OS and mediation and Laur

Larry Peterson larry at spiritedorg.com
Fri Nov 12 09:23:31 PST 2010


As a wise man once said, opening space is partly about expanding "our" now.
As a process enables a group to experience together increased
consciousness/awareness. Meditative practice can do the same for
individuals.  Can corporate practice of Open Space do the same for
collectives?  

Last night I opened a space for a group of 20 somthings, friends of Laur,
who are exploring how to develop a "Civic Series" of conversations to better
understand world issues. Only a couple had experienced and "unconference"
and they realized that this was different.  Others in the diverse group
(what Toronto is) blossomed within the surprise of open space.  Most now see
the potential "Civic Series" differently so the next steps should be fun and
interesting.  Certainly, many expanded their sense of what is possible now.

Larry


Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
larry at spiritedorg.com   416.653.4829 http://www.spiritedorg.com



-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Bui
Petersen
Sent: November-12-10 11:42 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OSLIST] OS and mediation

Hi Arno,

I have a background in mediation myself and my experience with OS is 
more recent. As anyone on this list would tell you, OS would be a great 
way to hold your conference. I'm just not sure why you would do 
mediation during the conference. Even a mediators' conference. Do you 
really have that big disputes to resolve?  :)

While OS can be useful for resolving some disputes, it is an entirely 
different process from mediation, at least as I know it. Mediation 
involves significant intervention in the discourse, while OS is almost 
trying to intervene as little as possible. In my practice, I consider 
these to be the opposite extremes of what I do.

Apart from OS there are several other processes that you can use as 
components of an otherwise conventional conference, such as World Cafe, 
Conversation Cafe just to name a couple. But as with anything, it all 
depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Decide on the purpose 
first and then pick the tool.

Hope that is helpful.

Bui Petersen

On 12/11/2010 5:15 AM, Arno Baltin wrote:
> Hi everybody!
>
> I have seen on the list comments from listers with connections to 
> mediation. I am intersted in possible overlappings of these two methods.
> After expressing once my skepsis on traditional conference arrangement 
> (on a mediatiors annual conference) I was encouraged to suggest 
> alternatives. I suggested OS. This idea developed into search for a 
> mix of mediation and OS. The min. program is still dividing annual 
> meeting between time for presentations and OS. The max. program could 
> be some arrangement including OS and mediation practice.
> So, what you think?
>
> Arno
>
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