Listening Post 2013-España, consultor participante en evento, sábado 12 de Enero 2013 en Leister Consultores.

Mi formación en consultoria fué desde el modelo Tavistock Institute   hace mas de 10 años y hoy es un placer  compartir espacio desde  “Listening Post 2013-España”, que es una experiencia que se organiza en 30 países a la vez y que proporciona una instantánea del Mundo o de la Sociedad, en un momento concreto.

Este evento es un espacio para explorar y pensar, intercambiando reflexiones y opiniones sobre nuestro rol de ciudadanos, dentro de la sociedad de la que somos miembros, sobre las preocupaciones que nos afectan, las políticas, el mercado de trabajo, el terrorismo,… etc. 

Limitado a un numero menor de 12 consultores entre los cuales tengo la suerte de estar y compartiré la experiencia de apoyo social desarrollada desde DIOT para reflexionar, junto al resto de participantes,  “por debajo de la superficie”, sobre  las relaciones personales y grupales dentro de la sociedad .

Después del intercambio, se realiza un análisis del mismo, y se recogen las distintas temáticas que surjan para realizar un informe, que posteriormente se publica llegar junto con el informe global de los demás países.

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El evento en España organizado por  Leister Consultores, coordinado y moderado  por  Ignacio García Masó, Jano, Javier Lizcaino

FECHA sábado 12 de Enero, a las 11:00 horas  
LUGAR sede de Leister Consultores,  Paseo de la Habana nº 9 Unicentro Madrid

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El programa y el enlace  del OPUS Organization for Promoting  Understanding in Society) con el  resumen del Listening Post del año 2012    

Spain and the World at the Dawn of 2012Report of a Listening Post held in January

Part 1. THE SHARING OF PREOCCUPATIONS AND EXPERIENCES

In this part of the Listening Post participants were invited to identify, contribute, and explore their experience in their various social roles, be those in work, unemployed, or retired; as members of religious, political, neighbourhood or voluntary or leisure organisations, or as members of families and communities. This part was largely concerned with what might be called, ‘the stuff of people’s everyday lives’, that relating to the 'socio' or 'external' world of participants.

There is a great concern about the Spanish current situation. But people talks about this question without feeling their implication. Example, each person can make a change that impact on 20 people close (family, friends, job...). Generate that space to change means love, accept others, without that there is manipulation in the perception of the others. But the media manipulate. For example, Berlusconi arrived to power due to the media. The problem is that there is not a direct perception of reality; the perception is only through the media, generating a lack of critic reflection.

There is ambivalence between being anti-TV and the desire of having information.

There is no interest on politic topics because people feel disenchantment, due to the lack of information of what politic can do for citizens.

There is manipulation and a lack of confidence because there are people interested on controlling the media that creates the people opinion. This cause us to feel manipulated and depressed, generating a lack of confidence in ourselves and in those we need they help to change the current situation.

There is a sensation of not knowing where we are and how manage this situation. Emotions about what is happening cannot be splitting. We have unbalanced the system with this excess of wild economy and now we need to change the system in order to balance it again, because we are in a stage of transition: the end of the American Empire.

In this point, society is dominated by three elements: a cynical position of the politicians and the media; selfishness (we are no longer a happy, nice and supportive country); and a lack of confidence on the future (that is not the same for every people. It depends on the age). The result is that each person begins to make his own life regardless from the life of others.

We have the opportunity to do things better, to be more optimistic. But this is the same speech of 1962... so, what happens?

We live in a society where there is a lack of regulation but there is an excess of regulations, forgiving the human being. We are victims of the excess of regulations. The result is a loss of freedom and welfare. There is no regulation of the important questions only of the small details.

Involved groups also appear. Things are not so negative. There are a lot of problems but we can improve with the crisis. Crisis will bring people, who are more interested on helping others; there are more NGO. This year there are more people here participating on Listening Post. Last year people said they will come but then did not.

Although society is depressed some people is changing his values.

The difference of opinion between parents and children is bigger now than in past generations, although the emotional links between them are bigger now.

New generations are more generous and understand that the World is not going to be materially the same any more. They need less security than their parents needed. Parents wanted more money for feeling more secure. New generations want to share. “My daughter of 21 years old collaborates with the prisoners in the jail"; “people of 17 goes to Burma to help”. They are participating in solidarity projects, generating more positive speeches.

Nevertheless, the generation that is 30 years old is a very disappointed people, they are disillusioned by the job, and by the family... there arises a very aggressive part that is expecting to see what is happening. Parents and grandparents fought to get very much things, but the difference was that they knew where they was going.

Spain is depressed. There is a need to feel proud for what happened before and what we obtained as country. It seems like we are in an end of cycle, in a depressive phase and we have to look for the elements that allow us to get out of there, having in mind the obstacles that it is necessary to confront.

But where is the contained aggressiveness that makes the change possible? There is a level of sadness that does not allow us to act. This year 15M´s movement occupied Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid, but finally the movement was manipulated. On the other hand, the PP has not raised votes number but it has gained because of the disenchantment of the rest of the politician parties.

We are in a very paternalistic situation, waiting for a father who sort out everything. But the politician parties do not want civil society to speak. They want to control everything and there are not new ideas.

There is a very big separation between society and politician parties. Society does not want then because of the corruption. Too much importance is given to the politician. There is a lot of superficial information but there are not authentic political criteria.

A Venezuelan member says that she had to immigrate to Spain due to the politic situation created by Chavez. In Venezuela there is too much violence, social differences, lost of expression freedom, brain drain... She always thought that she will live forever in democracy and she notices that something similar could happen in Spain if we allow to be manipulated by politicians. She complains that nobody helps Venezuela. There is a lack of love and a lack of a sense of belonging in the World.

In the past, the way to sort out crisis has been to generate a World war. There is an enormous social fracture. It is true, there are more NGO, but they grow to give some entertainment to people that has no job.

How to do that violence become creation instead of destruction?

Luxury articles increased 30%, 40%.

There is an economic manipulation created by politician and Banks.

Nothing has changed, only more taxes for middle class. Politician only changes things when people go out to the street to claim. We should rebel, go out to the street, but there is something preventing us from reacting: unconscious fears. But if we do not go out to the street anything will change.

We are waiting for a solution that comes from outside. Now there is the idea that we have to wait until March when things will start to change.

Young perspective is that older generations say to us ‘you can do anything’. Young people have illusion but old people stop them, so young people loose their forces. 15M movement was organized by social network (Facebook,...) but in only one week the movement was boycotted by the media and politicians. One main idea was transformed in hundred of requests, so the union was broken.

At the end we depend on Modis. It is a power chain.

What people concern is for close things. Global things are very far and you can do very little in global things. But if people are manipulated they can loose the close things too and a fear to loose your space appears.

We have a curtain in front of us and we are waiting for someone that removes it. We continue waiting.

Part 2. IDENTIFICATION OF MAJOR THEMES

In Part 2 the aim was to collectively identify the major themes emerging from Part 1. These are the themes the groups identified:

• Depression: Crisis
• Paternalism that doesn’t allow growing.
• Manipulation and manipulated society
• Unresolved revolution
• Social breaking off opposite to politics
• The need of personal involve in change
• Lack of social discussion
• Global invasion in individual space
• Lack of social leadership
• Social breaking off
• Matrix of fractured opinion
• Adverse factors that paralyze
• Need of ideas to action
• Individual like change generator

Finally they concrete in three major themes:

1. Adverse factors that paralyze
2. Need of ideas/vision to action
3. Individual like change generator

Part 3. ANALYSIS AND HYPOTHESIS FORMATION

In this part of the Listening Post members were working with the information resulting from Parts One and Two, with a view to collectively identifying the underlying dynamics both conscious and unconscious that may be predominant at the time; and developing hypotheses as to why they might be occurring at that moment. Here the members were working more with what might be called their 'psycho' or 'internal' world, their collective ideas and ways of thinking that both determine how they perceive the external realities and shape their actions towards them.

Analysis and Hypothesis 1

Adverse factors that paralyze

Analysis: It seems that there is a lack of 'sense of life', and fear of society to abandon the old things to develop the new. There is fear of the unknown, of the change, of insecurity, and all these things paralyze. There is a big difference between internal and external society. Someone 'brings us' a society that it isn’t in which we want to live.

Furthermore there is a lack of long term vision that also paralyze because it generates a divergence between ‘where we go and where we want to go’. At the end there is a break between real society and the society we want to have, because there is fear to express the differences and fear that they generate conflicts, because there aren’t social instruments, which allows express them. If you say what you think at the end there is fear that people reject you.

Under manipulation there is factual power control. But we need 'the truth' that join us like a country, so that is the way to channel all the energies in the same direction and to leave from the crisis situation. But, where is this country? There is no common identity we break it.

It exists ambivalence between to stay like you are or move to action, because there is fear of what action can bring us. We are not able to face the reality, and the reality is that is going to come crisis in different areas: in feeding, in energy... and this fear paralyze, because in other times that the world had crisis, the war was present.

We have to look for a new action, which doesn’t take us to the war, and at the same time to be realistic of what is coming, but we prefer not to think and not to see, and in that situation someone can manipulate us.

The fright takes us to the fracture between war possibility and the possibility to solve this situation, and both possibilities paralyze us. But the war is projected to the south of Europe, or other countries to avoid the confrontation.

The passivity allows the manipulation, because we prefer to live comfortably, without thinking.

Hypothesis: Because of fear of change, of unknown, of insecurity and the difficulty to confront serious conflicts; the members of the society become paralyze, with fright to action, without thinking and unable to express their differences, without identity and not seeing the reality; as a result we have the factice power manipulation in the crisis, the war projection, and the violence in the South of Europe countries.

Analysis and Hypothesis 2

Need of ideas/vision to action

Analysis: The values have changed but they haven’t been replaced. We have to see if we connect with the power or with own interests or social interests to build something new. How we channel our emotions to other people, and to the preservation of our species. But we have our emotions focus on us, without thinking in common good.

Nobody fulfil Kyoto Treaty, where is the ethic in this moment?

There is a deficit of 'wise people' who generate new ideas. But on the other hand, there are a lot of self-help books, but there are not good ideas, because all of them are marketed. The lack is of unselfish ideas, and people who channel them.

We also forget old people, but they also 'stop' changes because what it was useful in the past, it isn’t now in many cases. In other hand, what today is happening is a result of the past, and what tomorrow will happen will be the result of what is happening today.

There is fear of new ideas, which can make us lose our identity or our status. How we can learn to accept the differences? And also to accept how power relations change, but there is conflict of interests, rivalry...We should have to work integration.

Hypothesis: Because of the values of society have changed and they haven’t been replaced because of fear of loosing identity, the members of the society are more focus in their selves, in their needs and own interests, and in their power relationships; as a result there is a lack of unselfish ideas or visions, thought for the common good which can be taken to the action.

Analysis and Hypothesis 3

Individual like change generator

Analysis: We need a leader who inspires confidence, who mobilize next people. It implies to be generous with others, although it means to go against owns interest.

We are educated in certain values from the school beginnings, and we finish copying the models they show us, and we keep them for a lot of time. How to break with it when the life we have is so comfortable?  But, to start the change we have to start for us. Are we ready to make certain changes in our life? Are we ready to change our comfortable situation?

How we have to value the important things, not the material. But, 'the day to day' consumes people so much, that it blocks to see the important things. However, when you live a shocked personal situation, you change your life. At the end, it’s an internal fight with yourself.

We have a dependency Education Model, and it's not generated an education without dependency. Nobody works about educational system. How we can change it and prepare critical people?  We have the political manipulation, which establishes their Education Models.

There is the fear of not having enough space for everybody, that is the reason for not generate critical people.

Hypothesis: Because of social and education models established generate dependency and lack of critical thinking because of manipulation and the political interests, the members of the society are afraid of generating leadership capacities and changes in their selves and in their situation which mobilize people; as a result there is a lack of generous leaders who generate confidence and be the change generator.

Convener: Beatriz Benito and Ignacio Garcia