<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2314.1000" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY aLink=#33ccff bgColor=#ffffff link=#0000ee text=#000000 vLink=#cc99ff>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930581103-15092000>Chris,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=930581103-15092000>this
is a fabulous story and I thank you for sharing it. I loved your daughter's
quick knowing of OST. I loved the claiming of OST by the people you were with.
And I loved the sacredness with which you worked. And I loved that McDonald's
was your mirror.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930581103-15092000></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930581103-15092000>Birgitt</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>Birgitt Williams</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>Make Genuine Contact!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>Dalar Associates: organizational
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>effectiveness consultants</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>Striving for Success? Ready to exceed
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>your expectations?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>Contact us for consulting services,
</FONT><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>training, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>conference and meeting facilitation,
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2>and keynote speaking.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Black" size=2><A
href="http://www.openspacetechnology.com/">www.openspacetechnology.com</A></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV align=left class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> OSLIST
[mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]<B>On Behalf Of </B>Chris
Corrigan<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, September 13, 2000 6:25 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<BR><B>Subject:</B> Story of a 2.5 day Open
Space with an Aboriginal Organization<BR><BR></DIV></FONT>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>How she can get her friend's allergies to go away
<LI>How buildings are built
<LI>How colour goes in
<LI>How the inside of your body works
<LI>How hinges work
<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>participants read reports (roughly 50 pages) for a half hour
<LI>reflect and use the dots to indicate passion
<LI>some topics were converged
<LI>top dot getters were brought off the wall and placed in the centre of
the circle (there were ten of them)
<LI>I invited champions to come forward to see these through the action
planing phase
<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>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>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> </P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>