[OSList] Dealing with conflicts

Wed Jul 25 14:08:24 PDT 2012

Wow, thank you for all your responses and wonderful stories. Thank you
Peggy, that's a great example, and Christine - that's an interesting
process.

I wanted to do something 'constructive' with everyone open enough to
meet, as many felt hopeless about the situation. The issue now was
acute but they had a 20-30 year history of difficulties and conflicts.
I only had a few hours so convened a circle and planned a short AI and
World Café, so that they would have some sort of exchange. The floor
was 'high-jacked' though by someone that had important new revelations
to communicate, and I let it be for some time before asking those
wanting to speak about this to convene somewhere else. Those that
stayed convened in a circle and I gave them a talking stick. That went
well.

I was pondering over how it would be to open space in this situation.
As Harrison says, when there is conflict, open space.

In regards to having an agenda, Brendan, as a mediator I understand
that it's hard for people to hear each other when they are very angry
or upset, at the same time it's important for people to be able to
express just how angry or hurt they are. With OS I'm learning to trust
people to do what they need to do, and that they will manage
themselves. I just wasn't sure if opening space would really be
advisable, even if I thought it might work. There's nothing like
truth, but still I don't want people to get hurt.

And Harrison, our own Krishnamurti. No fluff, just open space! I
admire your trust - which is why you're so bold.

Michael, yes do send me Practice of Peace (in english!). You're right
that it's all very much about convincing oneself, and writing to you
all is part of that process for me.

Thank you Craig for trying to elicit some failure stories from the OS
folks. In conflicts people at least care enough to be in conflict, and
OS is all about what we care about so will have to work.

Thanks!

Marie Ann

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 3:55 PM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
> Good point Craig. We always learn from the exceptions/anomalies. In 27 years
> of opening space, often in genuinely “hairy” situations, I have never
> personally encountered a situation where “it didn’t work.” “Working” for me
> is a fairly pragmatic definition. Folks got together, dealt with their
> issues, and either found solutions or recognized that for reasons totally
> beyond their control, no solution was possible in the moment. All of this
> was done with a high degree of civility, respect, and economy of effort.
> More often than not, participants will report that they even “had fun.”
>
>
>
> I have heard of situations that were less than positive. In every case the
> fundamental problem seemed to be that the sponsor/facilitator tried to “play
> it safe.” This could mean restricting the time/space for discussion,
> limiting the issues to be discussed (placing them off limits), and/or
> intervening along the way with some form of mediation. Some people tried to
> prepare the way by sharing “Handy Rules for treating each other nicely.” I
> don’t suppose that hurt, but I never saw that it made any difference. Truth
> is in the heat of discussion folks don’t seem to pay much attention to
> rules, except those that are generated internally and are integral to the
> conversation – which is what I think happens in Open Space.
>
>
>
> Harrison
>
>
>
> Harrison
>
>
>
> Harrison Owen
>
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> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Craig Gilliam
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:49 AM
>
>
> To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Dealing with conflicts
>
>
>
> I do a great deal of conflict work professionally.  I am a practitioner of
> OS as well.
>
> Rather than hearing only success (and I know that the definition of success
> varies) stories of OS and conflict, I am also interested in those times
> when someone felt OS did not work in a conflict situation, or did not work
> as well as he/she thought it would and what did you learn from those
> encounters.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Craig
>
>
>
>> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:13:58 +0200
>> From: mmpanne at boscop.org
>> To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
>> Subject: Re: [OSList] Dealing with conflicts
>>
>> Dear Marie Ann,
>> the gathering Harrison describes (Israelis and Palestinians in Rome) got
>> him to write a book on why os events are so peaceful even in highly
>> conflicting situations.
>> If you like, I will send you a copy of "The Practice of Peace"... of
>> course, you can also get the german version I was involved in: "Raum für
>> den Frieden".
>> In my own experience there have been a number of highly conflicting
>> situations for which sponsors chose Open Space Technology. The biggest
>> job I had was to convince the sponsors that you need nothing but open
>> space and it worked every time (Israelis and Palestinians meeting in
>> Switzerland, Parish Board and church workers at issue with each other,
>> Board of Directors and Marketing Department of a Food Corporation at
>> issue, Welfare Organisation with all subsystems at "war", Highschool
>> with opposing factions of teachers...you name it).
>> Come to think of it, at the beginning of my OSpractice after 35 years of
>> OD consulting, I actually had to convince mainly myself that highly
>> conflicting situations is what os-events run on (one of the five
>> preconditions)... unlearning the old approaches (still very much in
>> vogue!!) was the hard part.
>> Greetings from Berlin
>> mmp
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 24.07.2012 22:35, 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
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>>
>> --
>> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
>> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
>> ++49-30-772 8000
>> mmpanne at boscop.org www.boscop.org
>>
>>
>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 388 resident Open
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