Hi Chris, my inclination would be not to do this in Open Space Technology. For me, the ethical issues are huge, in capital letters, and simply advising people clearly about the theme and advising of the law of two feet just doesn't do it. In one sense, advising of theme and law of two feet is like getting their permission for "whatever happens" if they show up, feeling that they are informed. I do not believe that by doing this, true informed consent is given.
In my experience in working with victims of violence for a long time in my life, there are layers below layers below layers of pain. The human spirit and psyche are very protective and go through the layers at their own pace. I know many people in their 40's and 50's who are just now strong enough to deal with something that happened in their youth. OST is powerful. And we know it. And we have a huge ethical responsibility. We also know that it is difficult to communicate ahead of time how powerful the meeting is. One does not know the power until one is in it. Negative fall out of creating a situation for people to face deeper layers before they are naturally ready may not occur during the meeting. Nor even in the closing circle. It might all look like a stunning success. In my work with youth in our street youth program in the 80's there were a number of group meetings trying to get at the deeper layers of what was up with the youth --we saw the youth 3 months later and 6 months later due to drug overdoses, slashed wrists and other suicide attempts. It wasn't pretty. The common denominator was the meetings that one of the agencies was holding. Well intended. They thought they were successful. We raised a public outcry and got them shut down.It wasn't open space technology. Your question stirred all of this up. How will you tell them in the invitation that they might be blown wide open and that they might not get put back together? I again state the perception that I have of safe space--we cannot guarantee that the space we create with OST is safe space. What is safe for one is not safe for another. I wish you well, whatever your choices. If you go ahead with this OST, I would encourage you to work carefully with your sponsor group prior to and after the event. The meeting might be a success in the short term. To assist success in the long term takes skillful means in honouring the precious humans involved with all of the pain that they brought into the meeting and all of the grief that the meeting might stir up. Birgitt Birgitt Williams Make Genuine Contact! Dalar Associates: organizational effectiveness consultants Striving for Success? Ready to exceed your expectations? Contact us for consulting services, training, conference and meeting facilitation, and keynote speaking. www.openspacetechnology.com <http://www.openspacetechnology.com> At 12:21 PM 9/8/00 -0700, you wrote: >Now they are in the process of planning for youth services, and they >have contacted me to use OS. The idea is to hold a couple of OS >meetings in the province to bring youth (13-19 or thereabouts) together >to get from them a sense of their needs in the victim services field. >We still need to identify who will be invited and why and what they will >be asked about, but a tricky question has come up, and I'm suffering >from a bout of either/or paralysis. >So? Whaddya think? > >Chris 2. Sign in and Proceed * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== osl...@egroups.com To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@egroups.com: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed