Unintend Consequences, Collateral Damage and Truth Telling

[Peggy S. Holman]

Harrison,

Thank you so much for this story.  It is such a powerful reminder -- when there's disturbance, open space.  Even when already in Open Space, open it wider.

Your talk of your sleepless night reminded me of an experience during an Appreciative Inquiry Summit.  The group of a couple hundred people had just generated about 10 provocative propositions (for those not familiar with AI jargon, these are statements describing the desired future).  The group was standing, looking at the statements and I said something that I never do -- something about reaching consensus.  

(A quick aside...since I ran into OS, achieving consensus ceased to hold any interest to me.  I think OS transcends the need -- when people experience the profound sense of convergence of what they collectively and individually care about, they simply move to action that aligns with each other.  No need to spend tedious time building consensus.)

So, these unexpected, unwanted words had left my mouth.  Sure enough, a couple people started to get entrenched in their positions.  It was clear we weren't going to reach consensus standing there.  Worse, almost everyone else was solid in their feeling of close alignment and ready to get on with things.  So I asked for a group who would be willing to get together on behalf of the whole.  About 8 people agreed to work things out.  We met that evening and decided to come together an hour before the whole group was meeting in the morning because we were too fried to meet that night.

I hadn't a clue what to do to work through the differences when I went to bed.  Not a lot of sleep...and what I finally realized was that my role was to create and hold the space for them to hear each other.  That was a huge leap of faith for me as I was letting go of any certainty that we would reach any sort of agreement.  And the work of the last day was riding on this. 

The group of 8 came together in the morning.  I told them an insight that I had during my sleepless night: when there's one voice that seems to be holding things captive, rather than resenting them and trying to convince them to change their mind, there was another, more useful way to see this.  That person was speaking an important truth and our job was to hear the message they were struggling to express because it held some kernel that was important to the health of the whole.  With this introduction, I passed the talking stick (sound familiar)?  That's all it took.  Ironically, nothing from the wording the day before changed.  The people who had felt shut down, now felt heard and were ready to move on.

Peggy


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harrison Owen 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 3:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Unintend Consequences, Collateral Damage and Truth Telling


  Larry -- they did give me some warning. Sort of like . . . there may be some "political stuff'' which I read as trouble. I told them not to worry. Everything works in Open Space. I didn't tell that what works. I figured we would find out. As for the timing, you are right -- my walk from the circle came on the morning of the 2nd day. Evening news the night before set the stage. The dissidents (which was about 99% of the group) read their manifesto. In no uncertain terms they said -- We aren't going to take it any more. Details to be worked out. That is where we left it, and once those words had been said (or rough equivalent) everybody was in shock. People in that organization don't talk that way, and when they do, minds are blown. And they were. Anyhow, as I thought about the next day (day 2) is was apparent to me that the Moose had to be honored and buried. And people needed time to make the decision to do that. which is why I opened the space big time. They needed some air to come to grips with the new reality. And they did.

  ho
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Larry Peterson 
    To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
    Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 4:45 PM
    Subject: Re: Unintend Consequences, Collateral Damage and Truth Telling


    Thanks for the truth Harrison - about the event and about your experience in it.

     

    Did you see any of it coming in the planning before the event?  Sometimes it is a real surprise when the air is out, the dead moose in on the table and the spirit is ebbing.

     

    I'm not clear from your story when you "left the room".  If it was like Rome, I assume it was on Day 2 in the morning?  If so, what was evening news like?  Or did this happen in the middle of a one day event - an impromptu evening/morning news with a break and permission to leave.  A little more detail here would help me.

     

    Larry

     

    Larry Peterson

    Associates in Transformation

    Toronto, ON, Canada

    416.653.4829

     

    larry at spiritedorg.com  

    www.spiritedorg.com 

     

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