<div dir="ltr"><div><br></div>Martina, I just read your post, on this long and interesting
thread…
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">You wrote… "Well, even if that were true (which I don't
think it is): would it be a bad thing? I would rather have "conflict
avoidance" than war. I would rather have "conflict avoidance" than
rips in a community."</span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">What resonated for me about what you wrote, is that in the
conflict transformation workshops I offer, I often start with a participatory
activity where we fill in a polarity four-square… starting with, "the
benefits of avoiding conflict"… (of which there are many!)… then
proceeding to "the drawbacks of avoiding conflict"… then up to
"the benefits of engaging in conflict"… then, "the drawbacks of
engaging in conflict".</span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I find it a deeply useful activity, for us to being by
honoring all four quadrants…<span> </span></span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Another point of resonance for me, with your post (and
others in this thread) is the general undesirability of "too tight
containers". In other kinds of conflict transformation work I do (though I
also appreciate and practice OST) we also DO NOT "lock the doors"! <span>J</span><span> </span>Participants are free to step out whenever
they need to… and step back in as they wish. <span> </span>I see this as an essential aspect, not just of
OST, but of other processes that work with conflict, as well. <span> </span></span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">***</span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Michael, I particularly appreciated your post on the "prerequisites
for unfolding self-organization", and would like to learn more about
those. </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">What it makes me think of, is the "prerequisites for
addressing difficult social challenges" that need to be in place, on a macro
level… and the role of non-violent activism for "encouraging"
powerful institutions to "come to the table"…. which I see as one
form of the "creative disruption" that Peggy writes about in her book on <i>Engaging Emergence</i>.<span> <br></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">And so it seems to me, there may be another creative polarity here…
while completely respecting each person's freedom of choice, I think we also
need to respect our own agency, and the ability we have to create conditions
that in turn influence other people's choices. Not restrict, not constrain, but
influence… </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Along those lines, I wrote <a href="https://thelisteningarts.org/2011/10/29/the-listening-arts-and-social-change/" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">a
blog post</a> a while ago, about the interdependence of "emergent process" and "social activism"... how unlikely it is that<i> any</i> form of<span> </span>"emergent process" (whether OST or World
Café or Deep Democracy or DF or...) is likely to bring about large-scale social changes on its own, <i>without</i> the
complement of people's passion self-organized into activism… which can then set
the stage for various kinds of "emergent process" to be successful.</span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">**</span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Peggy, </span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>thank you so much for the awesome story! <br></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span><br></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>As you well know, a story can offer multiple insights... what's jumping out at me --in addition to the obvious usefulness of "Open Space for turning conflict into opportunity", and, not knowing any more of the details than what you shared in your story --<br></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span><br></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>...is the value of those two <i>prior </i>years of conflict, which seem to have led to </span></span></font>NOAA's agreement to fund a
meeting to deal with it... and thus set the context for that powerful one day of Open Space. This could be seen as wonderful example of Anne's version of the "law of two feet", that you shared with us in your post: "stand
for what you care about". <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">For those who may be interested in the activism end of things (strategies for creating a context, that makes it more likely that people will feel the need to come together, and thus discover the opportunities in conflict...) a few of my favorite resources are <span class="gmail-m-9063733949751354693gmail-im">Engler and Engler's <i>This is an Uprising:
How Non-Violent Revolt is Shaping the Twenty-First Century</i>, along with Bill
Moyer's <i>Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements.</i></span></span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail-m-9063733949751354693gmail-im"><i> </i></span></span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">To that short list, I've recently added the work of scholar-practitioner-activist
Dr. Véronique Dudouet. In a recent webinar hosted by the International Center
on Non-Violent Conflict, she explores the intersection between "civil
resistance", aka non-violent activism, and "peacebuilding", a term
that includes facilitation, mediation, negotiation, etc. (From this
perspective, OST would be a form of "peacebuilding.)</span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">If you scroll down on the <a href="https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/can-integrating-civil-resistance-peacebuilding-strategies-improve-movement-effectiveness/" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">webinar
page</a>, you'll also find a link to her report.</span></font> And, as you wrote in your post, Peggy -- not specifically about Veronique's work, but I think it can be applied here -- these are "yin
and yang responses to conflict and we need them both."</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt">with all best wishes,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt">Rosa<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></font></p>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div>
<p style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><b><i>Rosa Zubizarreta</i></b></span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><i>meet me at my <a href="http://diapraxis.com" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">DiaPraxis website</span></a> <br>
and on my <a href="https://rosaz.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Listening
Arts blog</span></a></i></span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span><span><span></span></span></div></div></div></div></span><span><span><i><b><a href="http://www.DiaPraxis.com" target="_blank"></a></b></i></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 4:42 AM, Martina Roell (Structure & Process) via OSList <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hey Daniel,<br>
<span class=""><br>
Daniel Mezick via OSList wrote:<br>
</span><span class="">> I am hearing this pointed criticism from some quarters: That OST<br>
> actually encourages conflict-avoidance via the Law of 2 Feet.<br>
<br>
</span>Well, even if that were true (which I don't think it is): would it be a<br>
bad thing? I would rather have "conflict avoidance" than war. I would<br>
rather have "conflict avoidance" than rips in a community.<br>
<span class=""><br>
> In other<br>
> words, people who need to be resolving conflict (or at least discussing<br>
> it) can just avoid the touchy topic... and each other.<br>
<br>
</span>I wonder who "people who need to be resolving conflict" are. When I hear<br>
that rhetoric, I think it tells me more about the speaker than about the<br>
"people" they are speaking about: The speaker seems to have some idea<br>
about "the people" who "need" to do something: "they (!) should (!) be<br>
resolving conflict!" "They (!) should (!) not be avoiding (this and that)".<br>
<br>
It's the position of a "leader" who thinks they know better than "the<br>
people".<br>
<br>
To them, I say: well go ahead and make an invitation for people to step<br>
into a tight container and "resolve conflict" or "go into conflict" or<br>
whatever you think is needed. See if anyone shows up.<br>
Or, if you feel yourself empowered to do so: "force" the people to "do"<br>
whatever you think "they should" do. See what happens. But why continue<br>
to whine about Open Space?<br>
<br>
Love,<br>
<br>
Martina<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Structure & Process | <a href="http://structureprocess.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://structureprocess.com</a> | @strucproc<br>
Martina Röll | GSM: <a href="tel:%2B49%20178%204984743" value="+491784984743">+49 178 4984743</a><br>
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