when a client hires Open Space Technology, is this what she gets?

Birgitt Williams birgitt at mindspring.com
Mon Sep 11 12:17:12 PDT 2000


Harrison wrote

So am I anti-convergence? Absolutely not -- but I find that the useful
criteria are "context and need." And both change with circumstances. So
what's right? It all depends.

Of course, one solution to the whole dilemma is that "we" (whoever "we" is)
offer some sort of formal certification in OST. But then we would have to
enforce it -- and spend a lot of time bringing the perpetrators of malignant
Open Space to the bar of justice. Actually, I would choose to spend my time
opening good space, and let the folks make their choice. At the end of the
day I suspect that Open Space (Technology) needs lots of Open Space -- and
it will survive -- or
not.************************************************************************
************************************************************************

Harrison,
I smiled. I know how you feel about certification and I of course feel the
same way. And certification doesn't imply competence and so on. And the
words of certification, I have found, mean different things in different
cultures. Nevertheless, as I think about this and put my own energies into
both doing as much good OST work as I can and taking many people through
learning journeys to wrestle with this Open Space Technology, I also wonder
if there couldn't be something that when a client hires Open Space
Technology, that this is actually what he/she gets. I don't see the solution
to this coming from linear thinking and tried and true but ineffective means
such as certification. What I was grasping for came out of what I think of
as a tradition of a medicine man or medicine woman mentoring someone to
learn their art and then taking them through an initiation/ritual to show
the sacredness of the honor and privilege and responsibility now bestowed.
OST, well done, is sacred work. I am opening space here, if anyone is
interested in wondering, creating, and being quite divergent in thinking
about this question that I am raising that I think is a valid one. So, let's
go from a "given" that says no certification, no judge, etc etc etc and see
if there is any interest in exploring this question of maintaining enough
"duplicability" of the "prototype" that is Open Space Technology, that we
are doing something important to maintain its credibility.

When I am handed a recipe for a cake by a trusted friend, I assume she tells
me all of the ingredients so that I can duplicate her creation. After I've
duplicated it several times, I may choose to use "fat free" ingredients
instead of the original recipe. This is fine. I at least made my decision
from a sound starting point. Likewise with OST, I think we owe it to people
who are learning to share the whole recipe. And if we are doing an OST event
that is not including the whole recipe, that we acknowledge this with words,
so that we paint a word picture of other things that are possible.

I think I have the ingredients. Which means, when I am doing an Open Space
Technology meeting inside of an organization, and the topic is about the
future, I would choose the ingredients that include a form of convergence
and intentional action planning. If I am doing an Open Space Technology
meeting, where people are invited for their own learning, maybe because they
intend to write a book and come to do research, I would not build in
convergence and may in fact not even build in the taking of reports for a
book of proceedings. I would however, acknowledge these decisions to the
group so that they know that there is other potential with OST. I would not
want people leaving the OST meeting that was done without reports,
computers, convergence, maybe even no walking the circle --going out and
repeating exactly this and thinking it was OST with all of the deliverables
that we list.

I see part of the answer lying in the story we tell of what OST is, in all
of its glory when we have a gathering of people. I think far too many people
are not getting the full story and then the spread of OST comes from an
incomplete recipe. I would like to see if collectively we have any wisdom
about this. Maybe I am the only one concerned about this. So be it.

For me, whenever I do an OST meeting, I tell the story of what it is with
all of its ingredients when action planning and fine attention to detail are
needed. We might not do it that way at that meeting, because the need is
different. And I have a handout describing OST. I do this because I want to
promote OST in the world by sharing the whole recipe.

Birgitt


Birgitt Williams
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  Harrison


  Harrison Owen
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  Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org

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