FW: from Birgitt Williams story of the Open Space Organization part one of four

[Birgitt Williams]

Dear friends and colleagues on the OS list,
Happy and joyous new year to each of you!

I wish to share a story with you. A story of the Open Space Organization as
I have journeyed with  it, which for almost a decade is a story that
entwines with the story of my personal growth and evolution. It is also a
story that runs at every step of the way from my intuition in a conscious
relationship with my experience, knowledge and intention. It is a travel log
and contains as much information as I see possible to put into a series of
e-mails to provide you with a map. As I took this journey, I did not have a
map. I arrived at a number of destinations that I did not know I was heading
for until I arrived. In every case, the destination was also a "wayshowing"
spot, leading me further along the story. In other words, the story
continues to unfold. I am ready now to share the story to this point in
time.

The story contains invitations to you to join me in the study and experience
of the Open Space Organization, an interconnected learning organization, if
this sparks your interest. Although I have been involved with the Open Space
Organization since 1992, any work we do with Open Space Organizations is
still very much in a pioneering time.

I will share my story with you in four parts, over the next week. In all
four e-mails, the story follows my signature and is quite lengthy.

Part one follows my signature in this e-mail. In this e-mail, I share with
you a letter that I wrote to Harrison Owen in 1993, with a cc at that time
to Larry Peterson. I have left the letter in its original form and apologize
for the grammatical errors and the run-on sentences. I tend to write in run
on sentences when I am speaking deeply from my passion. (I am working at
correcting this in myself. )In 1992, I took OST training with Harrison Owen.
At the time, we learned that OST was used for better meetings and required
at least one full day to have a meeting that really worked. In my letter, I
tell Harrison of the use I had been making of OST in leading an organization
on an ongoing basis and suggest that the bigger importance of OST was way
beyond just using it as a means of having a better meeting. At the time, I
was CEO of a multi-service inner city social service. You might want to copy
this letter and share it with CEO's as a reference letter from another CEO
of what is possible. If you would like a photocopy of the original for your
files, please e-mail me separately off of the list.

Part two is a long e-mail that highlights the story of this social service
from 1992 through 1995, three years during which we sustained the first
intentional Open Space Organization. In this e-mail, I share with you the
learnings we had until that point in time about the critical ingredients of
the Open Space Organization. These are highlights. The full story would take
a book.

Part three is an e-mail(also long) outlining the evolution of what I have
called the Genuine Contact Program. For me, the critical ingredient within
the Open Space Organization, the critical building block, is opening space
for Genuine Contact to be made--with the self, with another, with the
collective, and with Spirit that is present in all of the Genuine Contact.
This was my "aha" in 1999, when together with my husband Ward, I explored
and explored what Open Space was when we peeled back to the barest essences.
>From the "aha", the full set of workshops of Genuine Contact emerged, so
that I could share with anyone who wanted to become involved with the Open
Space Organization in the way that I have experienced and interpret it. It
was important to me to share the full recipe of what I had found worked, not
only during my time as CEO, but also in other organizations who have taken
this journey with me over the last four years when I worked with them in my
current work as a consultant.

Part four is an e-mail (also long) outlining what for Ward and I is the next
step in this journey of why we have organizations--to do with soul
development and Spirit. It includes an invitation to join us in an
organization that we are initiating called the International Alliance for
Mentoring (IAM). The organization is an Open Space Organization, as we
understand an Open Space Organization--an interconnected learning
organization.

If you are interested in the Open Space Organization, we hope you enjoy the
story and feel inspired by it. If you have taken Open Space Technology
training, you might be interested in taking yourself through another step in
this learning journey and joining us for the Advanced Program in Open Space
Technology focusing on the Open Space Organization. This training is held
only five times annually. 2001 dates include Feb 2-4 in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada hosted by Chris Corrigan; April 28-May 1 in San Francisco,
California, USA hosted by Jeff Aitken; May 3-5 in Niagara, Ontario, Canada
hosted by Ward Williams; and June 13-15 in Berlin, Germany hostessed by Gabi
Ender; and Oct 1-4 in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA in our home. A huge bonus
in each of the locations is that you will also get to meet these incredible
sponsors who you may only thus far know through the list.

Blessings,
Birgitt (Bolton) Williams

April 6th, 1993

Mr. Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland
U.S.A. 20854

Dear Harrison,

I have been doing considerable thinking about “Open Space Technology” and
its application on an ongoing basis, in the workplace, as a means of keeping
Spirit alive. It is my belief and experience that “Open Space Technology”
does all that you say it does at an “Open Space Event”.

I have used it in my own place of work and in other organizations (all
non-profit) with which I am involved and the results are the same. But I
have a growing awareness, and using my own organization as an on-going
experiment, that  “Open Space Technology” has applications as a means of
keeping/enabling Spirit to be alive.

The use, of course, is a bit different because of some organizational
reality which I refer to as “the givens” – the things which have to be in
place. Just as you would say there are occasions when an “Open Space Event”
should never be done, similarly, with the on-going work of an organization
one can’t use “Open Space Technology” in any meeting that deals with “the
givens”, but that leaves lots of room/scope for when “Open Space” can be
used. And as I have experienced it – it works well – when we can use “Open
Space Technology” within our regular business i.e., staff meetings, there
are always comments about that being the best part of our meeting, and there
is always a new burst of energy/life/ - Spirit that starts to escalate.
Within the time-frame of a meeting, time for Open Space is reduced, but the
results are the same and consistent.

To have energy/life/Spirit, alive and well in an organization that is
chronically underfunded, has minimal staff in relation to the workload, has
terrible hours and low wages, and is the bottom end of the social safety net
in our community, and at a time of serious recession/depression, is an
amazing phenomenon.

Every individual who works within our organization has
energy/life/Spirit/capacity for leadership (as they do in other
organizations). But with us, there is an ongoing expression of the above
percolating everywhere.  Incidentally, this makes my own job as senior staff
almost unnecessary, while at the same time challenging me at my own outer
limits as I’ve never been challenged before.

I suspect that the long-term changes/effects from “Open Space Events” are
limited – far more limited than they need to be. I suspect this is so
because on a longer-term basi the normal behaviour for blocking change
(because of an individual’s fears or desires), the dynamism/operating
style/analytical ability of the senior staff persons, support for the senior
staff person in maintaining the energy necessary to be the enabler or holder
of time/space for the organization.

All of these would not be as critical in an “Open Space Event as they are in
the on-going work of an organization. Now, I’m not saying that the lasting
change hasn’t happened because people do come away knowing that a different
way is possible. I’m even sure that the follow-up to the natural
organization that takes place at an “Open Space Event” can continue for many
months. But, what then? So – that’s what I’m posing here – I think that
“what then” can be a continuation of what began in the “Open Space Event” –
but in my opinion it just doesn’t happen – it takes work and on-going
support.

At my place of work, chaos is embraced, change is an everyday part of life
to be celebrated, we are always positioning ourselves to be ready for new
opportunities when they arise, thus, when they arise, we are able to
mobilize quickly to take advantage of them, in anticipating the new with
eagerness we are collectively ready for the adjustments that need to be made
to incorporate the change – we are an alive being.

Everyone is interested in learning more and more and the net effect of
expending so much energy in learning is that more and better work is getting
done, we are talking/communicating more, and the most unlikely pairings of
people are talking about something of common interest to them. When critical
issues of one sort or another arise, the person or unit (we are organized by
service units), gives notice of the issue to others and an invitation is
extended that whoever can and wants to join the discussion should come –
this has been an incredible way to prolem solve and to build ownership by
everyone to all segments of the organization (we used to be very rigid and
only know about/care about what was happening in our own area of work).

I should state that although the best use of the first and major OST event
should be at the point of chaos in the life of an organization (in keeping
with the griefwork cycle), it is my believe that we do not need to keep
doing the death and birth thing, but can instead maintain the organization
in chaos. Maybe chaos is maintained because the death and birth things is
now happening so fast in so many different places that it all runs in
together giving us the fertile field of chaos at all times. OSY provides the
jump-off point for this to happen. I don’t believe or any longer experience
that order and chaos alternate for life to progress.

Rather than looking at this as some kind of cycle (something we can neatly
diagram or chart), we need to look at it more like a hologram where formal
hierarchical structure coexists and co-supports with the informal
interactive structure. In this context, life progresses because order
(expressed in the “givens” of an organization) and chaos (all that can be
interactive and creative within our ever changing internal and external
environment) are present simultaneously.

So
.here is what I believe the key ingredients are to sustaining the new and
ever renewing after an OST event.

1. Storytelling – intentionally, we have built in time on an on-going basis
for storytelling. Telling of client stories, stories of our work in relation
to our Vision Statement, historical stories, present stories, future
stories – this enables expressions of individuality, imagination, the
promotion of myth.
2. Permission – OST provided the jump off point and during the event
risk-taking can be and was high. But then in getting “back to work”
risk-taking felt scary for some as expressed by people starting to apologize
for their ideas. What worked is what I call being truthful about boundaries,
giving information about chaos, OST, interactive learning organization, and
giving permission that what did not come out as a “given” was completely
open to whatever. When this was realized, fear decreased, creativity and
risk-taking increased, Spirit was enabled, and wonderful stuff happened/is
happening. I’m setting the boundaries as determined by “the givens”. It
should be clear that I refer to things like the laws of the land, the terms
of the contracts we are involved in as an organization, Board Policy.

Although our organizational chart and our operational procedures are set
down, I do not consider them a “given” – if the group agrees – and anyone
can initiate the discussion about any of this with a view to letting go of
the old and making it better.
3.   The “chief” – I agree that the leadership happens everywhere, but it is
essential that
      we do not minimize the very critical role that the chief leader plays.
In looking at the
      key ingredients of the tribal village (circle, marketplace, community
board
) most
      villages have a “well” around which most of the good ideas are
brainstormed even if
      they have previously been discussed in small common-interest groups
and a chief
      by whose very presence they have a reassurance that despite the chaos,
they have
      an anchoring point, a central point to concentrate on, to believe they
are drawing
      energy from (I would like to discuss this point with you).

     Needless to say, control style leadership doesn’t play this role.
Stories of most tribal
     Chiefs, medicine men, etc., usually reflect that they pay a high
personal price in
     fulfilling their role – if they are any good at all. It takes a lot
more personal energy to
     enable things than to control/-conduct things. This is true of my
personal experience-
     being “present” and being “true” over the long haul is very difficult.
For me to achieve
     and sustain this I must be very intentional about building in for me
what nurtures my
     Spirit. My life experiences and learning and my faith commitment have
taught me
     How to do this. I believe that for an Organization to sustain Spirit,
supporting the
     “chief” to sustain his/her Spirit is the most essential ingredient.

4. Spirit – needed to articulate what is meant. Became part of the
organization’s life to
talk about Spirit with some common understanding of what it means. This has
been interesting for us. When we first talked about Spirit, because we are a
church based organization, people thought we were going “churchy” on them
which really offended some. We needed to work through this, and, it in fact
is many of those who thought they wanted nothing to do with Spirit (as in
Holy Spirit by their definition) who embrace Spirit the most. It was also
interesting for me that my friends in Quebec don’t have a direct translation
for Spirit of an organization so we came up with a list of words which, when
translated, mean vitality, pursuit of an ideal, dynamism (human energy), the
creation of opportunity to express fears/desires, inspiration—to be
inspired. Each has its own nuance thus each setting a different framework
for theory.

5. Chaos – again we needed to articulate it before we could celebrate it and
use it.
Needed to recognize the difference between chaos and disorganization. Needed
to explore whether there was a difference between individual chaos and
organizational chaos. In individual chaos, a person seeks meaning for their
life. It was agreed that in the organization, it was the meaning as
identified that keeps driving the organization through productive use of the
chaos and that this meaning is fostered by critical people in the
organization (keepers of the vision).

6.  Language – we found that different people in the organization, because
of the type of
     job or level in the hierarchy, made many assumptions/mis-communications
because
     we didn’t take the time to teach each other our “language”. Most
notable were
     differences in the language of senior staff because it kept referring
to the global
     picture, supervisory staff who dealt with goals, objectives and meeting
them, and
     front-line staff who talked about what faced them minute-by-minute. We
all still are
     passionate about different things based on our role but we’ve tried to
teach each
     other our language.

     We recognized that decisions need to happen at faster speeds if we are
to be
     responsive, adaptable – so we need to understand each other.

7. Framing/Setting the Context -  when using “Open Space” in an on-going
business
context, recognize that the time/space context is forever shifting for the
whole
organization to say nothing of the component parts. All of this must be as
intentional
as that which you do when you are setting the context for an OST event. I
know this
is essential. I know I’m doing it with intent, because it is this which
drains me – but I
can’t yet state how its done.

8. Different  Personalities – it is my assumption that all personalities can
participate in
an OST event and have input and be affected by it. However, within an
organization,
when working with the same people, differing personalities can greatly
affect the life/Spirit of the organization.

Even though people might be excited after an OST event, some will enable the
organization to move forward while others will attempt to stop it from doing
so (even in the guise of being helpful – the good intention stuff). This is
effected greatly by how different personality types handle fears and desires
i.e., desire for power. It is my belief and experience that an understanding
of personality types, through any of the current studies like Myers-Briggs
or Enneagram (which I prefer), is essential. It is essential for the leader
to understand the different types especially his/her own because it can
greatly affect how he/she operates in an enabling role instead of seeing
someone else as a blocker (enemy). It is also useful for all persons in an
organization to have some understanding and celebrating of different
personality types. This diffuses “blocking” and helps people maximize their
own potential.

9. Appropriate Structure – it is true that form follows function, but I have
found that in
organizations where people focus on concensus decision making, shared power,
putting all their energies into “process” – the organizations eventually are
filled with conflict and dysfunction. It is not politically correct to say
this, but I rather suspect it is because these organizations are not built
on truth – some members are hungry for power and control, but won’t say so,
others have their “secret agenda” in their breast pocket, but won’t clearly
put it on the table. In an organization, most power is with the senior staff
person, even in that this person has power to hire and fire – so the senior
staff person must claim their power (women have a hard time doing this) and
use it wisely and well. For me, this translated into acknowledging that we
do and must have a hierarchical structure for some purposes – formal
responsibility, accountability, authority, formal communication, which, at
the same time, having/growing appropriate structure for the actual work of
the organization to take place. Both support the other, enable the other,
and both are essential and interface with each other.

10. Assumptions – whenever tension seems high, or we are “spinning our
wheels” it has
become essential to check our assumptions using a variety of techniques that
are quick. It is amazing what turns up and then amazing how we can use this
to set the context for an “Open Space Event”.


Conclusion: Different organizations have different skill levels and/or
desires to move forward from an OST event to real and sustained new life as
an organization. It was useful for me to have people to talk to who
understood all of this stuff when I became confused. Sometimes my energy
sags, my confidence shrivels, etc., etc. Iwhat seemed to get me beyond this
was being able to (with others) label what was happening and to nurture my
own Spirit. I am sure the same would be true for others leading
organizations on whatever scale, that want them to move forward.

A role that you might consider might be to do many more events as you did at
Five Oaks so that a network of people who are
interested/learning/experimenting can be further developed and sustained.
Those who are interested could make a further commitment to supporting those
organizations who have gone through an OST event to going through on-going
change. This would likely take the form of contractual work with focus on
support of the leader of the organization by being available in the context
of organizational change, and assist the leader in developing a strategy. It
is my assumption that the strategy would include some of the elements listed
in 1-10 above.

So
these were my thoughts. Its how I work and my attempt to look at what is
working for my organization. If any of this interests you, I would enjoy the
discussion.

Sincerely,

Birgitt Bolton
Executive Director
Wesley Urban Ministries

cc: Larry Peterson

BB/kc

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