Conflict in community

[Funda Oral]

"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."

that's ok, if there are some people coming with this aim, they're welcome. 

"he thought an "airing of the issues and a shared understanding" were most important." 

i also think that "airing of issues" is important, chaging the issue might decrease the interest in the meeting. 

It's important to include these people in conflict and potential participants in determining the theme and writing the invitation. 

another important point would be to invite people from different sides and opinions, not only people in conflice but
more people who "care" " are affected by the issue".

Funda


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris Corrigan 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 6:16 PM
  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
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