<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">As Toke said, this is a great conversation about "being in the fire."<BR>
<BR>
One of my fiery times was a two-day Open Space for a nonprofit organization that had been informed that unless they restructured to serve a larger region, they would lose the funding that supported their service work in their community. One of the possibilities was that staff would be transferred or laid off, and this was stated by the director in a series of staff meetings at the various sites prior to the Open Space. And of course, of all the possibilities she had laid out, layoffs was the one that people had heard and remembered.<BR>
<BR>
I encouraged the director to say more about this in her opening, but she refused, fearful that doing so would limit participants' creativity about solutions. Space was opened, and participants posted many topics. They liked the novelty of being self-managing, but the discussions were guarded. Distrust hung in the air, and a major suspicion that the decisions had already been made and the meeting was just an exercise. Many important issues had surfaced and been discussed, but many thoughts remained unspoken. It was heavy weather outside (a major drenching rain that was causing mudslides and road washouts), and just as heavy inside.<BR>
<BR>
The original suggestion by the client had been one day of Open Space with the full staff for idea generation, and a second day for managers only to process the input and develop an action plan. In the first planning meeting, I encouraged the team to invite everyone back for the second day, saying that we would likely get deeper work that way, and they agreed to that plan. Most of the staff went home to their families. The management team relaxed for a couple of hours, then reconvened for dinner.<BR>
<BR>
For three hours, the discussion went round and round. The meeting wasn't working as well as they hoped. People were not taking full advantage of the opportunity to share their ideas, and some managers were angry about that. Other managers were angry that their staff members were being put down for sharing their honest feelings (of distrust), which they had been invited to do. We needed to do something different. Were we going to re-design the whole second day?<BR>
<BR>
Now I was trying to get to the place Toke talks about where I don't need to look good, to be the one who can fix everything. I told them that the second day of Open Space always begins with Morning News, and that I would make clear that honest feelings were a legitimate kind of news. I asked the managers to spend a little quiet time before morning, thinking about what they wanted to say in the circle, and I asked them to hold back just a bit and see who else might exercise leadership. And I went to bed knowing that I was the only one who thought OST had a prayer of working.<BR>
<BR>
In the morning, we convened in our (crowded) circle. A few people did share how they were feeling. Finally one very young man asked if it was time to post more sessions. He said, "I promised to bring music today for a movement session, but I didn't bring any music. I spent some time last night thinking about yesterday, and I want to offer a different session. I have a lot of questions that I haven't heard answers to, and I'm hoping that someone from the management team will be willing to answer them."<BR>
<BR>
The director immediately said that she did not have all the answers herself at this point, but she would be in the session, and would truthfully answer whatever she could. She sat on the floor within the circle, facing the convenor. Someone said, "Maybe we should all be in this session." I said that we were still in Open Space, and the Law of Two Feet still applied. A member of the Board of Trustees stood, said that he would convene his session on the balcony, and one woman said her session would be held as scheduled. About fifty out of the sixty participants, including all the managers, stayed in the room.<BR>
<BR>
The young man who convened the session was magnificent. He asked his questions, one at a time, without a trace of blamefulness, giving everyone a chance to discuss each issue and ask their own questions. The director answered very directly and without defensiveness, and said "I don't know" when that was the truth. One of the participants got a flip chart and said, "I'm just going to write down whatever I hear about what we know about this situation." I felt priviledged to watch it all unfold.<BR>
<BR>
After 45 minutes, the convenor said, "That's all the questions I have. . .does anyone else have other questions?. . . Is there anyone who still doesn't trust the managers?. . . If not, I guess this session is over."<BR>
<BR>
There was a very different energy in the building for the rest of the day. People did not want to leave their conversations for lunch and the closing circle. Ideas were popping, I heard a lot of laughter and, yes, some moments of High Play. We held close to the schedule, determined to let people head for home before darkness and continued rain made the roads even more hazardous. But the closing circle was a wonderful outpouring of gratitude for having been heard, and a determination to find creative ways to go on doing the service work they all loved. It was quite a day.<BR>
<BR>
Joelle<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT></HTML>
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist