(Photo is not of this story, but it is a creative Journey Wall.)

Around 30 years ago, two community service organizations were serving a similar niche in an overlapping geographical area. One of these organizations was very large, with a strong hierarchical structure that managed the big reach of the organization, but it was not very effective.   The second organization was a small organization with lots of collaborative teamwork that made it extremely effective, but it didn’t reach a big clientele. The province was funding both, and decided to use its power to force them to merge. Both organizations were moved into the space that was originally the space of the smaller organization.    

5 years after the merger, there were internal tensions between the two groups of staff that were becoming intolerable, and they asked for a facilitator to help them for a day.  Most of the staff were present.

They started in the morning with a ToP Journey Wall (also called an Historical Scan, or a Wall of Wonder). The timeline went back 10 years, to well before the merger.  They worked in small groups to recall and record on cards a wide range of events that had happened in the past 10 years.  These were posted on a timeline on the wall and read out to the whole group.  They took significant time to share clarification of the events. 

As they talked about the events, one person from the originally smaller organization told the story of the staff who 5 years ago had literally moved into broom closets to make room for the people coming in from the larger organization.  Suddenly the group was silent, as they had never heard this before. At this point, some from the larger organization articulated their experience of the challenge of moving from a spacious office to a small desk. Another talked about the much longer drive to work that they had to do after the merger. This led to noting many more of the high and low points of the past 10 years.

This was brand new information for the organization as a whole.  The resentment was finally out in the open and acknowledged.  This led to a broad understanding across the organization of the shared pain of the merger.  Now they named the turning points, the sections of the journey between the turning points and finally the whole journey.  The names of the “chapters” of the journey reflected a new appreciation for the sacrifices that all had made and their commitment to the community. 

After lunch, the organization brought their hopes and dreams together through a consensus workshop and were able to envision their common future. The event ended with lots of hugs. 

Often when we are in conflict or tension, there are hidden memories and reactions that lead us to conflict and judgement of each other.  Using facilitated processes that can respectfully and safely bring these into the open can bring understanding and healing to the whole group.