Conflict in community

Joelle Lyons Everett JLEShelton at aol.com
Mon Mar 20 12:29:22 PST 2006


Chris and all--

One of the earliest Open Space conferences I facilitated was with an 
elementary school that was supposed to be in the process of restructuring their 
programs to integrate special-needs children into the regular classrooms.   And the 
process was stuck--they could not agree on any direction forward.

Their committee had decided that maybe developing a new vision would help 
people find common ground. Meeting with the committee, I commented that I did not 
think they could move forward without finding a way for people's fears and 
concerns to be heard, and proposed that Open Space might be a way for teachers 
to express their deep concerns in small groups.   They liked this idea, and we 
took an afternoon that was scheduled for in-service training, agreeing to 
begin with Open Space and incorporate some work on writing a vision statement.

Our original schedule was 1:00-4:00.   Given the short time, I scheduled only 
one time slot, but the group soon realized that by holding shorter sessions, 
they could have twice as many.   The group of forty teachers and classroom 
aides posted about twenty sessions (we had 13 great breakout spaces--classrooms 
surrounding a circular gymnasium).   The teachers and the principal loved being 
bumblebees, with permission to walk out of class.   The breakout groups got 
right down to business, tackling the hard issues.   One large group, discussing 
their fears about having "problem kids" in their classrooms, continued the 
whole time, with participants coming and going.   One group of butterflies 
addressed a question not on the wall, "If we do a lot of experimenting, and change 
the way we work, how can we avoid making 'second-class citizens' of teachers 
who are working in more traditional ways?"

Everyone returned to the circle, and each group made a quick report on their 
key recommendations.   The principal, very excited by what he was hearing, 
announced that we would continue until 6:00, people could leave if they urgently 
needed to be elsewhere, and he would pay overtime for the additional hours.   
I think only one person left. Focusing on common themes and shared concerns, 
we started a group process of writing a vision statement.   By 5:50, the 
statement was emerging, and the group agreed to finish it in their weekly staff 
meeting Monday morning.   I suggested that the vision statement be the cover for a 
"book of visions" that included all the reports from the breakout groups.

Soon after this meeting, I required treatment for a serious health problem, 
and did not get back to see what had happened.   But a few months later, I saw 
the teacher who had invited me to work with them.   She told me that ALL the 
recommendations had been implemented, and that the restructuring 
(state-mandated) had been accomplished.

My experience with group with a lot of internal conflict is that people are 
relieved to have a "safe" place to talk about the dead moose, and that makes 
them more willing to speak up and also more open to hearing others' 
perspectives.   Seems paradoxical, but I have seen it many times.

You need a representative group of participants to write the invitation--the 
struggle to find the right words will begin to bring key issues into the open. 
  Personally, I think there needs to be some reference to the purpose they 
all share, something larger than all the conflicts.   In one group I worked with 
there was quite a bit of fear about moving into a new and unknown 
situation--one of the most effective sessions invited people to tell stories that inspire 
them to continue doing what they do.

You have the skills and experience you need to hold the space, and I think 
the participants will do the work.

Joelle







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