A small matter of curiosity

Tue Oct 26 14:01:26 PDT 2004

--- Chris Kloth <kloth at got2change.com> wrote:
>
> But here is the curiosity...despite rooms that
> really were consistently too cold or too hot or too
> noisy and food that was tasty, but not as portable
> as it was supposed to be, there were no complaints
> about food or rooms!  She said that she has been
> planning and conducting meetings and conferences for
> many years and has never had so few comments on
> rooms and food.

This is really very interesting!

>
> Her questions, which I offered to pass on to the
> list, is "When people take responsibility for their
> work and find that they are spending their time
> doing what they need to do, does that lead to such
> focus that the rest of the conditions don't matter?

I would say this is true. If one is doing a very
interesting thing, one is much less aware of
"material conditions". If one is bored, one have to
complain about something...

> Do people accept responsibility for making choices
> within the space and, therefore, factor food or room
> conditions into the decision to stay or use their
> two feet?

Never thought about, but probably also true.

Or was this group an anomaly and this is
> just one of those moments that happens for reasons
> we will never know?"

Don't think so

Regards

Artur

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>From  Tue Oct 26 14:09:22 2004
Message-Id: <TUE.26.OCT.2004.140922.0700.>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 14:09:22 -0700
Reply-To: chris at chriscorrigan.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com>
Subject: Story of using OST as a governance tool with an indigenous
 community
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Colleagues:

I'm pleased to be able to finally share this story with you.

The Sliammon First Nation lies about 100 kilometers north of Vancouver
on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast.   Sliammon is in the process of
reviving traditional governance structures and practices but they are
giving them a modern day tweak to work with the existing Indian Act
(colonial) governance structures and the realities of governing a
modern community in a resource rich territory.  My colleagues Chris
Robertson and I have been working with the community for the past year
using Open Space to revive a traditional governance process.  We have
been working with Michelle Washington, a community member and recently
trained OST facilitator who has been guiding this work.

The process we have been animating is called "Sijitus" which means
"advisory" in the Tla'amon language.  Traditionally Sijitus was a
gathering of family heads who met to provide direction and advice for
the community's leadership.  Sliammon has revived Sijitus using Open
Space Technology.  For the past year we have met about once a month in
Open Space with representatives from the families of Sliammon to look
at issues facing the community and to craft recommendations and advice
to the various governing institutions of the community.  Overall the
process has worked well to create an inclusive forum for voices to be
heard and for overcoming some of the differences that can deeply split
small communities.  Prior to re-establishing Sijitus, this was a major
concern in the community, and was responsible for some very divisive
results in elections and referenda on treaty agreements.

What's very interesting about this whole project is that Sliammon
intentionally places all of its governance work in a deep historical
and cultural context.  While understanding that modern day realities
mean shaping and changing practices, an underlying cultural integrity
is central to everything we do.  This is why they originally chose
Open Space for Sijitus: it displayed many of the characteristics of
traditional governance practice while remaining flexible enough to be
used for a variety of purposes.  And it reconnected the passion of
emotional debates to the responsibility of seeing things through.

Sliammon has recently revived its treaty society website
(http://www.sliammontreaty.com) and they have posted their tradtional
teachings toolbox
(http://www.sliammontreaty.com/governance_toolbox.html).  This work
represents years of interviews with Elders, studies of anthropological
sources and work on the land to assemble a Sliammon history, a set of
guiding principles and a very deep collection of Kwuth Ta-ow:
traditional teachings
(http://www.sliammontreaty.com/governance_taow.html).  These teachings
cover everything from leadership to medicines to the ways in which the
community traditionally provided for itself, and they are fascinating
to read.  Sliammon families practice their culture today in a myriad
of ways and so the toolbox is meant to capture the underlying values
behind these practices.  We have used this document for the past year
to work with and shape our Open Space meetings to align them with the
community's culture and to bring this reincarnation of Sijitus in line
with both the traditional and contemporary realities of Sliammon
community governance, and now I'm really pleased that it's available
to a wider audience.

For me, Sliammon represents a very deep process of taking a community
and connecting it to it's stories and culture in order to reframe it's
forward moving directions.  Nothing in Sliammon's history and
traditions has encumbered the community from existing in a modern
context of relations with other governments, companies and neighbours.
 The Sliammon treaty folks have gone deep to find the values and
practices that lead them forward and as such are moving in a direction
of deep integrity.  In fact the Sliammon word for "policies" or
"principles" is "ta-ow" which actually translates as "teachings,"
making a stong connection between those things that move us forward
and those places from which we have come.

I can see this working in many organizations and communities, this
veritical integration across time of practices and principles that are
deeply rooted, yet contribute to opening space such that we can move
forward in a way that feels natural and in synch with who we are and
what our story is.

So, I share it with you here, for some reflection.

Chris
--
-------------------------
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

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