[OSList] Dealing with conflicts

Tue Jul 24 16:11:42 PDT 2012

Hi Marie Ann,

Great story, Peggy!  

Four years ago, I worked with the Learning and Development division of a multinational corporation, which wanted to unify L&D across what had once been 8 separate, competing companies, which had been acquired and merged into one enterprise.  As you can imagine, each of the 8 groups had separate cultures, lexicons, practices, beliefs and each felt threatened by the others.  

I worked with a small design team of 4 L&D folks, two of whom were immediately onboard and two of whom were respectfully skeptical.  Due to the high level of conflict in the system, they chose to use what I call Methods for Strategic Collaboration, which uses the 5 phases of Appreciative Inquiry as the change map and blends AI, World Cafe and Open Space as the primary containers for conversation. 
Define:  The topic for the inquiry was One L&D
Discover:  They used system-wide Appreciative Interviews before the 3 day event and during opening night to identify strengths and their positive core that they would be building on.  By the end of that first night, there was a palpably different energy in the room - emotions were calmed and many were feeling a sense of possibility
Dream:  On day two they had a panel in the morning along with a World Cafe to develop dreams of their future.  By the end of the morning, folks were tremendously engaged and excited about the visions posted around the room.
Design:  I opened the space in the afternoon to focus on designing the systems and practices that would bring their dreams to life.  As you can imagine, Open Space created the biggest shift - people caught fire and were self-organizing across former boundaries.
Destiny:  After reading the Book of Proceedings at breakfast on day three, we opened the space again for next steps planning.  The outputs and action commitments made the whole thing real.  They were working together as one enterprise and they were thrilled.

In the closing circle, the most skeptical design team member said, "We haven't just unified L&D, we've become a tribe!"

Thanks for reminding me of that story, Marie Ann.  Warm wishes to you and the community you are serving.
Christine

Christine Whitney Sanchez, Partner
Innovation Partners International
Phoenix, AZ, USA ~ 480.759.0262
www.innovateipi.com 
Skype: christinewhitneysanchez
Twitter: CWhitneySanchez

On Jul 24, 2012, at 3:30 PM, Peggy Holman wrote:

Hi Marie Ann,

I once did an Open Space in which the conflicted parties were all getting their positions solidified moments before the Open Space began.  Quite literally -- one group was in the room when we arrived to set up.  

This was a meeting with four Northwest Native American tribes and the U.S.  government's National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.  They share responsibility for the marine fisheries off the northwest coast of the U.S.  They had a two year conflict and finally called a meeting to deal with it.  A colleague of mine, who was hired by the tribes to facilitate the meeting contacted me.  I suggested we do an Open Space.  We did.  When the second round of sessions happened, an agreement was reached, resolving the issue.

The story is somewhere in Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity -- www.engagingemergence.com.

Peggy

_________________________________
Peggy Holman
peggy at peggyholman.com

15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
425-746-6274
www.peggyholman.com
www.journalismthatmatters.org

Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity

"An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become 
the fire".
  -- Drew Dellinger

On Jul 24, 2012, at 1:35 PM, Marie Ann Östlund wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> I just spent a week in a community in France that is divided by quite
> a large conflict. Have anyone of you used OS with a group of people
> where the conflict is at its hight and emotions are still strong? I
> can see that OS can be used in complex conflictual situations, but
> wonder whether you would first spend time bringing down their emotions
> to a 'manageable' level before attempting to bring them together into
> an OS.
> 
> Do you have any experiences in this regard? I'd be very interested in
> your reflections!
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Marie Ann
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20120724/af4b9b1d/attachment-0008.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: clip_image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 10191 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20120724/af4b9b1d/attachment-0016.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: clip_image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 9680 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20120724/af4b9b1d/attachment-0017.png>