[OSList] OST encourages avoidance of conflict (a bit long)

Tue Feb 6 06:58:04 PST 2018

Good tale Chris! I (vaguely) remember when it was all going down. And then of course there was the one about building roads on tribal lands. I tell it at the opening of The User’s Guide if you want the details – but basically we has several hundred Feds, State Government and 1st Nation people who had been charged with the expenditure of over a billion $$’s for roads on Tribal Lands. These folks had spent several years killing each other, and the money was just about to go back to the US Treasury. Two days of sizzling open space with conflict massively deep…  and in the closing circle I’ll never forget a Navaho Chief saying that he had never felt so listened to and respected. 6 weeks later the final allocation plan was signed and approved. Works. And for the record, I never intervened at any point. I’m sure that wasn’t about doctrine or process – just pure self preservation. But what I learned was there was no need.

Harrison

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kloth via OSList
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2018 9:51 PM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org; Harrison Owen
Cc: Chris Kloth
Subject: Re: [OSList] OST encourages avoidance of conflict (a bit long)

Harrison, et al. 

It's been a while since I checked in, but this thread brought back many fond memories of several OST events over the years, and one in particular.

It's been many years since I was contacted by a group that included multiple coalitions of mental health professionals, administrators, and policy makers from throughout Ohio. At the time, local urban and local rural leaders of county mental health boards were battling with each other and state mental health officials over what was described as inequitable, differential funding of urban and rural systems by the state. One of the local coalitions had an active lawsuit pending against the state over inequitable funding. At that point the lawsuit had been pending for several years.

However, the reason they contacted me was that the state legislature had initiated legislation on a particular policy that each of the three groups found problematic for different reasons. Several of them had experienced OST in other settings and thought it might be a way sort things out on the legislative issue.

During the planning process we spent quite a bit of time considering/testing potential questions to frame an inclusive invitation to a wide variety of people concerned about the issue. Several times during the planning process members of the planning group made it clear that they did not want to take on the other issues and that they expected me to "manage" that "problem." I kept saying that, whatever question we arrived at, I couldn't promise the other topics wouldn't come up if it was important to people at the event. I did say that I thought the organizing question they landed on seemed inclusive and that they would quite likely end up someplace that would help them advance their cause.

The day we were opening space, with about 100 people attending, the bulletin board filled up with all kinds of good stuff. As you might predict, most of the topics were on the legislation, but some of the topics were related to inequitable funding. A few of their planners continued to be frustrated and approached me. I advised that they each think about what they felt passionate about and were willing to accept responsibility for working on... and then vote with their feet. The first day people worked on what they cared about, with most focusing on the legislation. Some people stayed irritated, but those few working on inequitable funding seemed to be really listening to one another in their sessions. The next day work continued on the legislation, building on work from the day before. However, as the morning evolved I noticed and increasing amount of bee and butterfly activity, much more than I was used to seeing. I listened in on some of the conversations and the talk was about equitable funding (not inequitable funding). At the time I said the air was electric - but sizzles works. After lunch most of the participants attended one huge session that had been posted as funding related. In the next 90 minutes they came to common ground on an approach to addressing funding issues!

My take on the closing circle was that 4 themes emerged. One was that working together on the legislation reminded all of them what they all felt passion about - providing community based options for individuals and families experiencing the effects of mental illness. Another theme was how good they felt about working together again after so many years... they remembered the "good old days" that had brought them together so many years ago. Third, they realized that, for quite a while, there had been some people who had been ready to engage in dialogue about funding, but hadn't found a nontoxic space to do so in... until then. Finally, they noticed the paradox I suspect all of us have experienced in one form or another... when they stopped thinking about the "problem" or "the conflict" or the toxicity they had all come to accept as "normal," something else showed up! 

The results? During the next several weeks they each did their part in preparing to address the legislature. After the legislative hearings, about 6 weeks after the OST, the legislature shifted its approach. That's lightening speed when addressing a complicated, statewide public policy and fiscal issue in a volatile political and economic environment. Within about 6 months of the OST the lawsuit (the one they wanted me to make sure didn't get discussed) was resolved and a collaborative group had developed options that all could all invest in.

Harrison described organizations without conflict as dead. I agree. One way I think of conflict is: the opportunity for diverse groups of passionate people who really care about what they are doing, are invested in taking responsibility for what they are doing, and (not but), have very different perspectives about what is going on, what to make of it and what, if anything, to do about it. From my perspective, in a world characterized by diversity, complexity, chaos, implicate order, emergent order, the capacity for self-organization (and more), the good news is that healthy conflict can enrich our understanding of what, in the moment, we are experiencing, what we will make of that experience, and what, if anything, we will do about it. 

OST leads to avoiding conflict? Not in my approximately 25 years of opening space... quite the opposite.

-- 
Shalom,

Chris Kloth
Principal/Lead Consultant
ChangeWorks of the Heartland
254 South Merkle Road
Columbus, OH 43209-1801
P - 1+ 614-239-1336
F - 1+ 614-237-2347
www.got2change.com 

Think globally, act locally.

On 2/1/2018 2:58 PM, Harrison Owen via OSList wrote:

There is conflict, and then there is destructive conflict. I think they are two entirely different things. Conflict is an essential part of living, life, the total evolutionary process. Show me any organization that has no conflict and I’ll show you a dead one. Conflict occurs when two or more critical concerns (cares) but heads. Given sufficient room, they will find a way. Close that space and they will kill each other. My experience in Open Space has always been one of intense conflict combined with serious way finding. Parties who would ordinarily kill each other find common ground. And the air sizzles. Believe me, I’ve been there.

Harrison

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From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Harold Shinsato via OSList
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 5:25 PM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Cc: Harold Shinsato
Subject: Re: [OSList] OST encourages avoidance of conflict

Daniel,

Interesting concern. I think I remember hearing this from a well respected management guru as a critique of Open Space. I can't help but wonder the following:

- How well do individual adults resolve conflicts when an authority figure forces them?
- How well do conflicting peoples or tribal communities resolve conflicts when they are forcibly held together by an imperial force (think Rome, USSR, pre-partition India, etc etc etc)

If you are dealing with children or developmentally challenged individuals - especially those who have violated others rights are are in prison - I can imagine there being some value to some level of compulsion or coercion here. But even there, it may temporarily resolve the fighting and damage, but not the children's growth.

If you are dealing with severe human rights being violated in tribal scenarios, I can see how that might justify gunboat diplomacy. But I can't imagine the tribal system will evolve to respect human rights without a huge additional investment from the gunboat diplomats. And it is all too likely that such interference may not only cause even bigger problems later on, but can also encourage exploitation of the less developed tribe/community.

Thanks for asking this question!

    Harold

On 1/30/18 2:07 PM, Daniel Mezick via OSList 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. 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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