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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>OS and conflict -- Over the years I have used Os in
multiple conflicted situation, ranging from The Middle East, Labor/Management
situations and many more that I can't remember. To this point, i have never
found it necessary to do anything other than OS, beginning, middle, and end. And
in situations where some other person (group) had done some form of community
building, issue identification, conflict resolution prior to the Open Space, I
never saw any advantage and quite often received comments from the participants
that while they thought the "warm up" was interesting, at the end of the day it
seemed to "waste time" (their words not mine) that could have been better spent
in the "real" (meaning OS) conversation. I am not sure I understand why all this
is true, although I think I am beginning to, at this point I have total
confidence that if the group seriously wants to engage the issues that divide
(and also unite) they can effectively do all that in Open Space. As for the
Theme -- I guess that depends on the group. When working with a bunch of
Palestinian and Israelis, the theme was "Ending the Cycle of violence." In a
coroprate setting with a nasty labor/management situation, the Theme was,
"Fixing Arizona" -- which everybody understood to be the company and its
relations -- which everybody knew were broken.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Harrison</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Dr.<BR>Potomac, MD
20854<BR>USA<BR>301-365-2093<BR>207-763-3261 (summer)<BR>website <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com">www.openspaceworld.com</A><BR>Personal
Website <A href="http://www.ho-image.com">www.ho-image.com</A><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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=wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com
href="mailto:wcraiggilliam@hotmail.com">Craig Gilliam</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> Sunday, July 02, 2006 11:38
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Craig</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Question for you using OST in Conflict
Transformation:<BR>Context:<BR>I do a great deal of conflict transformation
work with communities. I use <BR>Open Space throughout the process (way
of being together), but often, the <BR>formal process (whatever that means)
Open Space Technology, forming the <BR>circle, create a bulletin board,
setting-up a market place, etc, I use only <BR>as a part of it. I use it
after we have spent time in conversations <BR>exploring the past patterns,
learning from them, and helping direct the <BR>energy toward exploring the
future and its options.. After time has been <BR>spent in these conversations,
I use a full OST process.<BR><BR>Question:<BR>If one uses Open Space
Technology in the beginning, form the circle, open <BR>the space, hold the
space, create a bulletin board, as the first and primary <BR>process, what
does the theme look like? Of course, the participants help <BR>form the
theme or question, but is it direct?--You are in conflict and what
<BR>conversations need to happen to find your way out of this? or does it work
<BR>best without the directness and focusing on the positive direction of
<BR>thinking such as--What is the future you are trying create? Or does it
<BR>matter because the group is going to go where it is going to go where it
<BR>needs to go?<BR><BR>I would like some insight from you who have had the
experience and traveled <BR>this
road.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Craig<BR><BR>*<BR>*<BR>==========================================================<BR><A
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