Comparing methodologies

[Chris Corrigan]

>
> On each occasion I sat down in the middle of the room during the
> OS-in-progress with 'the planning team' and shared my concerns -
> participants wandering by sat down too and it was all a transparent
> moment of what should we do or should we do anything.  A planning team
> of whomever wanted to be the planning team.
>
> In the case of the upset participants we co-re-designed the next day,
> including a co-designed consensus process to begin that day; in the
case
> of the upset client we just got more people holding space for the good
> and somehow that good energy (or nothing we did at all maybe?) carried
> it through and the client didn't stop the process.
>

Lisa...this is a very important contribution to my practice of Open
Space. Thank you for this.

I have done similar things and as a facilitator working with other
processes I am always open to on the spot redesigns and flexible process
to meet the client's needs.  But I have never thought of inviting people
to sit with me in the centre of the ghost circle and consider the Spirit
in the group and whether anything needs to be done about it.  I think
that's a risky thing to do, as it invites all kinds of speculations and
momentum building in directions that I wouldn't necessarily be
comfortable with, and yet I can see the value.

This leads me to a story, which has been rattling around in my mind the
last few months.  It's taken me a while to get it out.

I finally did an Open Space where I had to walk out of it (at least
temporarily) in that true way that Harrison writes about in the User's
Guide.

The occasion was a gathering of people from a number of First Nations
around British Columbia all of whom operated agencies funded by the
sponsor of the OST, a government department.  We held a very successful
OST in February where our question under consideration was "How do we
build on our successes" to talk about how to extend the government
program that had funded these agencies to do great work.  A follow up
OST was proposed by the sponsor around the issue of a province wide
voice for these agencies.

We were all set to go and 15 minutes before I opened the space, the
sponsor surprised me by saying that he thought this was not a good time
for this OST, as there were political things going on and financial
commitments currently being withdrawn that would mean that anything
coming out of the meeting would not be supported, either politically or
with money.  I was shocked at this admission, and mused openly about
whether we should just call the whole thing off.  He said he thought we
should go ahead given that everyone was here, and maybe the
conversations would lead us to a different place.  Evidently a number of
the participants were aware of this REAL POLITIK, although most were in
the dark.  I reluctantly agreed to go ahead but only if he would
introduce the OST with some honest articulation of these new givens.

He didn't do a very good job of it, and his introduction looked to me
like he was trying to hide something.  As I walked the circle, and
introduced the process I was interrupted quite forcefully be a chief who
stated in no uncertain terms that the theme we were there to consider
was bullshit, and that there were bigger issues that needed to be talked
about.  I invited him to post these issues but he disagreed saying that
he thought that people needed more information before they decided that
the OST should continue.  I continued to thank him for raising the
issues and asked him again to post, but he wasn't biting.  As I opened
the space, an older woman asked politely that I reconsider what we were
doing and stop to listen to the information that others had so we would
know what the real issues were.  There was an AWFUL lot of nodding in
the room and people looking at me expectantly.  It was more than
apparent that we were on the verge of a consensus among the 50
participants that the OST should wait.

So I asked people what they wanted to do.  Someone suggested a caucus
meeting, meaning that we were to be kicked out of the room along with
the sponsors and the participants would talk among themselves.  There
was a general will in the room to do this, so I said "I'm here to Open
Space on this topic of a provincial voice.  If people don't feel they
are ready to do that right now, I'll gladly leave so you can do the work
that you want to do, and when you're ready for us, we'll come back."  We
left the room.

The conversation went on in there most of the morning.  The sponsor was
philosophical in his acceptance of the situation but not happy.  I
reminded him, kind of honestly, of what he had sprung on me earlier in
the morning and suggested that people had seen through this thinly
veiled government agenda for what it was...an attempted whitewash of the
real situation.  He agreed and blamed headquarters.

When we resumed after lunch, there was no passion left for the topic.
Nine discussion groups formed and some work got done, but it was clear
that they were mostly killing time until a senior enough government
official arrived so they could vent on him.  This happened the next day
after we did convergence.  We finished the OST (surprised that it had
lasted that long) and after lunch the regional director general arrived
with a power point presentation on why there was no longer any money to
implement all the stuff they had been talking about.  With bigger fish
to fry in the room, one by one people rose from their chairs and started
to ask him some pretty direct questions.  Our work was done.  We quietly
shut the door and left.

This is an extreme example of reengineering the process in mid stride,
and although Harrison alluded to it in the User's Guide I seriously
thought I would never see the day when I would have to actually leave
the room.  In the many other cases where a good conversation about
process was warranted I have often wrestled, like Lisa with the best way
to do this.  Now thanks to your post Lisa, I have a way to being more
"moderate" in thinking collectively about where we are in the moment.

Cheers,

Chris

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