Unintend Consequences, Collateral Damage and Truth Telling

[Joelle Lyons Everett]

As Toke said, this is a great conversation about "being in the fire."

One of my fiery times was a two-day Open Space for a nonprofit organization
that had been informed that unless they restructured to serve a larger region,
they would lose the funding that supported their service work in their
community.   One of the possibilities was that staff would be transferred or laid
off, and this was stated by the director in a series of staff meetings at the
various sites prior to the Open Space.   And of course, of all the possibilities
she had laid out, layoffs was the one that people had heard and remembered.

I encouraged the director to say more about this in her opening, but she
refused, fearful that doing so would limit participants' creativity about
solutions.   Space was opened, and participants posted many topics.   They liked the
novelty of being self-managing, but the discussions were guarded.   Distrust
hung in the air, and a major suspicion that the decisions had already been made
and the meeting was just an exercise.   Many important issues had surfaced and
been discussed, but many thoughts remained unspoken.   It was heavy weather
outside (a major drenching rain that was causing mudslides and road washouts),
and just as heavy inside.

The original suggestion by the client had been one day of Open Space with the
full staff for idea generation, and a second day for managers only to process
the input and develop an action plan.   In the first planning meeting, I
encouraged the team to invite everyone back for the second day, saying that we
would likely get deeper work that way, and they agreed to that plan.   Most of
the staff went home to their families.   The management team relaxed for a
couple of hours, then reconvened for dinner.

For three hours, the discussion went round and round.   The meeting wasn't
working as well as they hoped.   People were not taking full advantage of the
opportunity to share their ideas, and some managers were angry about that.
Other managers were angry that their staff members were being put down for
sharing their honest feelings (of distrust), which they had been invited to do.   We
needed to do something different.   Were we going to re-design the whole
second day?

Now I was trying to get to the place Toke talks about where I don't need to
look good, to be the one who can fix everything.   I told them that the second
day of Open Space always begins with Morning News, and that I would make clear
that honest feelings were a legitimate kind of news.  I asked the managers to
spend a little quiet time before morning, thinking about what they wanted to
say in the circle, and I asked them to hold back just a bit and see who else
might exercise leadership.   And I went to bed knowing that I was the only one
who thought OST had a prayer of working.

In the morning, we convened in our (crowded) circle.   A few people did share
how they were feeling.   Finally one very young man asked if it was time to
post more sessions.   He said,   "I promised to bring music today for a
movement session, but I didn't bring any music.   I spent some time last night
thinking about yesterday, and I want to offer a different session.   I have a lot of
questions that I haven't heard answers to, and I'm hoping that someone from
the management team will be willing to answer them."

The director immediately said that she did not have all the answers herself
at this point, but she would be in the session, and would truthfully answer
whatever she could.   She sat on the floor within the circle, facing the
convenor.   Someone said, "Maybe we should all be in this session."   I said that we
were still in Open Space, and the Law of Two Feet still applied.   A member of
the Board of Trustees stood, said that he would convene his session on the
balcony, and one woman said her session would be held as scheduled.   About fifty
out of the sixty participants, including all the managers, stayed in the
room.

The young man who convened the session was magnificent.   He asked his
questions, one at a time, without a trace of blamefulness, giving everyone a chance
to discuss each issue and ask their own questions.   The director answered
very directly and without defensiveness, and said "I don't know" when that was
the truth.   One of the participants got a flip chart and said, "I'm just going
to write down whatever I hear about what we know about this situation."   I
felt priviledged to watch it all unfold.

After 45 minutes, the convenor said, "That's all the questions I have. .
.does anyone else have other questions?. . .   Is there anyone who still doesn't
trust the managers?. . .   If not, I guess this session is over."

There was a very different energy in the building for the rest of the day.
People did not want to leave their conversations for lunch and the closing
circle.   Ideas were popping, I heard a lot of laughter and, yes, some moments of
High Play.   We held close to the schedule, determined to let people head for
home before darkness and continued rain made the roads even more hazardous.
But the closing circle was a wonderful outpouring of gratitude for having
been heard, and a determination to find creative ways to go on doing the service
work they all loved.   It was quite a day.

Joelle


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