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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've been exchanging e-mail with Pablo Restrepo on
a subject in which we'd be interested in hearing other perspectives. Pablo
is using a conflict resolution process with OS at each stage. My belief is
doing an OS with sufficient time and an appropriate theme will lead to
similar results with less effort and less overall time. What
are your thoughts?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here are the details of our exchange.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Peggy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana>----- Original Message ----- <BR><B>From:</B> Pablo
Restrepo <mailto:prestrepo@tandemadr.com> <BR><B>To:</B> Peggy
Holman, Open Space Institute (US) <mailto:peggy@opencirclecompany.com>
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, May 28, 2002 12:26 PM<BR><B>Subject:</B> First
experience with OST<BR><BR>Here we are well, we are happy with the election's
process, and hope the new president govern this country intelligently, he is a
capable man, but we are all concern about his lenience towards the right.
This makes our project to involve the civil society in the search for
solution much more relevant. <BR>The reason I am writing to you is because
I wanted to share our first OST experience. I remember hearing Harry
Owen in his CD making a reference to his ?conflict resolution colleagues?, I may
venture to guess that he is concern about our tendency to control the conflict
resolution processes, it is true we do. One of the first values, if not
the most important one, that I found in OST had to do with this: loosing
control of the process and having faith in the capacity of the agents involved.
I still think that the process in Conflict Resolution makes a lot of
sense:<BR><BR></DIV></FONT>
<OL>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Preparation </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Building the relationship </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Building the information </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Defining the process </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Creating options </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Designing the agreement </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Follow-up<BR></FONT></LI></OL><FONT face=Verdana>
<DIV><BR>I also believe there are best practices in each phase that help create
value, claim value, and build better long term relationships. What we have
found of incredible value in OST is to complement our process with the events.
In Bellsouth we have proposed a mix of OST with our conflict resolution
process to negotiate a new contract with their distributors. What we think
is that OST can be use in each phase to improve relations, increase creativity
and participation, and build information (among many other things that we are
discovering as we go along). In practice we did our first OST to help prepare
Bellsouth´s counterpart to negotiate with them. I have to underscore that
this was done after training all parties in depth in conflict resolution through
workshops, so they are very knowledgeable in the techniques and have applied
them in the events. The event was a success, it help the distributors
negotiate among them, build more trust among them, identify the issues they want
to negotiate with Bellsouth, propose a negotiating process to Bellsouth, and
design a few proposals. Now, on Thursday, we are using OST again to help
Bellsouth prepare ?multiple proposals? (a very effective negotiating technique)
to present them next week to the distributors; then we will do another OST, in
two weeks with the distributors, again, to help them prepare their
counterproposals. Following this, we will bring both sides of the
negotiations together in an OST to negotiate there proposals to each other and
design the final agreement. As a closure, we will do a final OST to
have them jointly think how they will ready themselves for the new competition
of PCS´s that will be appearing next year in Ecuador. This with the
purpose of emphasizing the joint future and to strengthen there relationship.
<BR>What I believe is very interesting about what we are doing is to
integrate a process which in our experience is very valuable, our conflict
resolution process, with a process that brings about fundamental things to a
negotiation: participation, creativity, commitment with the outcomes,
trust, exchange of information, creation of additional issues, prioritization,
identification of interests and underlying interests, etc. We believe
that, as needed, OST could be use to construct each of the phases. I would
underscore that something that has been fundamental is the previous training in
negotiation that all the parties have had, they have integrated the techniques,
strategies and best practices iin the OST´s actively. <BR><BR>Well, thank
you again for your interest and unconditional support. <BR><BR>Best
regards, Pablo<BR><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Verdana>Pablo
Restrepo<BR></FONT></FONT></B><FONT color=#00ff00><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS"><BR></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><B>TANDEM
A</B></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><B><FONT
color=#000080>lternative</FONT><FONT color=#ff0000> </FONT><FONT
color=#00ff00>D</FONT><FONT color=#000080>ispute</FONT><FONT color=#ff0000>
</FONT><FONT color=#00ff00>R</FONT><FONT
color=#000080>esolution<BR></FONT></B><FONT color=#000080><BR>Pablo Restrepo
Sáenz<BR>Tel: (571) 296 7080 & 635 6330<BR>Fax: (571)
296 7081<BR>Email: </FONT><FONT
color=#0000ff><U>prestrepo@tandemadr.com<BR></U></FONT><FONT
color=#000080>Webpage: </FONT><FONT color=#0000ff><U><A
href="http://www.tandemadr.com">http://www.tandemadr.com</A></U></FONT><FONT
color=#000080> <BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>*************************************************************************************************</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Arial><FONT
color=#000000><FONT size=2>Pablo,<BR></FONT><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial
color=#000000 size=2>Thank you for the update. The election made the news
here and I thought about you, wondering if you were pleased with the outcome.
<BR></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><BR></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial
color=#000000>I'm delighted to hear your first OS was successful.
Congratulations! I'll look forward to hearing how it unfolds
as you proceed. You are very right about the need in OS to let go of
control and have faith. I literally sat on my hands in the back of the
room when I did my first OS meeting. There was only one session posted
during the first time period. I was worried about what those not
interested in the topic would do. It turned out there was only one session
because it was such an important topic and NO ONE was going to miss that
session. I was awestruck as I watched the group hold a dialogue.
These were mostly blue collar workers with no formal training in any sort
of conflict or communications processes. They were intense, respectful,
and voiced many different and conflicting perspectives. Over the 2 days,
they solved their issues themselves.<BR></FONT></FONT><FONT
face=Verdana><BR></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial color=#000000>I have a
suspicion about your mixing OST with the conflict resolution process. This
is based upon my own experience with OST. The longer you work with it, the
less you will feel the need to mix the processes. I think this is because
OST allows a natural flow of interaction to emerge and the conflict resolution
process works because it is a natural flow. Given the appropriate theme
and at least 2 days in Open Space, you would find people going through the
conflict resolution process without the explicit steps. This is even more
likely to happen given participants are trained in conflict
resolution.<BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><BR></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT
face=Arial color=#000000>Thank you again for keeping me
informed,<BR>Peggy<BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><BR><FONT
color=#000000> </FONT><BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>************************************************************************************************************************************</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><FONT
color=#000000><STRONG>From:</STRONG> Pablo Restrepo
<mailto:prestrepo@tandemadr.com> <BR><B>To:</B> Peggy Holman, Open
Space Institute (US) <mailto:peggy@opencirclecompany.com>
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 29, 2002 3:54 PM<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re:
First experience with OST<BR><BR>Peggy, Thanks for your comments and support.
Your description of what happened to you in the first OST is the same of
what happened to us. There were several proposals, in our case but just
one session. We trusted the process and everything worked out fine.
<BR>With regard to the mixing of OST and the negotiation process, it is possible
that I did not explain what we did clearly. We are not asking people to follow
the process in an OST, we are following the process and using OST to develop
each phase of the process. For example, we invited the distributors, the
counterpart of our client to prepare for the negotiation with an OST. The
question was: What are the issues that should be discussed during the
negotiation, what possible proposals should be made to Bellsouth, and how should
the process be structured. The next OST we are doing tomorrow is for the
preparation of Bellsouth with a similar question. Then we are doing
another joint OST to negotiate the proposals. <BR>What we think can be
done in any process, I will keep you up to date on the results of the
experiment, is to use OST through a question to develop each and every phase.
Let me exaggerate the idea to make my point: <BR><BR></FONT>
<OL>
<OL>
<OL>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Preparation: What are the interest,
priorities and issues of the parties? What proposals could be make?
Etc. (Separate)<BR></FONT></LI></OL></OL>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Building the relationship: How can we improve
the relationship between distributors and Bellsouth? (Joint) </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Building the information: What are the
interest of each parties? What are the priorities of each party?
What are the issues we want to negotiate? What are the
relevant facts? Etc. (Joint) </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Defining the process: What is the problem or
problems we want to solve? If we do not reach agreement, what are
the parties alternatives? Etc. (Joint) </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Creating options: What are the possible
solution? What are the packages that could be negotiated? What
are the tradeoffs that could be made? Etc. (Joint) </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Designing the agreement: What is the
agreement? (Joint) </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Follow-up: What are the mechanism to follow
up on implementation and the possible ways to improve the agreement? Etc.
(Joint)<BR></FONT></LI></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></OL><FONT
face=Verdana><BR>Also training the parties in negotiation before the process is
very useful.<BR><BR><BR>I would be very interested in your
opinion.<BR><BR>Saludos, Pablo<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>***************************************************************************************************************************</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>Pablo,<BR></FONT><BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>I did understand what you were saying. I have no doubt what you are
doing will lead to strong and sustainable solutions. What I am suggesting
is that if you invited everyone involved to an OST on a question that
encompasses the reason for having a negotiation at all, you would get similar
results with less effort. Perhaps the OS theme is something like "Doing
great work together." I'm saying that with such a question the
participants would be posting sessions that roughly equate to questions of all
of the phases, e.g., there would likely be sessions on:<BR></FONT><FONT
face=Verdana><BR> <BR>Priority xyz (xyz being the actual subject of
interest to someone)<BR>Improving the relationship between distributors and
Bellsouth<BR>Solving problem zyx (zyx being the actual problem that someone is
experiencing)<BR> <BR></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial>What do you hear
me saying now?<BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><BR></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT
face=Arial>Peggy<BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT
face=Arial>***********************************************************************************************************************************</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Verdana><STRONG>From:</STRONG> Pablo Restrepo
<mailto:prestrepo@tandemadr.com> <BR><B>To:</B> Peggy Holman, Open
Space Institute (US) <mailto:peggy@opencirclecompany.com>
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, May 31, 2002 9:48 AM<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: First
experience with OST<BR><BR>Peggy, hi again. <BR><BR>Of course we are just
at the beginning of our experience with OST. And it has been surprising.
<BR><BR>At this point we have done three OST events for different purposes:
One with Bellsouth's distributors inviting them to prepare for their
negotiation with Bellsouth; another with the Ministry of the Environment
inviting them to produce recommendations and proposals for the regulatory
project of tariffs for the use of water from natural sources; and one with
Bellsouth to prepare proposals for their negotiation with the distributors.
So far the most impressive event has been with Bellsouth's executives, a
group of 40 people highly trained in negotiation skills.<BR>Fortunately will
have a chance this year to do a lot of events before approaching the big topic
of peace. <BR><BR>As I told you it is very important for us to research
and analyze the applicability of OST to conflict resolution, this is one of the
reasons I value so much the dialogue with you. <BR><BR>In general we
understand conflict resolution not as a way to contain conflict, but as a way to
approach conflict in a constructive and sustainable manner; we know that
conflict is chaos and that chaos opens the door to ?accepting people the way
they are and challenging them to be everything they can be?. This is where
we find that OST is a wonderful tool. From the perspective of ?best
practices? in negotiation it automatically does several
things:<BR><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
<OL>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Makes people understand the others perspective. </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Allows them exchange information. </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Increases the number of issues to be negotiated.
</FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Invites them to present proposals and react to
proposals. </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Builds trust and relationships. </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Identifies interests and priorities of the parties.
</FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Brings the parties to recognize the legitimacy of the
presence and participation of the other parties. </FONT>
<LI><FONT face=Verdana>Helps define the ?problem? for
all.<BR></FONT></LI></OL><FONT face=Verdana>
<DIV><BR>These are some of the reason why I was fascinated by the OST promises,
even before having done the first one. But, and time may prove me a
control obsessive, I still strongly believe that the design of the negotiation
process is essential and adds incredible value, and that training the parties
that are going negotiate makes a difference in the quality of the outcome.
My thesis is that OST works better with this than without this. We
will have to observe the process and the outcomes a lot more. To our
advantage is that the upcoming events will allow us to contrasts both
approaches, we have several processes in which OST will be a standalone, as you
propose, an others in which we will articulate OST within the negotiation
process. <BR><BR>Saludos y gracias,
Pablo<BR><BR>*******************************************************************************</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Pablo,<BR><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes!
I'm DELIGHTED you are experimenting with using OST in mulitple ways.
It will be a great way for all of us to learn what works. May I
share some of our exchange on this subject with the OS list? There are
people on the list who do mediation and conflict resolution. I'd love to
hear their perspectives.<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT color=#000000>Peggy</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT color=#000000></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT
color=#000000>***********************************************************************************************************************************************</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT color=#000000></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=prestrepo@tandemadr.com href="mailto:prestrepo@tandemadr.com">Pablo
Restrepo</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=peggy@opencirclecompany.com
href="mailto:peggy@opencirclecompany.com">Peggy Holman, Open Space Institute
(US)</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, May 31, 2002 1:06 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: First experience with
OST</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana>Peggy, of course you can share this discussion with
others, I am sure they will bring some valuable
insights. <BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana>Pablo</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT face=Arial
color=#000000>***********************************************************************************************************************************************</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT face=Arial
color=#000000></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT face=Arial color=#000000>and so, my friends of the
OS list....what do you think?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT face=Arial
color=#000000></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT face=Arial
color=#000000></FONT> </DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>_______________________________<BR>Peggy
Holman<BR>The Open Circle Company<BR>15347 SE 49th Place<BR>Bellevue, WA
98006<BR>425.746.6274<BR><A
href="http://www.opencirclecompany.com">www.opencirclecompany.com</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>