Conflict in community

Mon Mar 20 11:58:55 PST 2006

Hi Chris.

I'm with you on this one --
                 Sometimes OST ("Transformation" -- transformative inquiry)
                        Sometimes Not OST ("Translation" -- translative
positioning)

In my work with large-system change and cultural transformation --
research, training, and experience has led me to the following gentle
pattern:
  * From the total set of Stakeholders in the system  --
           Identify the "Opinion Leaders and Social Connectors" 
  *  Discern from among them who the most willing and compelling "Inviters"
were
  *  Establish a Cross-Functional (X-F) Team to develop the "Invitation" and

       to serve as the collective sponsor of "Event"
  *  Use minimal OS ("Law of Two Feet") to conduct XF-Team meetings 
  *  Determine preferred "Event" format(s) -----
        +  I tend to default to OST if I can get a 1:8 ratio of OS-trained 
            community members to explicitly hold time/space during the
event.
            My experiments indicated that POP Seattle worked because it was
             convened within the Spirited Work Community -- an OS-trained
collective
        +  If  1:8 ratio of OS-trained community members are not available,
then I use
            other meeting formats as seem appropriate -- but always modified
with:
               --  The practice of Collective "Attunement" from "Silence"
               --  A collective "Opening"
               --  A core practice of minimal OS ("Law of Two Feet") 
               --  A collective "Closing"
  *  Invite "ONLY" Opinion Leaders and Social Connectors to initial
gathering(s)
  *  At "Event":
       --  Take time to have XF-Team representative(s) clearly frame
intentions 
             (specifically focused on highest collective aspirations)
       --  Describe core practice of minimal OS ("Law of Two Feet") 
       --  Invite "Opinion Leaders and Social Connectors" into Follow-on
planning 
  *  Analyze & Publish Results:  X-F Team would generate a "Findings" Report

       (proceedings and/or article) including recommendations
  *  Plan & Initiate Follow-on Events:  X-F Team would possibly reconfigure
from
       broader participant base and identify next steps and processes

In the somewhat contentious domains of military, homeland security, and
healthcare --
this gentle pattern has continued to work for me as an effective practice of
peace in
the transformation of despair into hope and positive generative action.  It
is all about
the transformation of consciousness.

For myself,  I use a (probably unpopular) metaphor of a nuclear reactor.
  A "Convening" (Fusion and/or Fission) occurs within a containment vessel.
  Highly-charged or frissionable elements <"participants">   :-)  can be
brought into 
  the containment vessel for transformation and action.
  By proximity and pressure, high-energy interactions and fields emerge.
  "Control Rods" --  OS-trained community members who explicitly hold
time/space --
    structure the distribution of energy and stabilize the energy field by
absorbing 
    and slowly re-releasing energy spikes ---- spikes which would otherwise
consume 
    the participants, destroy the integrity ("safety") of the containment
vessel, and
    collapse the field --- a.k.a., a "runaway reaction" or "meltdown".
  When the integrity ("safety") of the container has been compromised, and
the field 
    has collapsed -- then I deem the "Convening" as having failed to meet
its objectives --
      the Practice of Peace in Transforming Despair into Hope and Action.
(But I also deem
      it to be a "Great Learning")
  IN my experience, a 1:8 ratio of "control rods" to "participants" seems
optimal.

Well that is my two hay-pennies worth . . .

Please keep me briefed on your experiments and experiences around this.

Mark R. Jones
Chief Executive Officer
The Sunyata Group
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PO Box 58788
Renton, Washington
USA 98058-1788
Phone:      425-413-6000
e-Mail:       <mailto:sunyata at att.net> sunyata at att.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  _____  

  _____  

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris
Corrigan
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 8:17 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Conflict in community

Hi Folks:

An inquiry for you.

I've had a couple of conversations this week with people involved with local
school boards in the United States.  The common themes in these
conversations include high degrees of local conflict, positional politics,
an extreme lack of resources over which no one locally has any control and
labour relations that are best described as toxic. 

IN a conversation today, one man said that he wanted to try Open Space
simply as a way to have all the parts of the system understand each other.
I suggested that this might not bring the peace he was looking for, as
people who would come to that kind of meeting hoping to convince others of
their righteousness would feel at the end of the day that they were either
winners or losers.  I thought that result wouldn't necessarily be
transformational.  When I asked him if instead we couldn't issue an
invitation to invite people essentially to answer the question "how can we
BE together differently in this system" he balked a little at the notion of
a smaller group of "like minded" individuals.  Of course I don;t see this as
starkly black and white, but nevertheless, he thought an "airing of the
issues and a shared understanding" were most important. 

So my question goes to people who have worked in this situation, with groups
that are highly wedded to positions.  What are the kinds of invitations that
allow for "airing," generated shared understanding, and perhaps lead to
transformative relationships? 

By the way, I told him I would do this for less than 1.5 days.

Thoughts and reflections welcome.

Chris

-- 
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology 

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
Open Space Resources:    <http://tinyurl.com/r94tj> http://tinyurl.com/r94tj
* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist 

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20060320/1a2124e3/attachment-0008.htm>