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Colleagues:
<p>I have just completed a 2.5 day open space with an Aboriginal organization
here in British Columbia with excellent results. It was an interesting
exercise on a number of fronts, and so as usual I am writing to share the
results and some of my learnings.
<p>The British Columbia Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCAAFC)
represents almost 30 "Friendship Centres" here in BC. Friendship
Centres are organizations that have been around since the 1950s, providing
services to Aboriginal people in the towns and cities of Canada.
During the 1950s, there was a mass migration of First Nations people away
for isolated and remote reserve communities to the cities as people set
out to look for jobs and better lives for their families. In short
order, these people formed communities and then community organizations.
Friendship Centres were among the first to be formed, to provide assistance
to individuals and families making the transition from reserve life to
city life. These days Friendship Centres provide a huge range of
services and programs and in many ways, look like Aboriginal YMCAs, although
not as well funded, and generally not attracting as much of a middle class
clientele.
<p>Here in British Columbia we are embroiled in disputes about land rights,
aboriginal title and self-government. Friendship Centres, as Aboriginal
organizations, are trying to find a role for themselves in this debate.
In order to further their ideas and vision, the BCAAFC hired me to facilitate
a 2.5 day Open Space around the theme: "Aboriginal Friendship Centres
and Self -government in BC." Executive Directors and Presidents from
each Centre were invited as was the BCAAFC Executive Committee and the
staff. In short, most of the BC Friendship Centre leadership was
gathered in one place.
<p>DAY ONE
<p>We had 41 people, who proposed 36 topics during the opening on day 1
(31 topics were eventually reported upon). I had the two meeting
days divided in the four sessions of 1.5 hours each with 1.5 hours for
lunch. My opening was complimented by a prayer from our Elder and
an official welcome to the territory of the Lil'wat Nation, on whose land
we met in Whistler, BC, north of Vancouver. (We were actually meeting
in the same facility where I first experienced OST five years ago).
As has been my experience, people took to the process immediately and got
down to work on the issues with no trouble at all. I had a partner
working with me who was learning OST, and he helped to organize the agenda
wall and see about an even distribution of topics throughout the 8 time
slots we had available. He also remained in charge of the proceedings
for the entire event.
<p>I received several comments during the first day about the process including
comments about how well it allows everybody to participate and how free
of conflict the discussions were. One woman said that she had been
coming to these meetings for years and met the same people and never heard
any of them speak. This was the first time she heard from some of
them. I asked her why she thought that is and she said it had to
do with the safety that was created. She felt that because individuals
proposed topics that they were passionate about, a great deal of respect
was brought to the discussions, and that the whole group held the space,
not just the facilitator. When facilitators work in controlling processes,
participants sometimes feel that they can lose themselves in conflict.
Not so in Open Space, where the whole group takes responsibility for keeping
the space safe and therefore, conflict is often eliminated, as was the
case for this meeting. And there were some contentious issues!
<p>Another interesting comment came for a seasoned veteran of the Friendship
Centre movement, an Elder who has served on the Executive at all levels,
local, provincial and national. He said that this was the first meeting
where he learned something.
<p>(As an aside, and by way of demonstrating how easy it is to get into
Open Space, comes this story: My three year old daughter was with me and
at one point, while groups were moving around, she came into the room with
her mother, and asked what the paper and the nice coloured markers were
doing on the floor in the centre. I told her that people used the
markers to write down things that they wanted to talk about on the paper.
She then proceeded to dictate to me a list of topics she wanted discussed.
She was interested in the following:
<ul>
<li>
How pens work</li>
<li>
How she can get her friend's allergies to go away</li>
<li>
How buildings are built</li>
<li>
How colour goes in</li>
<li>
How the inside of your body works</li>
<li>
How hinges work</li>
<li>
How bones grow back together crooked.</li>
</ul>
She then returned to our hotel room with my partner where I am told that
they held their own discussion groups on these topics. I relate this
to make the point that OST is easy enough for a three year old to understand
with very little instruction.)
<p>We gathered in the circle for a closing prayer at the end of the day,
as is our tradition.
<p>DAY TWO
<p>Day two began in a novel way for me, because we had to change rooms.
Our large meeting room had been overtaken by a conference of McDonald's
Restaurant's managers from Western Canada (more on this below). We
moved to a smaller room which involved some work to prepare, but, despite
my anxieties, worked out fine. Day two began early with a sage smudge
and a prayer. The smell of sage permeated the facility, and its bittersweet
(and slightly cannabis-like) smell confounded the McDonald's managers who
were by now virtually swarming around our meeting space.
<p>Playing fast and loose with time, the groups met at 9 instead of 9:30
and finished at 10:30 for the first session, taking a half hour break before
convening the 11:00 sessions on time. As the news started to go up
on the wall, one woman commented how different the reports were from the
actual discussions in the groups. I have always suspected that this
is the case and I wonder if anyone else has figured out how to capture
the energy and passion that forms in the groups and is not reflected in
the reports?
<p>It seemed as the second day progressed, that the group discussions became
more intense and the breaks between discussions became lighter. This
was in contrast to day one, when people seemed to be feeling their way
around, and were more aloof in both the groups and the breaks. I
can really see how extending the discussions over two days brings a totally
different qualilty of experience to people. It is deeper and richer
and the relationships become stronger so that people feel freer with each
other outside of the meeting.
<p>The whole notion of personal responsibility intensified over day two.
One participant, who missed convening her session because she was actually
attending to another participant who was suffering a nasty reaction to
a bee sting, used the evening news to apologize for "acting irresponsibly"
by not convening her session. The apology was offered with great
respect and humility to the group. It opened my eyes to how serious
the "responsibility" part can get taken.
<p>As day two came to a close, I checked my "Open Space Evaluation" sheet:
a piece of blank chart paper with the question "What do you think of Open
Space?" on the top. The paper contained a couple of doodles of a
happy face and a light bulb and these telling words: "It's really round!"
<p>DAY THREE
<p>Again, we opened with a smudge and a prayer. I'm lucky to have
these openings available to me as it aligns people's thoughts nicely at
the beginning of the day and helps ground the crown for the work ahead
of them.
<p>Convergence consisted of the following steps:
<br>
<ul>
<li>
posters with topic names and numbers were placed around the room</li>
<li>
participants read reports (roughly 50 pages) for a half hour</li>
<li>
reflect and use the dots to indicate passion</li>
<li>
some topics were converged</li>
<li>
top dot getters were brought off the wall and placed in the centre of the
circle (there were ten of them)</li>
<li>
I invited champions to come forward to see these through the action planing
phase</li>
<li>
Nine champions came forward and a few more topics were converged.
Convergence was highly conservative, as is my preference. Only topics
that were closely related were converged.</li>
<li>
The orphaned topic was placed with the others with a meeting space post
it note on it in case anyone wanted to take the issue forward. As
it turned out, no one did.</li>
<li>
Discussions lasted 45 minutes. Several participants wished that they
could have had the whole day to actions plan.</li>
</ul>
(Note to OST facilitators who may be working with Carrier speaking people:
the word "dot" sounds a lot like the Carrier word "D'ogh" which is a rather
vulgar term for female genitalia. So when I suggested that folks
grab seven dots and indicate where their passion lay, it resulted in a
truly inspired outburst of belly laughs from one person!)
<p>The closing circle was profound. I had wanted to use a talking
stick (a real one!) for the closing circle, but the organization did not
bring theirs. Instead I used a piece of lava rock. The Whistler
area is covered in old lava flows and the rocks lie everywhere, pitted
from air bubbles that were trapped in the molten lava. As it turns
out these rocks are great for using in sweatlodges as they hold heat.
So when a number of people went out on day two to collect sweat rocks for
future use, the BCAAFC ED gave me one. And I used it for the closing
circle.
<p>I opened by stating that lava is rock made from material that has welled
up from deep within the earth and taken form. It does not crack under
extreme heat and it is malleable and flexible. In my mind this summed
up the organization nicely.
<p>As the rock went around, people shared very deeply. I was especially
touched by the Elder who said that the process was a new role model for
First Nations communities to show us how we could be together. Another
participant said that she was tired from the mental strain of the past
few days, and had even forgotten where we were in the month ("somewhere
in the middle!" she said). Later the ED of the organization remarked
that he thought that this comment represented the fact that she was no
longer thinking linerally. It fact, the ED recognized OST as a tool
with tremendous possibility for decolonizing First Nations people and communities
because it creates the environment for people the THINK in traditional
ways. I have said that before, and I am buttressed in that belief
now.
<p>Several people saw possibilities for using OST and have vowed to use
it. There was an almost fiercely protective sense that came over
the group regarding the process. They recognized it as theirs, as
one which is, in both form and content, real indigenous self-government.
<p>We closed the third day with a prayer.
<p>Now about those McDonald's managers: There could not have been a more
contrasting state of affairs. Hundreds of managers were milling around
the conference centre being pampered (almost parented it seemed) by corporate
staff. The whole place was full of golden arches, and incentive plan
recognition posters. And their grand kick off event was in the huge
ball room above us as we were closing. I could hear loud music pounding
through the ceiling, and my partner, who went to have a look, said that
she saw all the managers standing and cheering and waving different
coloured flags. Then she was told to move away by security guards
who were actually standing at the entrance to the ball room. It was
chilling. You could not have imagined a more closed space, one which
generated a frightening totalitarian feeling. And I don't use the
term lightly. It looked like a nationalist rally, complete with thugs
at the door to keep out the rabble.
<p>It was the sharpest contrast possible.
<p>Chris
<p>PS I will shortly post this story on my website with some pictures from
the event. It will be at <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan/osstories.html">http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan/osstories.html</A>
with the rest of them.
<p>--
<br>CHRIS CORRIGAN
<br>Consultation - Facilitation
<br>Open Space Technology
<p>108-1035 Pacific Street
<br>Vancouver BC
<br>V6E 4G7
<p>Phone: 604.683.3080
<br>Fax: 604.683.3036
<br>corcom@interchange.ubc.ca
<br><a href="http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan">http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan</a>
<br>
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