my story of the Open Space Organization part 3 of 4

[Birgitt Williams]

Dear Colleagues and Friends in Open Space,
following is the third of my four part story regarding the Open Space
Organization. This one focuses on what I have learned between 1995 and 2000,
culminating in the development of the current training program that we have
called the Genuine Contact Program. I share this story including my
learnings in the hope that you find something useful in it. I beleive there
is enough information for you to find your way with the Open Space
Organization, based on your own experience with Open Space Technology. Of
course, I would be pleased if you came and learned with us in one of our
programs in the world. We have been meeting wonderful people around the
world who go forward from our workshops doing their own pioneering work. And
the world certainly needs a lot of this type of work. I have a great great
love of leading these workshops and encouraging and mentoring wonderful
consultants and leaders.

Birgitt Williams

My Evolving Work with the Open Space Organization 1995-2000

The next stages in my experience with the Open Space Organization, now in my
work as a consultant to organizations, were guided by three questions:

What is the Open Space Organization?
Why is the Open Space Organization important to the evolution of humankind,
or is it?
What is my personal purpose within this world work within the context of the
Divine Operating Plan (God's plan)?

In telling this story, I am not interested in converting anyone to my
beliefs. I am sharing where I have been, what is important to me, and what I
have learned. The learning continues. Others, who so wish, will create their
own journey with the Open Space Organization. It is my wish to be as
truthful as I can be in my current understanding of the Open Space
Organization and of myself. In expressing myself as clearly as I can, anyone
who chooses to join me in this journey is informed about why I teach what I
teach, why I work as I do, and what I hope to contribute as my service in
the world.

When I relate this story of my evolving work with the Open Space
Organization, it is deeply interwoven with my evolution as a person. I
believe that truth is revealed to us only when we are able to handle the
truth. This requires personal evolution and growth, the willingness to
change, the willingness to pay attention and examine what is before us, and
the willingness to seek truth and face it when it appears. For me, my story
of my evolution is closely woven with the evolution within the organizations
and individuals I work with.

The following poem by David Whyte, from his book Fire in the Earth,
expresses for me what I am saying here and my choice to tell the story of
where I stand, with passion and love for humans, for collectives of humans,
for our earth, and for God.  The poem is called Self Portrait.

It doesn't interest me if there is one God or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned.
If you can know despair or see it in others.
I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need
to change you.
If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand.
I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence
of love and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in THAT fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.





My Beliefs

The following beliefs effect all work that I do, and my state of BEING in
the world.

I believe that all individuals at this time are at a time in their evolution
where there will be recognition that the critical work as an individual is
to BE which requires awareness of self that is genuine and that individuals
are coming to a recognition that this is as important as what the individual
DOES.

I believe that each and every person is precious, that we are all unique
individuals and we are all also connected at unseen levels with all of
Creation. Whatever each of us does as an individual affects all of creation.

I believe that the current collective paradigm emphasizes the return of
responsibility to looking after our personal health. I believe there is a
return in our collective consciousness of responsibility to looking after
the earth, a return to recognizing that Spirit is in all matter and that we
need to find a different way of conducting our lives and our organizations.

I believe that individuals are at a time in evolution in which it is
imperative that individuals learn to manage their personal energy by
becoming aware of it and aware of the relationship between personal energy
and optimum health; personal energy and the relationship of the individual
with all of creation through understanding energy and energy work.

I believe that organizations are at a time in their evolution of recognizing
the importance of the humans within them and recognizing that people are to
be worked with as being precious and that Spirit connects us all and
simultaneously organizations will achieve success beyond current
expectations. Working with people as precious and leading organizations as
though Spirit matters is compatible with success, not opposed to it.

I believe that we each must take responsibility for whatever we create and I
believe we co-create with God/Spirit. For me, when I am in-spired (Spirit
moving within me), I am clear that Spirit is working through me and I also
take responsibility for what emerges in the process. I am always given the
choice of what I want to do with my in-spiration. I have free will to create
as an individual. I use my free will to create what is for my highest good
and highest joy and simultaneously what is for greater good of all of
creation, to the best of my current ability to discern this.

I believe that there is a blueprint in every cell of every human that has
all of the information of the laws of the universe and that we are not so
much needing to find new information, but to remember and access what we
already know.

I believe that as humans we continue to evolve to higher consciousness.
Through higher consciousness we will find freedom. At present, I see this as
freedom to move beyond our addictions as individuals and as a collective,
including freedom from addictions to fear. I believe that addiction to fear
is the largest barrier to overcome in our evolution.

I believe that our greatest growth is found in our relationships: our
relationship to self, our relationship to one other, our relationship to a
collective of people (an organization), our relationship to the earth, and
our relationship with Spirit within all.

For me, it is important to be on a quest with my questions, to probe and
experience and experiment until I find my way and until I am satisfied. I
recognize whenever I reach a place of personal satisfaction with the truth
that I seek, when I experience a deep inner peace and harmony, that I am on
a path that is right for me to fulfill my purpose here on this earth at this
time in my evolution.

All Organizations are Open Space Organizations, yet only some want to work
in this way at this time
I continue to believe that all organizations are Open Space Organizations
and that when the Open Space Organization is not visible, it is simply a
matter of too much stuff (structure, processes, busy work) in the way. I
continue to believe that all organizations are capable of becoming
intentional Open Space Organizations at some time in their evolution.
However, not all organizations are willing to work as an Open Space
Organization at this time in their evolution.
Initially, I was perplexed by this. I would meet with executives who had
said that they wanted a higher performing organization. The most frequent
comments about troubles in their organizations were "I can't get my people
to accept their responsibility", "staff morale here needs to be improved",
"communication needs to be improved". In various ways, and quite often by
holding an initial 2-3 day Open Space Technology meeting to develop vision
and strategic plans, we would explore what the potential in the organization
seemed to be. I had countless numbers of conversations in which the
executives would say "we understand that this way of working would take us
to real success. We are just not ready yet." The first few times I heard
this, I was in disbelief. What part of success and health where they not
ready for?  I kept my question to myself. None of these executives who saw
that success was possible and stated their unpreparedness at this time to
work with this, have been in contact with me again.
As I reflected about this, sipping my coffee, I looked at the coffee, which
I know is not good for my health, and I looked at my husband sipping his
coffee and smoking a cigarette, and I realized the executives of these
organizations were no different from us. We, Ward and I, know that coffee
and smoking tobacco are not good for us. And yet, I am not yet ready to give
up coffee and my husband is not yet ready to give up either coffee or
tobacco. We, each of us, may never choose to be ready to take that step
towards our health and well being. The organizations are not yet ready to
give up their addictions either, even when they know that there is a way to
be healthier.
Today, when I hear the stories "we are not ready yet", I have compassion,
and hope that they will be ready one day.

Reclaiming the organization as an Open Space Organization, an interconnected
learning organization, requires working with the will to change and the will
to be healthy. It is about recognizing that change is a constant, not a
destination and that change management is an oxymoron. Success in working
with change is dependent on building the capacity of individuals and of the
organization to navigate with change. At the level of the individual,
capacity can be enhanced through meditation and yoga. At the level of the
organization, capacity can be enhanced through conducting meetings through
the use of Open Space Technology and working as an Open Space Organization.
Neither Open Space Technology nor the Open Space Organization is a
destination.

>From time to time, I come upon executives who want a healthy organization,
who want to tap into the wisdom and potential of their workforce, who want a
nutrient environment for the workforce, and who strive for success even
beyond their expectations. In every such situation that I was part of, the
decision to become an Open Space Organization, sometimes referred to as an
interconnected learning organization, emerged immediately following an Open
Space Technology meeting in their organizations. The Open Space Technology
meeting in every case was a powerful experience for these leaders to see
what was possible. I always end every Open Space Technology meeting with a
framework that allows for action/reflection learning about what was
experienced during the meeting regarding leadership, vision, community, and
management. Use of this framework is described in Open Space Technology: a
user's guide by Harrison Owen. I have always seen it as a critical element
in maximizing what happens in the organization following an Open Space
Technology meeting. The second key ingredient in opening space for the
conversation about the Open Space Organization to take place is to hold a
debrief meeting with the executives following the Open Space Technology
meeting. I attend to this meeting whenever I agree to facilitate an Open
Space Technology meeting for an organization about the future of the
organization.

Perspectives that are common among organizations that want to work as Open
Space Organizations
I have learned that organizations that are ready NOW to work as an Open
Space Organization have some common perspectives in what they value within
the senior management team. Now, when I am in discussions with an
organization about working as an Open Space Organization, I explore with the
executives whether these values fit their values.
1. They value whole systems thinking and understand that the organization is
not a "closed system" but is an "open system" subject to constant change and
interaction with the environment in which it operates. You want your
organization to be flexible, allowing it to navigate with change and chaos,
and to flourish as a result of navigating the changes and chaos for
increasing organizational success.
2. They value the importance of a learning organization capable of achieving
success today and for the long term. You want to implement a learning
organization that continually builds the capacity, skills and knowledge in
both individuals and in the organization as a whole for ongoing
organizational effectiveness.
3. They value utilizing the best people for the job and you want to achieve
success by fully tapping into the potential of the individuals of the
organization.
4. They value the power of well functioning teams for getting the right
results in the right timing to take advantage of opportunities as they are
created. You want to develop well functioning work teams to handle day to
day work and you want to develop cross functional teams that excel in
assessing and overcoming performance challenges.
5. They are prepared to create a nutrient environment for your organization
to flourish. You want to create an environment in which individuals empower
themselves to get the job done within a clear framework of parameters that
are understood throughout the organization. You also want to create a
nutrient environment in which your staff really participate in finding and
implementing solutions to greater and greater levels of effectiveness in
achieving outcomes.
6. They value a healthy organization that produces results and yet is a
healthy environment for those who are involved to grow, flourish, and
evolve. You want to work towards organizational health and sustain a healthy
organization for high productivity, high learning, and the growth and
evolution of your people.

Consistent Tangible Results

In all organizations that we have worked with as Open Space Organizations,
the following tangible results are common:

? Breakthrough learning
? Appropriate structure
? Genuine community and effective communication
? High morale
? Spirited performance
? Engaged involvement
? High efficiency
? High productivity
? Shared leadership
? Shared vision
? Clear purpose
? Growth from within
? Elimination of barriers to doing a job quickly with excellence and pride
? Increased creativity
? Sustainable and renewable organizational health and balance from a
holistic health perspective
? energy released for further successes
? An organization that navigates with change and takes advantage of the
opportunities that change brings, quickly (change is a constant in the
world)
? A workplace or organization where the human being flourishes

As A Consultant I Worked from Clear Intention

As a consultant, I worked to clarify my motivation for why I was doing the
work that I was doing with organizations that wanted what they had
experienced in the Open Space Technology meeting to become part of their
daily life as an organization.

The conclusions that I arrived at from the work I did to clarify my
motivation was 1. to discard my attachment to outcome
2. to recognize that there was NO MODEL that was the Open Space Organization
and the attempt to develop a MODEL was antithetical to the Open Space
Organization as already present and organic
3. to recognize that no two Open Space Organizations were likely to be
duplicates of each other
4. to recognize that the organizations themselves might not be aware of
themselves as Open Space Organizations by that name and that it didn't
matter
5. that the evolution (or devolution) to an Open Space Organization must be
from the inside out, with minimal external consultant involvement if any
external consultant involvement was even desired by the organization and
6. that my intentions as a consultant must be clear and stated to the
organizations that engage me

In the materials I provide for any organization that I work with, and now on
the www.openspacetechnology.com  website within the write up of the Genuine
Contact Program, I have been clear that my intentions for the work I do with
any organization that engages me are the following:
1. My intention is to provide services to assist with organizational change
and transformation for increasing effectiveness and success. This
organizational change and transformation is to be developed from within the
organization through the wisdom that is present in the organization.
2. My intention is to work in organizations where senior leaders are
committed to the development of balance and health of the organization.
3. It is my intention in all situations that I work in that I provide
minimal external consultant intervention with the emphasis focused on
building the skills for organizational effectiveness in-house for change to
be developed and sustained from within.
4. My intention includes working with the organization as organic, a living
organism. My intention is to work with simplicity in mind, working from the
premise that complex solutions or models are a barrier to organizational
effectiveness and learning, whereas simple means that are easy to use bring
about real organizational effectiveness and learning.
In all of the work that I do with organizational change and transformation,
my intention is to assist the organization work towards achieving:
1. Ability, capacity, and skills to navigate with change and chaos and to
flourish as a result of navigating with change and chaos for increasing
organizational success.
2. Implementation of an interconnected learning organization that
continually builds capacity, skills and knowledge in both individuals and in
the organization as a whole for ongoing organizational effectiveness.
3. Success by fully tapping into the potential of the individuals of the
organization.
4. Well functioning work teams to handle day-to-day work and to develop
cross-functional teams that excel in assessing and overcoming performance
challenges.
5. An environment in which individuals empower themselves to get the job
done within a clear framework of parameters that are understood throughout
the organization.
6. A nutrient environment in which staff really participates in finding and
implementing solutions to greater and greater levels of effectiveness in
achieving outcomes.
7. Organizational health with high productivity, high learning, and the
growth and evolution of the people in the organization.
8. Leadership development.

How I work in the Development of the Open Space Organization

I do preparation work of myself as an individual on an ongoing basis,
committed to my personal growth, evolution and self knowledge. I do not ask
of an organization what I do not ask of myself. I consider preparation to
"hold space" for the organization equal to preparation for "holding space"
for the Open Space Technology meeting. A CEO of a hospital system, who had
spent years working with the materials of the Learning Organization of Peter
Senge, was very interested in the Open Space Organization as he understood
it. He understood that it was a phase beyond Peter Senge's Learning
Organization and he was seeking the next phase. A key question that he had
for me during the interview was "what do you do to prepare yourself?". I
replied that my preparation is in my daily life, and not specifically for
any Open Space Technology meeting or organization. He was satisfied with
this answer, one which fit with what he had hoped for.

I work from my perspective and interpretation of what Open Space Technology
is. In working with the Open Space Organization, I pay attention to
assisting leadership to create the same container for the Open Space
Organization that is created for the Open Space Technology meeting. To do
this, I work with leadership to develop their own perspective and
interpretation of the Open Space Technology meeting. The form is the easier
part to understand including the four principles, the one law, the circle,
passion and responsibility, the givens, the theme, topics, and reports. The
essence is much more difficult, requiring a study and understanding of
energy work.  It requires a reweaving of the concepts of East and West,
spirit and matter, mind and body. The weaving is one that is pro-life and
pro-spirit. It is a weaving of the knowledge within the person, the
knowledge of ancient and modern holistic health, and some understanding of
the evolutionary journey of consciousness to a higher consciousness.
Harrison Owen, in his books, gives introduction to much of this and I
encourage leaders to read his books. I also encourage leaders to read The
Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien for an introduction to universal healing
practices and four archetypal energies (warrior, leader, healer and teacher)
and to listen to audio tapes of Carolyn Myss called Energy Anatomy. Carolyn
Myss takes the listener through a study of energy in the human, what happens
to our personal health when we leak energy, and how to manage personal
energy.  And finally, I encourage leaders to read the I Ching (whatever
version appeals to them from difficult translations from the original
Chinese to simpler translations). The I Ching is considered to be the oldest
book and is the book of changes. Reading through the 64 different life
situations and understanding that all of life is a flow between the
different possibilities and that change is a constant is beneficial for any
leader. These are not the only resources that would be useful and I
encourage leaders to view the bibliography on my website for other
suggestions. It is important that through whatever resources used, that the
leaders understand that there is a lot going on in their organization at the
unseen level. Eventually our discussions become discussions that raise the
idea that "holding space" is the holding of a frequency or a particular
harmonic. I work with leaders to assist them in coming to terms with the
importance of their BEING rather than their DOING, for the holding of space
for the organization in a particular frequency and harmony.

With the executive, I focus on uncovering key ingredients from which an
organization determines what will work for its own unique culture. We
suggest the list of key ingredients that we identified at Wesley Urban
Ministries as noted in part two of this story of the Open Space
Organization:

1. The grief cycle at work promoting understanding and tolerance

All staff are to be introduced to an understanding of the cycle of griefwork
and challenged to view situations within the organization from a perspective
that rather than dealing with "resistance to change", they could be dealing
with a person working through the grief cycle. This is to be used to promote
understanding and tolerance, deferring judgement about others, and working
with the grief cycle intentionally as needed within the organization.

2. Storytelling promoting awareness, collectiveness, empathy, truth

Time is to be taken at regular intervals, every three months or so, for
staff to tell stories. The focus is on stories of the organization, of their
immediate work in the organization or the larger context. Story telling time
is to be  seen as valuable, with all stories-sads, glads, and mads-being
valued. Pictures and other artifacts are to be encouraged to accompany the
story telling.

3. The story of the organization including purpose, values and vision

Time to be taken to achieve great clarity about  purpose, values and vision
throughout the organization. The purpose, values, and vision should be taken
into account during every Policy and Operating decision that is made. All
decisions and actions should ensure congruity with the purpose, values and
vision.


4. The deep essence, working with what is not seen

Time to be taken to assist staff to understand that most of what  really
goes on in the organization is below the level of the visible (behaviors and
actions) and at the levels of emotion, meaning, perception and
interpretation. We started putting more energy to discussing the unseen.

5. Holding as many meetings as possible using Open Space Technology

     From time to time these will be multi-day meetings but most
organizations cannot afford this very often. We encourage frequent four hour
meetings and finding a way to create one big ongoing Open Space Technology
meeting as the operating system.

6. When holding a meeting that is task focused that is not appropriate for
Open Space Technology, we encourage that all other meetings are done with
process and format conducive  to the values inherent in Open Space
Technology including sitting in a circle with no tables, and my preference
of course is to encourage them to use process facilitation involving whole
brain and intuition.

7. Recognizing when a meeting is open for participation or was simply to
provide predetermined direction and information.


When providing predetermined direction and information, we encourage that
the meeting, because it is not  participative not use a participative
meeting format. We encourage that these meetings be kept to a minimum and to
be kept short.


8. Working with chaos by learning about it and navigating with it rather
than trying to manage it.

Time is to be given for discussions within the organization about chaos,
about chaos and change being constant and how to work with it.

9. Formal leadership committed to leading in a different way.

Leadership needs to make time for its own meetings, learning to lead and
manage differently. Middle managers are often fearful that there is no place
for them. There is a place for them, if this is appropriate for the
organization.  A significant way of doing this is to look at managing the
organization in a way that parallels the Open Space Technology meeting,
complete with an ongoing bulletin board and opportunities to attend
discussion sessions that could be set by anyone, based on passion and
responsibility. At the Board level, it is essential that the Board uses a
policy governance model. In our experiences to date, we have found that when
the leadership is not committed to the Open Space Organization, it is not
possible to evolve (devolve) to working in this way.

9. Clarifying "givens" for the organization and clarifying "givens" for each
OST meeting.


Time is to be taken to  discussing the "givens" or limits that are worked
within as an organization. The "givens" are to be pared down to what truly
is a "given" and all staff are to become aware of the "givens" or to
actually be involved in their identification.

10. Bringing the processes and changes to everyone's awareness

Time to be taken to bring processes and changes to everyone's awareness.
Other means of communicating this are also to be found.

11. Organizational lifecycle

Annually, time is to be taken to ensure that structure is  appropriate to
support the spirit of the organization and of achieving the purpose of the
organization. Corrective action that might include removing structure or
increasing structure might be needed.

12. Understanding authority, accountability, and responsibility in a
framework of working with energy from passion and responsibility.

Time needs to be taken for discussions about accountability, authority, and
responsibility to ensure that there is clarity about these while
simultaneously working with passion and capturing maximum energy to move
things forward.


Organizations use only what has meaning for them. These ingredients come
together as an organizational operating system that is right and unique for
the  organization. My friend and colleague Andrew Donovan in Melbourne,
Australia has postulated that this is similar to what an operating system of
a computer does for making the most of the computer. The operating system
for the organization enables the organization to make the most of its
potential.

I provide skill development opportunities to ensure that the skills for
maintaining the operating system are "in-house" with minimal involvement
from me (with occasional calls similar to those in our metaphor of using the
computer's operating system, for tech support). I have narrowed down what is
needed here to 1. four days of training in facilitating Open Space
Technology meetings so that they can facilitate their own and each others
meetings; 2. two days of training in facilitating meetings using whole brain
Process Facilitation to be used for meetings where Open Space Technology is
not appropriate; 3. two days of training in Cross Cultural Conflict
Resolution so that they have a means of assisting with conflict resolution
for situations that arise where individuals or teams identify the desire the
resolution of conflict-this desire is a frequent by-product of Open Space
Technology meetings; and 4. three or four days of training in leading
differently with the Open Space Organization as per our list of key
ingredients.

The "in-house" training is done with the senior managers and any others that
they want to have present. The "in-house" training is done in a way that
provides resources for this initial group to train others within the
organization so that these skills become skills throughout the organization
without the external consultant being necessary.

I continue to work with the framework of the medicine wheel or healing
circle that was originally used at the end of the initial Open Space
Technology meeting. This medicine wheel is used for developing a framework
with the organization that it can use to discover its state of overall
health and balance as an organization. It remains a framework for the
organization to use on an ongoing basis, to identify if it is healthy and in
balance or if it has drifted out of balance. This framework provides the
organization, beginning with the senior leaders but used throughout the
organization, a framework for working with course correction to regain a
state of balance and health. I provide the group with a copy of an article
that Larry Peterson and I wrote that was published in Berrett-Koehler's
bi-monthly journal At Work: Stories of Tomorrow's Workplace Feb 1999. A copy
of the original article is on the www.openspacetechnology.com website in the
section about the Open Space Organization. I have taken the development of
this framework further, with further study of medicine wheels, and use a
slightly different version now with organizations. I begin by working from
the middle of the medicine wheel, working with the purpose of the
organization. Nothing moves forward if the purpose is not clear and it is
amazing how often the purpose is assumed to be clear but then with work, it
is not clear at all. We then go to the north, to examine leadership and
develop corrective action if necessary, the east, to examine and if
necessary develop vision that is clear and focused, the south to examine
community including morale and communications, the west to examine
management and to make a plan for corrective action if necessary, and then
to the cross that connects the wheel, representative of relationships, to
examine clear good relationships. This framework provides invaluable
information and a prescription for corrective action. During the time that
Larry and I worked together, we concluded, based on our experience, that
corrective action needed to be taken in a particular order. This is covered
in the article we wrote. I have since found that beginning with purpose is
essential to developing organizational health.

The final focus I have with the senior leadership team is to take them
through an exercise to establish the "givens" of the organization. I use
whole brain Process Facilitation whenever I do this type of meeting.
Together we determine what really is "given" within the organization, always
paring these "givens" down to their barest minimum to what is truly a
"given" or non-negotiable. This in turn, is the key ingredient to
determining the degree of freedom (space) within the organization. In most
situations, I find this the most difficult of all the work that I do with
the organization. I don't know why, but most senior leadership teams do not
agree on the "givens" easily, and are often not aware of what they are. They
see that this may have been one of their biggest problems in how they lead
the organization, having left their employees with confusing and maybe
contradictory understandings of what was not negotiable-resulting in great
stifling of creativity.

In most cases, all of this work is done during the first year, with
somewhere between thirty and forty days of working with the leadership
group. In between what I have described here, are coaching days as needed.

Sometimes, in a small enough organization (60-100 people) I have done all of
the work I have noted here with the entire staff team. When this was not
possible, we developed a plan to work with bringing all of the staff to
understand the "givens", the freedom to act, and the basics ingredients of
the Open Space Organization that need to be attended to. Sometimes I was
involved with some of this such as facilitating an Open Space Technology
meeting, and most times I was not needed. On one glorious occasion, at the
end of nine months, when the management team was reviewing what they had
done to bring about their transition to a healthy organization, they had a
fairly accurate list and then a question, wondering what my role had been.
Totally present, and totally invisible, a lesson we learn in facilitating
the Open Space Technology meeting.

Circumstances in Which We Have Not Had Success and in Which We Have Had
Success

To date, using the basics as noted above, and always resulting from an
initial Open Space Technology meeting followed by a debriefing discussion,
there have been common circumstances amongst organizations in which our
follow up with development of the Open Space Organization was not
successful. Over the past few years, we have had three opportunities to work
in large organizations in which one large division or department wanted to
develop as an Open Space Organization. The larger organization was not
involved, nor was the leadership at the top of the organization very
supportive. In two organizations, the division/department we worked with
operated as an Open Space Organization within months. In one case, senior
management, despite excellent work from the division, disbanded the division
to become assimilated within the organization elsewhere and fired the
Director. In another organization, head of the department we worked with was
disciplined by the senior manager for the participative format that was not
to be tolerated. The department returned to previous ineffective and
conflict ridden ways of working. And in the last of these three
opportunities, we only got as far as the exercise of determining the
"givens" and then the division head made the decision that it was unwise to
proceed with this within the confines of the larger company.

In the twelve organizations where we worked with the senior management and
the whole organization, we were unsuccessful in six of the twelve. In every
circumstance where we were unsuccessful, something was discovered within the
organization that was the exposing of a lie. In four of these organizations,
the lie was that the leaders said that they wanted a participatory
organization. It seemed that when they discovered that this was truly a
participatory organization, they did not want an organization that they
could not control what arose in the participation. In one circumstance, an
fraudulent situation was uncovered. The leadership who worked with me were
prepared to expose the fraud. They were fired. And in the final organization
where we were unsuccessful, leadership was not prepared to be truthful about
the "givens".

We experienced wonderful success with six of the twelve organizations and
will soon be seeking their assistance to tell their stories in their own
words. Three of these organizations are now in their fourth year of
operating as Open Space Organizations. In two of them, I have had the
opportunity to return annually to assist with some fine tuning.

Added Challenges

It would be much easier to develop an Open Space Organization from the
inception of the organization, rather than working with an organization
where many patterns and actions are already established. I continue to use
the word "devolve" because there is a devolution of many things to create
some space.

It is not necessary to have an external consultant involved in any of this.
Sometimes internal personnel, following the debrief meeting of the initial
Open Space Technology meeting, run with this work on their own. And that is
wonderful. I get calls from these people from time to time, clarifying an
item or two with me. The added challenge for internal personnel is during
the meeting in which the "givens" are established. I have found so much
resistance amongst leadership teams to being honest about the "givens" that
I feel that an internal person would have an almost impossible time of
holding the senior leadership team to speak the truth and come to agreement
about the "givens". I believe that if the "givens" are not done well, the
space is not honestly defined and will cause troubles along the way
regarding reality and expectations.


The Genuine Contact ? Program

I have taken my almost a decade of experience with the Open Space
Organization and captured what I have learned in terms of what seemed to be
essential for this to work. The initial stage of my learning about the Open
Space Organization was evolving an organization that I was CEO of, to an
Open Space Organization. I was then intentional about offering the
opportunity to become an Open Space Organization, an interconnected learning
organization, to every organization for which I did an Open Space Technology
meeting. I was very eager to work with organizations of up to 100 people
because I wanted a smaller size of organization so that I could observe the
progress and results easily.

I then wanted to see if what I had learned was duplicable  based on sharing
key ingredients rather than a model, and based on my understanding that the
change would need to be driven from the inside. After I saw that the
evolution to an Open Space Organization was duplicable, recognizing that no
two Open Space Organizations would be identical, I spent a year figuring out
how to take consultants through a workshop to enable them to work with
organizations as Open Space Organizations. Together with my husband and
partner, we spent the following year fine tuning these workshops and testing
them to see if the learning we desired for people was facilitated through
our workshops. Three of our five workshops have been led by me for many
years. However, only in working together was I able to step back and really
look at how these workshops make up the teaching of what I really do with
organizations.

The result of this is our Genuine Contact? Program with five workshop
components: #1 Working with Open Space Technology (4 days); #2 Working with
Process Facilitation (2 days); #3 Working with Cross Cultural Conflict
Resolution (2 days); #4 The Advanced Program of Open Space Technology
focusing on the Open Space Organization; and #5  Train the Trainer in the
Genuine Contact Program.  Thanks to wonderful colleagues and friends around
the world, we have led workshops in various locations. Our intention is to
provide the first four components so that they can be accessed within
particular geographic locations and those who wish to take only one
component can do so and those who wish to take all four have this available.
The first "Train the Trainer" is going to be held in Raleigh, North
Carolina, in the meeting space in our home Sept 21-24 of 2001. Those who
join us for the entire program will be going out into organizations taking
them through the development of the Open Space Organization as per what we
have described here, using our training materials. These people will
continue this pioneering work.

We see the Genuine Contact ? Program as the vehicle for assisting
organizations become Open Space Organizations, interconnected learning
organizations. We see the Genuine Contact ? Program as the vehicle for
assisting consultants, human resource departments, organizational
development departments, and leaders to learn how to develop their
organizations as Open Space Organizations. We wanted to provide an effective
and quick means for an organization to access the issues that need to be
addressed ; and the solutions that need to be implemented from the
collective genius of the human resources of the organization. The Genuine
Contact ? Program fosters a solution focused organization, achieving results
that surpass expectations, while attending to the provision of a nutrient
environment for the human spirit to flourish, to fulfill its potential, and
to tap into its creativity.  Solutions that come from the collective genius
and passion of the human resources of the organization do achieve
implementation and follow up. The organization is successful in fulfilling
its purpose, making the most of the potential of  human resources, while
attending to business as though God and the human being matter.

*
*
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