Help! I need a couple of good stories

Fri Nov 30 08:40:07 PST 2007

Your incredible faith in the human power of being responsible & finding their way is so infectious. Thanks very much.

  Regards

  Pankaj

Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
                Ah Anxiety! I love it. You can tell your client that for 22 years, opening space in all sorts of places with all sorts of people, some of whom had recently been killing each other – Never have I ever seen any physical violence. The conflict can become very intense, particularly when it starts out intense – but there has never been a situation which the people could not take care of themselves. I have never intervened, nor have I ever needed to. 

  As for stories, I presume you have a copy of The User’s Guide (and if not SHAME ON YOU!) – The opening story about an Open Space I did should be right down your alley. 225 Native Americans, Federal Bureaucrats and State Officials (equal numbers) trying to figure out how to spend 1 ½ billion dollars for highways on tribal lands. Hot issue! Most folks were predicting Wounded Knee one more time.  In fact people were so afraid of the potential for conflict that the meeting had been postponed for 2 years while everybody tried to imagine some way to “manage the conflict.” Finally they ran out of time, and the money (Highway Trust Funds) was going back to the Federal Treasury if the parties (Feds, State, and Native Americans) could not collectively figure out how to spend it. With 6 weeks remaining the love of money trumped the fear of conflict and we opened space. Not a problem. Not even a little one.

  Oh there was one problem, and you might make your client aware of it. Seems like the Native Americans felt much more at home in Open Space than all the rest (White folks). One Navajo Chief rubbed it in a bit as we were leaving. He shook my hand, smiled, and said, “What took you so long White Man?”

  Don’t like that story? How about the 50 Palestinians and Israelis in Rome? Now those folks actually were killing each other before they got together.  Was it HOT!? Definitely. Did it work? Perfectly. For the details, go to –

  http://www.openspaceworld.com/opening_space_for_peace.htm 

  So have fun! Guaranteed to be quite a ride and the big thing for you will be to remember to keep breathing. When things get real tense – DO NOTHING except to take a (several) deep breaths, and KNOW that the people will take care of the business. 

  Harrison 

    Harrison Owen
  7808 River Falls Drive
  Potomac, Maryland   20854
  Phone 301-365-2093
  Skype hhowen
  Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
  Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
  Personal website www.ho-image.com 
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  -----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael Wood
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 12:31 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Help! I need a couple of good stories

    I have had some conversations with a potential sponsor (an NGO with links to Government, Indigenous Communities and Mining Companies) about working with some indigenous communities in North West Australia. The theme relates, in the short term, to the dynamics and presssures of negotiating with mining companies and longer terms themes of sustainability for aboriginal communities.

    What I am picking up from the sponsor is a huge (palpible) anxiety associated with the potential for OS to get out of control. I've detected control anxiety with other clients, but never with this intensity. There may also be some good basis for their anxiety. They describe an emotional landscape in some of the communities in question as being of extreme conflict. The conflict has roots in the following areas a) anger at historic dispossesion of land by European Settlement b) anger and powerlessness at current dispossesion by mining companies (i.e. "the land will be taken anyway - so what does it mean to "profit" from this?") c) anger between tribal family groups based on historic tensions d) tensions associated with differences in law and custom e) anger associated with "wedge politics", fuelled by the fact that HUGE amounts of money are now up for graps from mining companies. The latter is a really hot topic - the NorthWest of Australia is experiencing a "gold rush"
 at present, except it's actually an "iron ore rush", as China sucks in ore to make steel and f) the fact that in some of these communities it is not uncommon to resort to physical violence to sort out differences.

    One of the key concerns of the sponsor is actually one of the physical safety of participants. i.e. "if we opened up the kind of space you are describing, we could actually just end up with a fight".

    I have given no commitments to the sponsor that such a possibilitity might not exist. However, I have suggested that some of the safeguards of OS are a) voluntary association b) a topic which is of common concern to whoever shows up and c) the law of two feet.

    The sponsor has asked if I have any stories of OS being used in indigenous settings involving the kind of powder keg dynamics described above. I said that I thought some work along these lines had been done in indigenous communities in Canada and Nth America, but that I would ask around and get back to them.

    So....I am asking around via this wonderful email network.

    Does anyone have any stories (either of success or warning) in circumstances similar to what I have described above, AND which you would be willing for me to share with my potential sponsor AND whether you may be willing to be contacted by email by the Sponsor to seek more detail if required. As you can see - the stakes are high - related to potential risk to people's safety! (and I don't discount my own anxiety in all this. At a head and experience level I know that "OS always works", but at an emotional level, the context sounds very challenging.

    Many thanks!!

    Michael Wood

    Western Australia

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Regards

Pankaj

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