[OSList] Dealing with conflicts

Artur Silva arturfsilva at yahoo.com
Sat Jul 28 02:09:17 PDT 2012


Sorry. Incomplete. My mistake. A complete version will follow in some minutes...

Artur


________________________________
 From: Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com>
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> 
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: [OSList] Dealing with conflicts
 

Harrison, Peggy all:

Harrison said: "trust the people to do what they need to do given the time/space to do it".

Peggy commented:

Are these two statetemnets equivalent? I may be wrong, of course, but I don't think so.


________________________________
 From: Peggy Holman <peggy at peggyholman.com>
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> 
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: [OSList] Dealing with conflicts
 
Harrison,

I think a powerful lesson that you made visible is providing fertile initial conditions (4 principles, 1 law, and a good question) engages people to work through challenges to what matters. 

Peggy
Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 26, 2012, at 6:58 AM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:

> 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)
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST
> Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
> 
> -----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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