[OSList] Government community engagement

Thu Jun 13 17:10:00 PDT 2019

This is great.

Harrison, I do hope anyone feels invited and safe enough to open as much space as they need at that moment. Whether County wants to go down that road is the question I’ll need answered. There is much the recovery effort needs to be mindful of, especially with families and communities still struggling with loss, and I would hope this would be an opportunity to aid social and emotional recovery as much as the public recovery efforts. Part of how open, for me, also includes the inevitable discussion with how we distribute the initial invitation: publish in the daily mass media, or direct invites to the 100s in the database, or more narrow? I’m not sure where they are leaning on this.

I’m glad Birgitt brought up about the money. I was wondering this too, and how the dynamic changes once money is in the equation. Yours is really interesting how it turned out! (And, another story I’ll keep in mind when talking with the County!!) We are thinking of announcing a grant program through a 3rd party for collaborative action projects, and wondered if that would complicate things more. While we are a ways from designing details, my thinking right now is an Issues and Opportunities morning circle, then an afternoon Actions circle (1 or 2 time slots) for personal initiatives that might dovetail to collaborative actions which submit later on to the 3rd party. Or, do we take a lighter touch with announcing grant opportunities and then a full day Issues and Opportunities circle?

Thanks again! ~Eric

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Birgitt Williams via OSList
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2019 10:58 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Cc: Birgitt Williams
Subject: Re: [OSList] Government community engagement

I like what Harrison says and the conversations happen...either where they don't make a substantial difference (out in the back rooms and parking lots or on fb) or they do make a difference (in an OST meeting) where they are visible and can be engaged in.

The situation even within an OST takes a different tone when money gets involved. When people come from a prosperity frame of mind, they tend to believe that there are enough resources including the coming money, to do what is needed. When people come from a scarcity frame of mind, they start getting into positionality about where the money is going to go. 

One example that I was involved in was when a national church made the decision to allow ordination of gay/lesbian pastors. Many congregations left, taking their money with them in disagreement with the decision. Others chose to express their upset by withholding money from social justice efforts...and this church was dedicated to social justice work within the country and abroad. For three years, there was a hold on distribution of the remaining monies/income, and when a new idea came forward the answer to spending the money was always a firm 'no'. The entire situation was in bunker like mentality of scarcity. 

Some in leadership asked me if I could do something to help this situation along. I proposed an OST meeting and we used 'givens' that included 'any topic that anyone wanted to move forward that did not require money from the national church could go forward without further approval' and 'any topic requiring money would go forward for a vote to determine if it could go forward within a very limited budget that was made available...something like $40,000'. We had a great OST meeting and it was the first breathing space that the leadership of social justice within that church had in some years. I could feel the breathing starting in the room. I had organized the posting of reports on two different newswalls. One newswall was for reports that did not require extra money, the other newswall was for reports that did require extra money. If memory serves me right, 78 topics were posted on the wall of 'not needing extra money' because the people in the discussion knew how to resource that topic. Only 6 topics (approx) were on the wall of topics requiring extra money. No vote was needed because the $40,000 could fund all of them.

You can imagine the chagrin in that community of people. Holding their breath for years, bunker mentaility, shell shock, lack of action....only to discover that they could do much more than they had let themselves believe.

Only sufficient open space combined with passionate people, could have achieved what transpired and followed.

Birgitt

Birgitt Williams

Supporting Next Level Leadership "Leading So People Will Lead"

Author, Senior Consultant, President Dalar International Consultancy, Inc <http://www.dalarinternational.com/> 

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On Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 4:17 PM Harrison Owen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> > wrote:

Eric… There is a marvelous chimera about… that somebody (anybody) can decide how much “space” to be opened. It is a simple fact of the matter that if “the issues” are in the hearts and minds of the people, they will be “there.” No matter what the organizers think, wish, hope. The People rule. And those issues WILL be discussed – perhaps as “Elephants in the room” – but they will be there. Believe it! There is a choice, however.

Will all this be a “Back channel discussion” with all the narrowness, distortions and meanness that naturally accrues?  OR … will the people be invited to deal honestly, fully, and (perhaps) painfully with the real issues for which they have a passion and concern? Worst case scenario is that the “worst” happens. People talk Honestly! Truth. It will not fit nicely in a parliamentary resolution – but it will surely be the place where any formal resolution MUST start.

Curmudgeonly Opinion from the Great State of Maine.

Harrison

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org> ] On Behalf Of Eric M. Kapono via OSList
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2019 12:18 AM
To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
Cc: Eric M. Kapono
Subject: Re: [OSList] Government community engagement

Aloha all,

Thank you Rob, Peggy and Birgitt for sharing your stories and perspectives. They give me great examples for my conversations with the County. Rob and Peggy’s examples, while very different contexts, are helpful when considering government community engagement at a large scale. And Birgitt, we are soon to discuss how much space the County is able and willing to open via the invitation, e.g., recovery of the region is very much an island-wide issue. As we get into details, I may be in touch directly.

Mahalo nui! ~Eric

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org> ] On Behalf Of Peggy Holman via OSList
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2019 2:21 PM
To: Open Listserv
Cc: Peggy Holman
Subject: Re: [OSList] Government community engagement

I have a really old story of working with the Washington State Arts Commission. We ran 20 open space gatherings over 6 weeks on the “Issues and Opportunities for the Arts in Washington State". We started with a statewide gathering followed by 18 3-hour Open Spaces in towns and cities as large as Seattle and as small as Twisp. We ended with a second statewide Open Space that started with sharing the reports in multiple forms (paper, flip charts, closing comments on construction paper chain links (sample in picture below) then opened the space for action. 

The themes that WSAC took from the meetings to guide their work:

WSAC Strategic Themes

1.              Communities thrive when the arts are integrated into civic life.

2.         Connections enhance our effectiveness when the individuals and organizations in the arts community work together across perceived boundaries of geography, esthetics and organizational scope.

3.         Arts are integral to the education and life of WA children and youth so that…

4.         Promoting the power of the arts in the lives of individuals and communities.    

It resulted in new funding for the commission, a change from being distrusted to trusted and many collaborations. I thought I had a write-up online but I can’t find it. I’ve copied it from a doc below.

Peggy

Washington State Arts Commission’s Strategic Plan:

A Conversation about the Arts

The Governor’s Call for Action

In 1997, recognizing the value of arts to citizens, tourism, business, education and communities, Governor Gary Locke launched an initiative to strengthen arts funding in Washington State.  He appointed a Blue Ribbon Arts Task Force to review State support of the arts and recommend ways “to ensure that our cultural life remains strong.”

…After a one-year review Governor Locke’s Arts Task Force called for strengthening WSAC’s role and developing a “thoughtful plan for increased funding.”

With strong statewide support for those recommendations, the 1999 Legislature approved a $750,000 increase to WSAC’s budget – the first budget increase the agency had received in a decade.  The funding increase came with the requirement that WSAC submit a strategic plan to Governor Locke and key State leaders by June 30,2000. This plan is the result of that charge, and the outcome of a planning process that stretched across the state.

Planning on the Arts:  Voices of the People

>From the early states of this planning process, WSAC envisioned a statewide conversation about the arts that would strengthen the State’s arts resources and expand the impact and effectiveness of the arts for all residents of the state.   Through two statewide meetings, 18 community meetings, several meetings of the Washington State Arts Commission, an online forum and a dedicated phone line, WSAC recorded the views, concerns, ideas and dreams from people across the State.  More than 1000 people have been involved directly in the development of this plan; their testimony, stories, deliberation and reflection are the foundation for this strategic plan.

In the statewide and community meetings, the format used was Open Space Technology, a process to enable large groups of people to explore complex issues.  Participants at each session recorded the discussion in a summary format that could be understood readily by someone who wasn’t there.  True to the spirit of Open Space Technology, the discussions were driven by passion for the arts and responsibility for the issues and opportunities faced individually and collectively.

Excerpt from “Planning On The Arts: Washington State Arts Commission’s Strategic Plan”

Reflections on the process

When WSAC first contacted me, their biggest concern with an open, “conversational” meeting format was that community divisions would drown out any possibility of a cohesive plan.  East vs. west, big organization vs. small organization, rural vs. urban; participants would focus on their own agenda and fight over a small financial pie.  In fact, just the opposite happened.  People came together and focused on their common hopes and aspirations for strengthening the arts throughout the state.  The plan became an occasion for an unprecedented commitment to inclusion of many perspectives. As a result, when sent out for comment, the plan was enthusiastically received; everyone found their voice reflected.  Ironically, the fear of conflict was released so completely, that the significance of its absence was barely noted.

Behind the scenes: Supporting the meetings

 To support the 20+ meetings held by WSAC, a call was issued for skilled Open Space practitioners in Washington State.  More than 20 people agreed to participate.  They were convened for a train-the-trainer session that introduced them to WSAC, the process, engaged them in finalizing the meeting design, and provided them the logistical information they needed.

Meetings ranged in size from 5 to 100.  Depending on the anticipated size, some practitioners worked in pairs, others alone.  They took their work seriously – every commitment to participate was honored by these practitioners. In addition, at the train-the-trainer, we agreed to share experiences via e-mail as the events took place.  The unanticipated result was a rich conversation among practitioners that enabled each meeting to build on the learnings from the ones that came before.  

________________________________

Peggy Holman
Co-founder
Journalism That Matters
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
206-948-0432
www.journalismthatmatters.org <http://www.journalismthatmatters.org> 
www.peggyholman.com <http://www.peggyholman.com> 
Twitter: @peggyholman
JTM Twitter: @JTMStream

Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning <http://www.engagingemergence.com>  Upheaval into Opportunity

On Jun 5, 2019, at 8:53 PM, R Chaffe via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> > wrote:

You might try “Irrigation  Futures” 2005  with QJ Wang the leader.  The work involved extensive use of open space over 8 months with focus groups meeting every second week.

The scenarios developed have significantly changes the way the community conducts its conversations by being very inclusive and ensuring that there are more than one path to the future, then as the drivers change the community has already developed tactics to ensure sustainability.

After the 2009 fires in Victoria where over 150 people were killed and too many whole communities and towns wiped out.  Where OS principles were followed the recovery has been much more sustainable and positive.  Note it is not an example of OS technology as being the only way or that the technology was used in its pure form far from it.  What we see now is over reaction by the public sector to establish infrastructure that is not used and has become a massive burden to the Local Government.  This was done using controlling techniques.

After the fires in south west Victoria a couple of years ago it was found that the most successful process to gather and share data and information including gaining consensus was what they called a sausage sizzle.  It is OS principles in action.  Create a space that attracts people, leave it open so that any issue can be discussed, make sure the law of mobility is applied, create space for the bees and butterflies,  when it starts is when it starts when it is over it is over and what is done is all that can be done.  In this case the organisers ensured that at each sausage sizzle there were a number of people who could offer “expert advice” or support ie professional who were prepared to listen and from time to time interject topics for conversation.  From each event notes were taken to form the framework of community action.  I don’t think this has been written up but I have proposed the idea to Rotary International to be its basis for response to natural and other disasters.  The sausage sizzle site were close to the regular gathering point, in this case the local livestock market place.  A normal gathering site.  This is critical as it reflects a tendency to hold onto the past that has been destroyed by the “fire” in this case.

In your situation I suggest it is perfect and would form the basis of training people in effective gatherings by teaching the OS principles,  which really are about listening to what is is in front of head of those who are part of the conversation.

Please get back to me if you think I can help.  Note the Irrigation Futures Project was regarded as Exemplary by external evaluators principally because of the staff including me as the facilitator.  It was also said it would be very difficult to reproduce due to the need of a highly skilled team, the time allowed two years and the budget $4.5 million.  We were dealing with and industry that was valued at over 2 billion dollars annually with 85% of the products produced exported from Australia.  That is. VERY important part of the economy where the cost represented less than 1% of the annual worth.  Public bodies do not like spending money on facilitation even with this exemplary example.

I also used open space to debrief Incident Management teams to being the process of healing and minimise post traumatic incident syndrome.  It still is one of the best ever and it was almost our open space.  The cost of fighting the fires and primary recovery cost in 2003 exceeded $100 million and impacted on 1/6th of the state of Victoria.  In this case only one life was lost and virtually no significant infrastructure was lost in Victoria.  We can conclude it was a significant event that was well managed with minimal collateral damage!

Regards

Rob

On 6 Jun 2019, at 12:54 pm, Eric M. Kapono via OSList < <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

Aloha all,

I’m looking for references to a similar situation (more below) where OS was the contributing factor of success, in particular to communicate to government and community leaders here why OS will get the results they need.

The context is the community engagement piece of recovery efforts from the 2018 volcano eruption in Hawaii. I’m consulting with the County Recovery Manager, who has been convening other types of gatherings much of this year. Now that disaster relief funding is closer to being on the ground, the County wants to convene a larger, multi-sector event, to encourage development of community-based recovery actions. The County is also planning to have a Disaster Recovery Fund setup, which would field a competitive process for proposed projects, some of which may have convened in the larger event and decided there to collaborate on a proposal.

As with other parts of the recovery effort, this event would be under public scrutiny. It may be the largest event they’ve held, and County leadership is worried of perceptions and actual results coming from the event. In other words, there may be tendencies to have more control over the design/outcome of the day, in which case OS wouldn’t be the chosen organizing framework, but something else they’re more at ease with or accustomed to. I do believe, however, those community-based recovery actions are what they want most.

Do you have links or references to similar public sector gatherings using OS, under scrutiny, and producing anticipated results satisfactory to government and community, that I might share with County leadership?

Mahalo!

~Eric

Eric M. Kapono, CPF

Advancement Services

for Native Nonprofits

Hilo, Hawaii

808.969.3991

 <http://www.advancementservices.org/> www.advancementservices.org

 <https://www.iaf-world.org/site/facilitators> IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator

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