayed civil.  Staff from
the First Nation government provided some "facilitation" in a couple of
small groups, ensuring that people took turns speaking and that the
group stayed on topic.  The contractors respected this leadership and
the trend continued throughout the day.  We were really pleased with
this, because it showed the latent leadership in the community to help
people be respectful with each other.  For some reason, probably due to
the climate of fear and anger, this kind of leadership had never come
forward before.  Several of the contractors remarked that this was the
best part of the whole experience - talking to one another and each
taking a turn and being respectful.  This was a new way of
communicating.  No one got angry, no one stormed out, no threats were
uttered.

The small groups continued and as the big issues were being dealt with,
those who had exercised the Law of Two Feet started in on the smaller
issues.  The agenda was chaos.  Little issues convened by someone in the
morning were dealt with by a small group of other people later on.  It
was as if the bulletin board had become a big shared "to do" list.  Five
minute groups sprang up with three or four people.  Recommendations and
one line reports were submitted on the "easy" stuff.  And all the while,
a handful of major issues kept most of the contractors engaged in deep
dialogue.

By the close of day one, people were really surprised that they actually
spent a day together with no fighting.  There was a lot of work
completed, a book of proceedings in the works and significant headway
made on most of the major issues of conflict.  Many people remarked in
the evening news that although there wasn't agreement on everything,
there was a new spirit of working together.  I concluded the day by
drawing their attention to the circle and remarking that as First
Nations people we are lucky, because the Creator gave us the circle as
our tool and we take it for granted.  I suggested that if they just used
the circle more, things would be different, let alone using Open Space.
I was really tired at the end of day one.

On the morning of day two, it was clear to me that the circle wasn't
enough on its own to handle conflict of this magnitude.  As we began and
I invited morning news, one contractor grabbed the talking piece and
launched into a tirade about one of the hot issues of the previous day,
having to do with how work is divided up and shared.  He thought that
what looked like an agreement in the proceedings was unfair to him and
he started in on the issue.  He also managed to bring in another hot
topic, the issue of work happening on his trap line, the territory in
which he traps fur-bearing animals.  He said that work that traversed
his trap line should be done by him, regardless of how the contract was
awarded.  Accusations and heated words began to fly.  Both these issues
were central to the conflict, and even before we started on the second
day, both threatened to derail the concord we had emerging.

I did something I had never done before.  I stood up and said that I
thought morning news was over and why don't we get on with our day.  I
took back the talking piece and opened space again for action planning
(using our non-convergence model, whereby we invite people to identify
action based on their reading of the proceedings rather than
prioritization).  Six action items were raised, including trapline
issues and the issue of a rotation list for contracts.  Small groups met
and the conversations got underway.  They were heated and emotional, but
the law of two feet applied and was used.  I realized that the most
valuable result of my intervention was encouraging them to put the
issues on the wall and deal with them in different spaces.  This
accomplished two things.

My partner Chris Robertson noticed that when the issues went up on the
wall, they became de-personalized.  This made it easier to attack the
problems without attacking people.  In the opening circle on the second
day the attacks were getting personal before I invited the issues to go
up on the wall.  The other thing that worked was having somewhere to go.
As the big circle broke up and the small groups got underway, people
came back to the main meeting area when things grew too hot and heavy.
Most often they gravitated to the coffee machine where light
conversation was taking place.  There was laughter there and people were
more relaxed.  When they felt ready, they could go back to the small
groups and re-engage.  It struck me that having many centres around the
main meeting space, left the main space as a kind of sacred place where
people could come to re-charge.  The folks who were butter-flying around
the coffee machine were holding a kind of positive space for anyone who
needed it.  In the larger circle we would never have had this safe space
emerge.  It felt very quickly like space was closing and with nowhere to
go, people started going for the jugular.  Small group space loosens the
body of the conflict and allows for Spirit to show up in just the right
ways.

As we closed, everyone agreed that the day and half was well spent.
There was substantial progress made towards a policy for the contractors
and there was, at least for this week, peace in the Peace.  Two oil
companies came in to talk about work and they sat in the circle with the
contractors and outlined the scope of the jobs.  They were both big
projects and the contractors were respectful with each other and quietly
listened while the company reps sat in a circle with them and explained
the opportunity.  Everyone remarked that a previously unknown civility
had permeated the room.

Now we are only two days away and it's impossible to tell whether this
will have lasting effects on the contractors.  But we have been asked to
help draft the policy and to come train the First Nation staff and staff
from neighbouring First Nations in Open Space so that they can hold a
community meeting using OST.  We got the light we were hoping would be
there.  One contractor said in the closing circle, that the door was
opened a crack and he could see a new way of doing things.  I reminded
them that they were "in deep" now: there was no way to avoid that
possibility except by choice, and who would choose the way things used
to be?

It was good doing this with a partner that I know and trust.  Holding
space was really hard and having Chris there meant that we could both
keep things supported.  I'm hoping he joins the list here soon!

The contractors passed on their thanks to "the guy that thought this
thing up" and I promised I would convey them to Harrison.  If you've
read along this far, thanks for indulging me.

Chris

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com/osweblog
chris at chriscorrigan.com

(604) 947-9236

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