[OSList] Dealing with conflicts

Thu Jul 26 06:57:45 PDT 2012

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

I am not so sure I was being "bold" -- but I surely trust the people to do
what they need to do given the time/space to do it. And they have always
come through. As for my part, I think it has much more to do with my
profound sense of limitations. There is no way in the world I could possibly
control the situation if only because I completely lack the ability to
figure out the complex interactions, to say nothing of the history of the
group involved. Only they are fully expert on their lives and living. So
rather that "bold" -- maybe humble? Maybe cowardice? 

ho 

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
Camden, Maine 20854

Phone 301-365-2093
(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com 
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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-----Original Message-----
From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Marie Ann
Östlund
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 5:08 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Dealing with conflicts

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
>
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>
> Potomac, MD 20854
>
> USA
>
>
>
> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
>
> Camden, Maine 20854
>
>
>
> Phone 301-365-2093
>
> (summer)  207-763-3261
>
>
>
> www.openspaceworld.com
>
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
>
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of 
> OSLIST Go 
> to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.or
> g
>
>
>
> 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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>> > g
>> > .
>> >
>>
>> --
>> 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 Space Workers in 67 countries working in a total of 143 
>> countries
>> worldwide: www.openspaceworldmap.org
>> _______________________________________________
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>
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