Conflict in community

[Birgitt Williams]

Hi Chris,
Having an OST would work well. No matter what the invitation says, on
Day One, they will end up airing what they need to air. Then Day Two and
beyond is where they will start to find their way. It is not the
invitation that matters so much as the amount of time. People, given
time and space, and a common purpose, will find their way in an OST
meeting, with the facilitator aware of holding a resonant energy field
of a frequency that is at harmony.
 
On the flip side, curtailing the amount of time compresses the conflict
energy.
 
Birgitt
 
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris
Corrigan
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 11:17 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 

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