Hi Michael. Wow! This is an intense case, but not only hypothetically for sure... Some spontaneous thoughts from me.
I agree with the aspects Eiwor brings in. And I ask my self, will you be abel to trust the principles in Open Space in this situation? I also think that the real issue in this situation is the lack of clear boundaries. What do we do in a situation with no clear boundaries to work and live and believe within? A prework with the medicine wheel might help to do some clarifications. Purpose: IS the purpose clear and understood? ( the purpose with this process/ the purpose with out church. Choose a focus) Leadership: What kind of leadership do we have/ need to carry out this purpose? Who are this leadership? Vision: What are out wishes for the future. What results do we want to se in a short and longer term. What kind of behavior and action do we need to see more of to work out way towards these goals. Community: Who else care about this church? Management: What can be our nest step? How do we do this? I also think its important to be honest about the pain and the experience of chaos in a situation like this. If this is the frame, and theme is something like: We are in a situation of pain and Chaos, and our boundaries is not clear. What are the issues and opportunities for our church in this situation? Then maybe a leadership can emerge form an Open Space meeting, and one can start to heal relations. But I think you must have a group with some mandate to anchor the process. All the best from Hege :-) 2. apr. 2014 kl. 08:33 skrev Eiwor Backelund <ei...@gatewayc.com>: > Hi Michael, what an interesting situation. I don´t really have any > suggestions but more some thoughts about what might happen. Open Space > creates a different structure than the usual in an organization. It allows > what needs to be discussed to surface and in this case there seems to be > much pain and uncertainty so if you chose to open space in this situation > you have to be aware of all this pain that might emerge in the open air. If > the meeting is long enough and the space is really open to discuss all this, > it might solve some of the misunderstandings and miscommunications that has > occurred in the church. I think in this case the givens or boundaries are > really important so everyone knows what is going to happen after the > meeting, what will the results be used for. Also important that they are > wide enough to handle the amount of grief and conflict that might arise. I > think working with the grief cycle in the planning meeting and in the > debrief meeting is a good way to raise awareness of where they all are in > the cycle so they can help each other work it through. > Eiwor > > -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- > Från: oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org > [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] För Michael Wood > Skickat: den 2 april 2014 03:59 > Till: 'oslist@lists.openspacetech.org' > Ämne: [OSList] Open Space and boundaries > > A Case Study.... > One of the principles that I have generally worked with in Open Space is > helping the client get clear on the 'boundaries' of the space that's being > opened. For example, helping people who come into the space to know 'what up > for grabs here and what isn't? What decisions have already been made?' > > So picture this (purely hypothetical of course)....a church community in > which the pastor has (in many peoples' opinion) run off the rails and the > main church body is in the process of trying to dismiss him; the church is > in compete disarray and completely conflict ridden, many people have left; > the pastor who holds all the keys, banking passwords; church telephone > connections etc etc, has taken legal advice and had hunkered down in the > church owned house where he continues to hold the reigns of power (via some > of his 'allies' in the church) despite not formally being the Pastor of the > church anymore.... > > So...here we have a situation where the 'boundaries' are actually in a state > of complex flux and uncertainty. The financial 'givens' are ambiguous; there > is no 'locum' pastor in place because of legal uncertainties with the > existing pastor...etc etc. > > So in terms of 'Opening Space', do we wait a bit longer until some of the > legal boundaries are clarified, OR open space right away in the midst of the > mess....my hunch is the latter, but any thoughts from anyone? > > Cheers > Michael > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an > email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org .