law and Open Space

[Michael Wood]

Hi
 
Since our last communications on this, two things have happened.
 
1. My brother, who recently did Open Space training with Brendan McKeague in Sydney has opened space for a bunch of lawyers in Sydney. This law firm has a reputation as being a great place for lawyers to work - with a very humane working culture. So no surprise, perhaps, that they were willing to open space. The topic was around 'creating excellence'. Feedback from the group was overwhelmingly positive.
 
2. I have been in conversation with a friend and colleague in Perth about sustainability in the legal profession. These conversations suggest that some of the depression amongst lawyers may be related to the highly adversarial nature of normal legal system - win/lose - the terrible atmosphere created when people take things to court to be resolved. i.e. the system itself may be toxic to the well being of those who work in it. These lawyers were literally "lighting up" with enthusiasm about their emerging interest in Collaborative Family Law which provides another path way for separating couples to pursue if they want to stay out of court. Collaborative Law is well estabilished in UK and USA but not so much here. But they sounded very excited about the possibility of `opening space` to progress the collaborative law process. Work in progress! Stay tuned.
 
Michael Wood

________________________________

From: OSLIST on behalf of John Rapp
Sent: Thu 14/05/2009 03:33
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: law and Open Space


Michael/Peggy & fellow OSTers -- I've used OS/WR principles for many years in my work, which is mainly in & around law firms.  I did 2 major open spaces, both for 100 so people, in Jakarta (1999) and Taipei (2002).  Both were very successful on the day, and sources of sadness after, as the "powers" chose to ignore 99% of what came up.

I want to try again, as one of my personal missions is improve the world by changing the practice of law/yers.  I'd love to help, and hear others' experiences with law.  And anyone who has dabbled in Spiral Dynamics in this context would pique interest too.

Best
John

On May 9, 2009, at 10:55 PM, Peggy Holman <peggy at opencirclecompany.com> wrote:



	Michael, 

	I did an OS with a law firm a few years ago.  It included all of the support staff and none of the attorneys.  It was a productive, successful meeting for them.  The main thing I'd say is that we were a strange cultural mix.  They never really felt that comfortable with me, but they sure liked the experience.  As an example of the cultural challenge, I often suggest a few minutes of silence when a group gets together at the end of the day or on the second morning.  This is one of the few groups that made it clear that this didn't work for them.  It just made them uncomfortable.  So, after trying it once, we simply got on to talking about the day.

	Peggy

	
	
	
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	Peggy Holman
	The Open Circle Company
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	On Apr 30, 2009, at 7:10 PM, Michael Wood wrote:


		
		I am talking with a bunch of lawyers in a couple of weeks about "sustainability" in the legal profession. i.e. sustainability of the lawyers themselves since they often seem to work under such punishing conditions - depression on the increase etc.
		 
		Any stories out there about use of Open Space in law firms?
		 
		Michael Wood
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