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ground rules for a civil society

5/30/2014

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I first encountered Gracious Space from a colleague while doing some organizational development work with a city government in Colorado. We got to talking about how we wanted to structure the work and one of the people on the team insisted that we introduce Gracious Space. I thought, ‘what the heck is that?’ She explained it and there was something that intrigued me right away.

The city project was focused on diversity in the workplace. Gracious Space was a good model to create open space for people to feel safe in communicating their views about difference and diversity.

After that initial experience, I ordered the book and started using it. I decided to incorporate Gracious Space into my work as a coach and consultant at Kebaya Coaching and Consulting. “Kebaya” is an African term meaning leadership. My doctoral program at Antioch University blended leadership development, coaching and organizational change, and since then I have used Gracious Space with many diverse clients.

My interest is how to create a civil society. Part of a civil society is having the capacity to discuss complex issues. Gracious Space brings people with divergent points of view together to be able to have conversations that need to be held, with people who don’t quite know how to do it. That’s why I grabbed onto it the way I did.

I’ve used Gracious Space with public policy analysts, attorneys, people in higher education, with diverse gender and socio-economic groups, non-profit organizations , and with my sister’s women’s retreat at church. She loved the book and now it’s required reading for her Baptist church in Michigan!

One very diverse group focused on economic development received Gracious Space very well. A representative from the city council said this was the first meeting he’d come into that was relaxed and where they could discuss complex issues without getting mad at each other. Another member of that group, an ordained pastor who was also a developer, gravitated to the book and bought several copies to give to colleagues.

My approach is to bring Gracious Space into the room as a word, a philosophy or ground rules, then let participants take it from there. Gracious Space serves as a way to set the ground rules, but it goes much deeper than that. There is a spiritual component to it, which is why it’s resonated so much with me.
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    Carolyn Love

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