Opening space within conflict

Tue Mar 1 18:27:30 PST 2011

Dear Christine,

I've just shared your wonderful story with other 
colleagues in Taiwan/Asia - both your personal 
journey and the magic created by the group. 
Great sign of possibility in the midst of the 
conflict we find all around us.  Congratulations!

Gail

>Dear all,
>
>It has been a great experience !
>
>Till the very last day before the event, tension 
>has been palpable : articles  published 
>condemning not only the goal, but also  the 
>event, people taking their organization out of 
>the planning commitee... A few supporting but 
>low voices still came out and finally 130 people 
>had subscribed on the 150 expected..  I wonder 
>how many people there would have been if this 
>community had not been in conflict...
>
>On the morning of the event, I was tensed, so I 
>went out for a walk a bit before the start.While 
>walking, I experienced suddenly a deep 
>shivering, and then I was quiet, realizing 
>that I had only to trust the process. Just 
>before going back into the sportshall, I got a 
>phonecall : the sponsor  has just received the 
>news that a deputy was coming, and wanted to 
>know when this man could talk... So he talk: 2 
>mn after the sponsor's introduction ;-) And then 
>I started talking. Everything went fine, I just 
>forgot a few nimor details. Then people started 
>announcing topics : rythm of this group was 2-3 
>pause then 2-3 pause and again 1 or 2 topics 
>then pause. All important and disturbing 
>subjects came out.They  decided to combine many 
>topics, and when discussions began, there were 
>mainly bigs groups, and only 1 or 2 whith less 
>then 10 people. This kept true during the whole 
>event. Around midday, I got a few remarks asking 
>for more structure (interestingly from people I 
>would not have expected to)  ;-). But then 
>people self-organized again and went back to 
>their groups, and all conveners gathered to the 
>newsroom to type their reports. Newsroom has 
>been a very active point during all the event, 
>with typing and reading the reports and 
>correcting them and discussing them etc.. people 
>looked for accuracy of reports !
>On the second day, there were more bumblebees 
>and many feedbacks of great informal 
>conversations. People were very busy all the 
>time, and 35 topics were documented, creating a 
>126 pages report of impressive quality.
>Action planning gave 11 projects, and 9 were actively discussed.
>Sponsor was amazed : this was the first time for 
>years and years  that real cooperation had taken 
>place between all those organizations that were 
>usually either competing or in conflict, and all 
>projects were of great interest for the whole 
>community ( definition of central concepts, 
>organization, communication, ethics, training 
>etc..)
>
>Now there are a few articles coming out, I hear 
>the words of "magic" and people start discussing 
>of what they will do from all this..
>There should be some pictures coming soon 
><http://forum-ouvert-mediation.dyndns.org/index_fichiers/Page331.htm>here
>
>So magic happened
>It always works
>;-)
>Christine
>
>On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 2:40 PM, christine koehler <chris.alice.ko
><mailto:ehler at gmail.com>ehler at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Dear all,
>
>You really are an amazing community, thank you 
>so much for all your answers and mark of support 
>!
>
>Amazing Lisa, you got it all. Indeed the big 
>issue is about to professionnalize or not, and 
>the community is strongly divided about the 
>question. And indeed stated as it is, it's an 
>outcome...Thanks so much for this.
>You also helped me clarify the importance of the 
>Book of Proceedings, which I had not seen so 
>clearly. You're right , and I just suggested the 
>sponsor that it be the goal of the OS (luckily 
>all has been organized to make it feasible).
>I told them that it would be their gift to the 
>community, as a thank you for all participants 
>trusting them and making them the gift of their 
>presence to this OS.Let's see what they say.
>
>Thank you all for underlying that words must not 
>become barriers, and that change can be made, 
>even at the very end.
>
>Catherine, thanks for your suggestion to make my 
>hat obvious. While I had made it clear from the 
>very beginning with the sponsor that I was there 
>as the facilitator and not mediator (in the 
>beginning they suggested that we present the OS 
>as a mediation, and that I woud be the mediator, 
>so I had to let them understand that it was not 
>a good idea ;-)), it may not be clear for all 
>participants.
>So at the beginning of my introduction I'll take 
>off my mediator's badge (the one I use at Court) 
>that I will have put on my clothing on purpose. 
>I like this idea ;-)
>Thanks also for advising me to have a look at 
>Peggy's introduction. I'll look for it.
>
>Diane, thanks you for your advice. Indeed, like 
>Michael & the Boscop team  showed me so often, 
>I also believe that facilitating an OS event is 
>a team work, and my assistant for this event is 
>a wonderful person that you trained recently in 
>Belgium, Jocelyne. I am confident she will 
>handle perfectly all last time logistical 
>details and problems (which I already handled to 
>her last Thursday to be able to concentrate on 
>facilitation).
>
>Christian, I love the citation of William Blake 
>on your website : "there are things known and 
>there are things unknown, and in between there 
>are doors". I may say add it to my introduction 
>;-)
>
>Christine, thanks for the picture. Indeed I see yout point ;-)
>
>My learnings here these days ;
>Being part of the system is definitely not the 
>right place for a facilitator. It prevents from 
>seing obvious facts.
>Here, being part of the system and knowing the 
>people, I was not willing to see where the 
>unconscious control was (although I could feel 
>it, I could not point it).
>
>My comprehension of the role of the facilitator 
>has taken me, I think, a step further. I had 
>seen that some of you position themselves as 
>going with the participants through the process, 
>and only warrant of the process, while others 
>were what I would call "champions" of dialogue 
>(or other concept like self organizing or 
>emargence or peace., as I think that it depends 
>strongly of who you are) and would have  an 
>"appealing"  introduction or closing. Up to now 
>I was belonging to the first category, as I 
>trust the process, but was no trusting myself 
>100% probably. Maybe it may change...I'll let 
>you know ;-)
>
>
>
>Thank you SO MUCH Suzanne, Thomas, Steve, 
>Phelim, Chris, Ria, Elaine and you all. I'll 
>open space at 9am next Thursday till Friday 
>5.30pm. I already feel you are with me, and it 
>helps !
>
>Christine
>
>
>
>
>--
>
>Christine Koehler
>Médiateur
>Créatrice d'espaces de dialogue et de coopération
><http://www.christinekoehler.com>www.christinekoehler.com
>Tel : 06 13 28 71 38
>
><http://twitter.com/Mediateur_>
>
>* * 
>========================================================== 
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
>------------------------------ To subscribe, 
>unsubscribe, change your options, view the 
>archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu: 
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html 
>To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST 
>FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

--
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE   gwestica

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20110302/79e58e36/attachment-0016.htm>