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<DIV>"as people who would come to that kind of meeting hoping to convince others
of their righteousness would feel at the end of the day that they were either
winners or losers."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>that's ok, if there are some people
coming with this aim, they're welcome. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>"he thought an "airing of the issues and a shared understanding" were most
important." <BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>i also think that "airing of issues"
is important, chaging the issue might decrease the interest in the meeting.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It's important to include these people in conflict
and potential participants in determining the theme and writing
the invitation. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>another important point would be to invite people
from different sides and opinions, not only people in conflice but</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>more people who "care" " are affected by the
issue".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Funda</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=chris@chriscorrigan.com href="mailto:chris@chriscorrigan.com">Chris
Corrigan</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 20, 2006 6:16
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Conflict in community</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hi Folks:<BR><BR>An inquiry for you.<BR><BR>I've had a couple
of conversations this week with people involved with local school boards in
the United States. The common themes in these conversations include high
degrees of local conflict, positional politics, an extreme lack of resources
over which no one locally has any control and labour relations that are best
described as toxic. <BR><BR>IN a conversation today, one man said that he
wanted to try Open Space simply as a way to have all the parts of the system
understand each other. I suggested that this might not bring the peace
he was looking for, as people who would come to that kind of meeting hoping to
convince others of their righteousness would feel at the end of the day that
they were either winners or losers. I thought that result wouldn't
necessarily be transformational. When I asked him if instead we couldn't
issue an invitation to invite people essentially to answer the question "how
can we BE together differently in this system" he balked a little at the
notion of a smaller group of "like minded" individuals. Of course I
don;t see this as starkly black and white, but nevertheless, he thought an
"airing of the issues and a shared understanding" were most important.
<BR><BR>So my question goes to people who have worked in this situation, with
groups that are highly wedded to positions. What are the kinds of
invitations that allow for "airing," generated shared understanding, and
perhaps lead to transformative relationships? <BR><BR>By the way, I told him I
would do this for less than 1.5 days.<BR><BR>Thoughts and reflections
welcome.<BR><BR>Chris<BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>CHRIS CORRIGAN<BR>Consultation -
Facilitation<BR>Open Space Technology <BR><BR>Weblog: <A
href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot">http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot</A><BR>Site:
<A
href="http://www.chriscorrigan.com">http://www.chriscorrigan.com</A><BR>Open
Space Resources: <A href="http://tinyurl.com/r94tj">
http://tinyurl.com/r94tj</A> * *
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