Open Space Technology as an event or as an intervention (long)

[Birgitt Williams]

Dear friends and colleagues on the OS list,

There has been a lot of keen interest in signing up for the second annual
"train the trainer" in the Genuine Contact program, with most of the spots
for 2002 and some for 2003 spoken for. Many of those who signed up are
interested in learning our program of Working With Open Space Technology
which focuses on an Open Space Technology meeting as an intervention rather
than an event. The Genuine Contact program was developed over about a decade
and is a "how" for achieving a sustainable and renewable state of health and
balance in the organization that we call the conscious Open Space
Organization. Working With Open Space Technology is only one component of
the program.  In 2001, our first year for "train the trainer", there were 17
graduates from 5 countries who courageously came to us despite the training
taking place so soon after Sept 11th. Several of them are now leading
trainings.

Within the Genuine Contact program, we teach about the facilitation of Open
Space Technology as  more  about a state of BEING than DOING.

We also teach how to work with this powerful meeting methodology in a way
that maximizes benefits for the organization so that the meeting is used as
a powerful intervention in the ongoing life of the organization.  The
facilitation of the meeting itself is non-intervening. How the meeting is
used is the intervention.

We teach about standards for Working With Open Space Technology that are
duplicable (see below where I elaborate on this).

We authorize graduates to train others in the Genuine Contact program and to
co-create with us (again see below). This includes training others in
Working With Open Space Technology which has a broader scope than training
in facilitation (as noted above). When we do this, we speak about Open Space
Technology as developed by Harrison Owen, and we speak about the standards
we use when working with Open Space Technology through the Genuine Contact
program so that we have a standardized approach for the benefit of clients.
This is our way of working from our belief that over time, a standardized
and duplicable approach to Working With Open Space Technology will enhance
credibility. Simultaneously, each person's unique gifts are honored.

I have received a flurry of e-mails with questions and I choose to address
my responses to the whole list. I thank you for the questions and the
interest in understanding more.

The fundamental beliefs in working with the Genuine Contact program are
1.      Spirit is all that is.
2.      All organisms have within them the blueprint for health. An organization
is a living organism.
3.      Focusing on genuine contact enables individuals and organizations to
achieve health and balance and to experience our connection with all that
is.

Key concepts supporting these fundamental beliefs and the development of the
Genuine Contact program are
1. Opportunities for genuine contact begin with the courage to be in genuine
contact with the self and extend into all relationships.
2.Work of, with, from, and to Spirit can be experienced as a harmonic
resonance that can be facilitated, beginning with establishing the harmonic
resonance within the self as the facilitator. This requires discipline in a
state of BEING in this harmonic resonance as the key work for the
facilitator. In doing so, we work with healing energy, drawing from
knowledge in the healing arts.
3. We work with the blueprint for health in the organism (the individual
and/or the organization) by attending to Balance, cleansing, and nourishing.
4. We use meetings as a catalyst to assisting the organization attain a
state of health and balance. The two meeting methodologies used are Open
Space Technology developed by Harrison Owen of Potomac, Maryland, USA and
Whole Person Process Facilitation developed by Birgitt Williams of Raleigh,
North Carolina, USA. Both meeting methodologies are highly participative,
within a boundary established by predetermined "givens".   Within Open Space
Technology, a harmonic frequency is held for people to make life nurturing
choices from amongst agenda items within a particular theme and givens.
Whole Person Process Facilitation was developed by Birgitt Williams to
complement Working With Open Space Technology as a meeting methodology
equally as participative, with similar values, and yet serving the
organization when a process as open as Open Space Technology is not
appropriate to the agenda and circumstance. Within Whole Person Process
Facilitation, a harmonic frequency is held for people to make life nurturing
choices based on what is presented to them to solve within a particular
topic and within stated givens. The topics are predetermined, thereby
offering a more obviously structured agenda than Open Space Technology.
5. We work with Open Space Technology and Whole Person Process Facilitation
as interventions that enable health and balance in the ongoing life of the
organization. We recognize these meeting processes as powerful and impactful
in the ongoing life of the organization, therefore we attend carefully to
both the pre-work (before a meeting) and the debrief work (after the
meeting).
6. We recognize that everyone facilitating and leading using the Genuine
Contact program will do so with their own unique style and experience.
However, it is also necessary to guarantee to organizations who bring this
Program into the organization that they are receiving consistency with the
component parts and/or their development as a conscious Open Space
Organization. Clients are entitled to assurance that when they engage in any
or all of the components of the Genuine Contact program, that the components
and the whole program maintain the integrity of what is offered through the
Genuine Contact program. Within the Genuine Contact  program, the component
parts are standardized so that they can be easily duplicated and so that
when a client pays for one of the components to be used in the organization,
the client is guaranteed of a certain standard.
7.We invite consultants to attend the five components of training of the
Genuine Contact program to become authorized to take the full program
"in-house" to assist organizations in their transformation. Graduates of the
“train the trainer” will train people within the organization in the
component parts of the Genuine Contact program so that those authorized
through this process in turn will train ever widening circles of people
within the organization. Anyone trained as a trainer can offer the complete
program and authorize those graduating in turn to train in the Genuine
Contact program, using the outline they learn from Dalar International so
that there is consistency and duplicability.
8. Persons completing their training in the Genuine Contact program are
invited to become co-creators of the program as it evolves and develops
through time, using a list serve and annual professional development
gatherings as the venues for the co-creation.
9. Every year, new graduates will join the growing organization of
co-creators of the Genuine Contact program. All "trainers" will have the
opportunity to “walk their talk” as an interconnected conscious Open Space
Organization in how they co-create the program always incorporating the full
participation of the newest graduates.  Birgitt and Ward Williams
established minimal "givens" for the Genuine Contact program and on
September 21st of 2001 invited the graduating "trainers" to participate in
ongoing conscious Open Space within the theme of developing the program and
within the following five Givens: 1. the 3 foundational beliefs as noted
above 2. Requirement to use the Workbooks developed by Birgitt and Ward
Williams  3. there are 7 components of the Genuine Contact program (see
www.genuinecontact.com for more information.

My overall goal is to have the Genuine Contact program make a real
difference in the world. I believe that we each have a sacred trust with
Spirit to attend to personal health and balance and to grow and evolve.
There are many practices and vehicles available to attend to personal health
and balance. I believe that when we gather in collectives (organizations),
the organization is a vehicle to assist in our growth and evolution. I
believe that we have a sacred trust with Spirit to attend to our collective
health and balance and our collective growth and evolution. There are not
yet many vehicles to assist collectives (organizations) to work at this. The
Genuine Contact program is one of them.

I am indebted to Harrison Owen, creator of Open Space Technology for his
work and teaching. Taking his work and my other experiences and learnings
and developing something from it all that can assist growth and development
is my expression of both compliment and gratitude to Harrison and to my
other teachers, guides, and mentors and honors who I am.

As a participant in one of the Advanced workshops said, "I came to find out
how you had messed up Open Space Technology by adding to it. I found instead
that you have incorrectly named this course. It should be called Deep Work
with Open Space Technology rather than Advanced. You have not added anything
to its simplicity. Instead, you take us deeper into it".

Respectfully,
Birgitt Williams
www.genuinecontact.com
"It is time to lead organizations as though Spirit matters and people are
precious. Organizations incorporating these values have tangible
results."--Birgitt Williams

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