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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>Chris,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>I had the
doubtful pleasure to be the project planner (city representative) on a “Keep
Wal-Mart Out” project many years ago. People were very positional,
to the point of threatening each other and on both ends of the spectrum.
At the time I didn’t know about open space – or lets just say I
didn’t know that there actually was a thing with a name. What I did
know was that I had only 6 months (the time of the development moratorium) and
not a clue how to deal with this. So, I started with some public
hand-wringing (as in : gosh, this is really complex, isn’t it? ), basically
feeding the “positions” back to everybody and letting each of them
really “see” the other. Open Space is much more elegant at
this than I was then, but it is a similar concept. I gave them a lot of “airtime”,
at the same time gently reminding them of the concept that indeed, we are all
sitting in the same boat, this is as good as it gets, and if this group of
talented, dedicated citizens cannot come up with a reasonable (or maybe even
inspired) solution, who could? Well, they did come up with a very
inspired (award – winning) solution which was unanimously adopted by the
City Council (!).</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>More directly
to your question, I think I would not focus on the positional aspects of this,
but the complexity. I believe that some of the frustration and anger in
situations like this actually comes from not being able to “hold”
the complexity long enough to be able to re-align and identify actionable next
steps. Sharing the acknowledgement that indeed, this is complex and that that
is in itself frustrating is a great step forward and possibly a positive
outcome for a “first” Open Space. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>Claudia</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>Claudia Haack</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=3 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>KAIROS</span></font></b></strong><font
size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'> Alliance Inc.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>tel.
608.288.8315</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:navy'>fax.480.247.4824</span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> OSLIST
[mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On
Behalf Of </span></b>Chris Corrigan<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, March 20, 2006 10:17
AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Conflict in community</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>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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