[OSList] OSList Digest, Vol 82, Issue 3 re: conflict, conflict resolution, avoidance and Open Space

Mon Feb 5 01:41:30 PST 2018

Great to hear from you Rob... and yes indeed - maybe those in Melbourne -
anyone who cares to - might let me know of their interest in a Yum Cha...

I can do the usual organisings once we find a suitable day...

Please send me an email off-list and I can co-ordinate.

Warm regards,
Andrew

On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 5:46 PM, R Chaffe via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Chris
> Yes we do miss our dear friend yet our very conversation draws the essence
> of our being with Fr Brian so he lives in us and our conversations.  So as
> we are potentially drawn into conflict we also can open our space and give
> room for Brian and so many others to join us.
>
> You may recall the experiments where rat colonies are given no boundaries
> and an abundance of food then either the space or the food become
> restricted to the point that the participants attack each other as they
> seek to survive.  Somewhere on the continuum there is a pint where the
> observer may say conflict begins.
>
> What have we learnt?  We might say that conflict is a condition that is
> resident in all and depending on the “importance” to the individual of the
> environment/conditions etc and their ability to survive.
>
> When we invite others to join our conversation how they respond will
> greatly depend on the importance  of the conversation is to them, we might
> call it passion and in our terms passion is moderated by responsibility so
> we have a new issue responsibility!  Responsibility to who or what?
>
> Consequently we define boundaries some may be stated others may be
> unwritten rules that are the community norms.  One way to express
> dissatisfaction with a conversation is to withdraw, the law of mobility (my
> paraplegia heightens my awareness of the privilege of walking).
>
> Peter Sandman says that effective conflict resolution happens when the
> risks and the level of outrage are balanced.  He has been involved in some
> of the worlds greatest man made disasters, a hot bed of conflict.  So what
> happens when the situation is right for the possibility of resolution?
> Someone issues an invitation and regardless of if they follow the “rules”
> they open the space.
>
> Conflict may be expressed both by outrage or hazard.  I believe that this
> may be a simplistic way of seeing the world/system around us yet it gives
> us a pathway to understanding why people come and why people go, it depends
> on how they see themselves in the system and how it might impact on their
> survival (our friend Maslow and others all point to survival as the issue
> that will provoke greatest interest).
>
> Resolution of conflict begins with the ability to listen to the other
> point of view.  We can say our ability to stop and give space to ourselves
> and others.
>
> Opening space, creating space, seeing space is about stopping.  It is
> about breathing in harmony with those around us.  It is about holding back
> the “walls of the rat colony” for a moment so that we can think and listen
> to others. Open Space technology is one way we can do this as a process.
> The space must be created to allow us to hear, to let new ideas to grow, to
> explore the whys, what’s etc
>
> As Fr Brian seeks out another red he prompts us to to the same and that is
> to live to the fullest each moment we have and there are times to get
> involved and times to walk away, times to just sit and times for
> enthusiastic engagement with others.  It mostly depends on the space we
> need at moment.
> We could explore Fr Brian’s relationship with his authorities and how that
> conflict was managed but that is for another day.
>
> Regards
> Robert
>
> PS Andrew and others please find time later this month for some YumCha in
> memory of our dear friend.  I will be undergoing further treatment so
> cannot join you in person.
>
>
> On 5 Feb 2018, at 3:38 pm, Chris Corrigan via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> I’ve been really enjoying this conversation.
>
> I have indeed been part of conflict resolutions where there was
> constrained space to move. Mediation on a job and litigation as well as
> restorative practice (conflict resolution circles). I believe that working
> with constraints is a high art of leadership.  And even in Open Space there
> are still constraints.  I certainly just advocate for being honest about
> what those are. We can have governing constraints (like rules, i.e. the
> meeting will end at 5pm) and enablisgin constraints, like the principles
> and the law of two feet.  But nothing ever happens without a container.
>
> So given that, how we work with constraints and build a container
> matters.  I have run Open Spaces where there were fewer degrees of freedom
> than others (of course participants could always call whatever conversation
> they wanted to, but the management of the organization got to define areas
> they could resource and act on).
>
> The original question was about Dave Snowden’s criticism of how the law of
> two feet operates in spaces where conflict is important. This can mean any
> kind situation where a group of people needs to hear a contrary point of
> view in order to act wisely.  In many places these days, folks just walk
> away from people who’s opinions they find odious.  This kind of conflict
> avoidance creates massive division and “echo chamber’ behaviour.  Even
> calling an open space meeting is a kind of narrowing of the constraints and
> degrees of freedom such that people need to encounter one another.
>
> For innovation work, testing, criticizing and breaking new ideas is an
> invaluable part of the creative process.  Working away on one’s own without
> dissenting points of view can create something that is vulnerable to the
> myriad blind spots that we operate from.
>
> Conflict is not a bad thing. Working well with time and space as
> constraints helps us to collectively move through it.  Sometimes that means
> opening up that time and space and sometimes it means narrowing it down.
>
> I also miss Father Brian in these kinds of conversations.  I suspect he’d
> say something like “it’s all good” and then give a little wink and a smile.
>
>
> Chris
>
> On Feb 4, 2018, at 12:04 PM, Birgitt Williams via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues,
> I am interested in questions, and how people get wrapped up in answering a
> question, without first giving some discernment to whether or not it is the
> right question. Oh...I miss Fr. Brian Bainbridge when I get to thinking
> like this....he would have been a great one to have this conversation with.
> As I understand it, the question was stated as one to look at whether Open
> Space assisted in avoidance of conflict.
>
> My question, the one that I believe is more to the heart of the matter is
> 'have you ever been part of successful movement with conflict resolution
> when the space wasn't open?'.
>
> For any conflict, inter-personal, intra-personal, larger scale, conflict
> doesn't have successful movement if there is no space for the movement, no
> space for the re-framing.that is needed for healing. Conflict is not in
> short supply in this world. Let us use any processes that we can to be of
> service to our fellow humans to move beyond the stuck energies of conflict.
>
> Blessings,
> Birgitt
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 12:50 PM christopher macrae via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>> 3 comments which may sound contradictory and reveal my own need to action
>> learn
>>
>> 1 harrisons' books eg practice of peace explain that an intention of Open
>> Space is to free people who are all trapped by the same conflict to move
>> beyond it - creating more space than top-down rules  or historiic cultural
>> misunderstanding had previously allowed - this always seems to me to be
>> what is happening provided the facilitator is experienced
>>
>> 2 however what happens when people are no longer together in the space;
>> are actions and post conflict innovations unstoppable?; here what bothers
>> me is that there is no complete database of success stories- or if there is
>> please given us one bookmark; i mean something that is an updating index
>> not just this listing - a "good food guide" review format to open space so
>> to speak
>>
>> 3 i wonder if anyone has experienced deep democracy which i believe was
>> innovated by myrna lewis in south africa- this starts with a somewhat
>> different process purpose ; it aims to identify opposng sides and then get
>> them to debate what  with all their energy but no violence what is  their
>> absolute minimum demands in a proposed solution which will make them unite
>> with the other sides
>>
>> while 3 sounds a valid idea frankly it puts even more burden of the
>> faciltator (or indeed the spirit of the space) and who actually sponsored
>> the event - the very few deep democracies I have participated in did not
>> have outcomes that i trusted even though I was there more as an observer
>> than one of the interested partners
>>
>> just my 3 cents worth ; ultimately the catch 22 seems to me to be that
>> unless hehre is already enough community to be the sponsor , the after-the
>> space motivations of the sponoir come back into play- so how one deals with
>> that is what I dont understand?
>>
>> chris macrae www.BRI.school <http://www.bri.school/>
>>
>> Who's fanning Chinese solutions to sustainability:1) by country,2) valu...
>> ?<a href="http://www.chinathanks.com/1977">Entrepreneurial World's
>> Greatest CASE : CHINA 2017-1977</a> worldwide...
>> <http://www.bri.school/>
>>
>>
>> >
>> > On 30 January 2018 at 23:07, Daniel Mezick via OSList <
>> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>>
>> wrote:
>> > I am hearing this pointed criticism from some quarters: That OST
>> actually encourages conflict-avoidance via the Law of 2 Feet. In other
>> words, people who need to be resolving conflict (or at least discussing it)
>> can just avoid the touchy topic... and each other.
>> >
>> > Could this actually be true? If not why not?
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Daniel Mezick
>> > Culture Strategist. Author. Keynoter.
>> > (203) 915 7248 <(203)%20915-7248>. Bio. <http://www.danielmezick.com/>
>> Blog. <http://www.newtechusa.net/blog/> Twitter. <https://twitter.com/
>> DanielMezick>
>> > Book: The Culture Game. <http://theculturegame.com/>
>> > Book: The OpenSpace Agility Handbook. <http://www.amazon.com/
>> OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336>
>> >
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> --
>
>
>
>
> Birgitt Williams
>
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