the intentional Conscious Open Space Organization

[Birgitt Williams]

Dear friends,
We are preparing for our annual September Genuine Contact series of
workshops here in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA with a lot of excitement. The
focus of the Genuine Contact series is to develop the skills and capacity
for working with the intentional Conscious Open Space Organization.
Participants report back to us that they also learn how to engage in their
personal development as conscious open space organizations. I personally
think this is the root of doing this work well--to do just as Ghandi said
and that is to BE the change you want to see in the world.

Below my signature, please find a description of the intentional Conscious
Open Space Organization that is a way of describing this to clients who have
never heard of Open Space Technology. It is much much easier to explain it
to people who have had at least one experience of an OST meeting. And
indeed, when we are working to develop the intentional Conscious Open Space
Organization, we always begin with a multi-day OST meeting. For those of you
involved in Appreciative Inquiry or World Cafe, please note that both
methods are amongst the tools that assist in the development of the
Conscious Open Space Organization.

If you cannot take the whole workshop series in a row, and if you already
have had some form of OST training, consider coming to our Advanced OST
training focusing on the Conscious Open Space Organization (Sept 10-13).
Blessings to you all, Birgitt

What is a major Challenge Today for Organizations?

On an ongoing basis organizations today need to find solutions to complex
problems in a very short period of time and then to have rapid
implementation of the solution throughout the organization. They need to
increase their capacity to navigate with change and take advantage of
opportunities as they arise.

Are you working at peak effectiveness and efficiency as an inspired
organization?



Your organization has vast resources and strengths, only some of which are
being utilized. Your organization already has great potential,
possibilities, wisdom from intellectual and intuitive knowledge; self
managed work and work/project teams, inspiration, creativity and solutions.

If your organization is like most, over time, barriers emerged that
minimized your ability to access your vast resources and strengths. Today,
you are not achieving maximum benefit from your vast resources. It is
difficult to see and experience the organization that lies just beneath
these barriers. We assure you that it is there and ready to be tapped into.
We refer to this organization that is just beneath these barriers as the
Open Space Organization. Beneath the barriers is an inspired organization
waiting to operate with full capacity and potential.



Do you want to consistently access your vast resources over the long-term
for optimal performance?



To consistently access your vast resources over time will require the
re-creation of a healthy and balanced foundation. You must be willing to
work as though Spirit matters and that people are precious. You must be
willing to create the space needed for Spirit to do its work and for the
people to develop mastery over their work. You must be willing to do what it
takes to achieve optimal health. Optimal health includes removing barriers,
nurturing strengths and resources, and maintaining balance for it all to
keep working successfully over the long term. We call the resulting
organization, a Conscious Open Space Organization (COSO).



What is the Conscious Open Space Organization?



The COSO is an organization that is alive, aware and chooses to nurture and
strengthen its life for optimal performance. It allows the creation of the
space needed for optimal accessing of its potential, possibilities,
creativity, innovations, imagination, inspiration, insights, solutions,
resolution, commitment, and focused action. It works from its strengths. It
identifies and removes barriers. It sustains health and balance for the
benefit of the organization and the people within it.



What are the benefits of intentionally developing as a Conscious Open Space
Organization?



The COSO is highly successful, fulfilling its purpose, achieving its vision,
and creating emergent conditions and actions for new visions and their
achievement. The COSO gets its business done in an effective and efficient
way, achieving maximum benefit from the intellectual and intuitive knowledge
of the individuals involved and of the collective.

All people within the COSO have the opportunity to achieve mastery of their
work, both the regular tasks/work and individual/collective performance
challenges. This mastery includes accessing intellectual and intuitive
knowledge and the wisdom for applying it. The people have an environment
that supports their individual health and balance, resulting in less sick
time off and better employee retention.







What development work is necessary in intentionally developing as a
Conscious Open Space Organization?



In developing as a COSO, all participants in the organization become aware
of the organization as a COSO that is alive, is organic in nature and is
filled with untapped potential and possibilities. All participants become
involved with developing the organization to have optimal performance
through nurturing life rather than depleting life. Some of the development
work that is necessary includes:

v      How the organization is perceived by those who are involved with it
and how it is consciously developed on an ongoing basis as it evolves and
grows so that it can thrive in changing times. This includes a focus on
health and balance.

v      Identifying what works and how to strengthen it.

v      Identifying what doesn’t work and how to overcome it.

v      Principled leadership leading in the chosen direction.

v      A vision that is clear, focused, and achievable.

v      How the individuals in the organization are perceived, treated,
involved, held accountable, and rewarded.

v      Changing leadership and management functions, including how
authority, accountability and responsibility are carried out throughout the
organization.

v      Changing structure, ensuring that “form follows function”, so that
the structure supports rather than hinders the effective work of the
organization. Structure includes work and communications processes.

v      Regular use of participative meetings. Participative meetings that
are recommended include Open Space Technology, Whole Person Process
Facilitation, Appreciative Inquiry, and World Café. When people cannot
gather in person, use of a highly participative on-line meetings using
software such as OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Conference System



What is involved in becoming a Conscious Open Space Organization?



Readiness: any time is the right time to evolve from an Open Space
Organization to a Conscious Open Space Organization. Your changing
activities however, must always start with an Open Space Technology meeting
to provide you with a window into its vitality and core strengths. This
initial Open Space Technology meeting provides the readiness and participant
support that is needed so that all of the change activities that emerge are
firmly anchored in the shared experience and shared knowledge developed from
the initial Open Space Technology meeting.



Length of time: Initial development as a COSO, no matter what your starting
point, takes about a year. There is no “final destination” and we do not
promise one. A life nurturing rather than life depleting way of operating
emerges, but the evolution and growth are worked on an ongoing basis for the
duration of the life of the organization, if that is what the organization
chooses.

The first year requires the greatest investment of time, especially of the
senior leaders and management team, as the organization breaks free of old
life depleting patterns, behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes. The usual
work of the organization continues through this development phase but the
way that this gets done will change. Providing Staff time for skill
development will need to be allowed for. The amount of time cannot be
predetermined because every situation is different. For most of the staff,
much of the development work can take place within your current times set
aside for meetings.

The activities in subsequent years are part of the new life nurturing way of
organizational life and do not require additional time or resources. In
fact, the new way of working is much more effective and efficient, saving
time and resources.





Steeply hierarchical or flatter organizational structure: every organization
is alive, is organic and is unique. It does not matter if it is steeply
hierarchical or flatter in its organizational structure. Some organizations
require a steeply hierarchical structure to get its work done effectively,
such as Police Departments. Others get their work done more effectively with
flatter structures, such as Advertising Agencies. The amount of space that
can be opened in each organization will differ. No matter how steeply
hierarchical the organization i.e.: the military, there is always space that
can be opened. To the extent that, what can be opened is opened, the
organization has developed as a Conscious Open Space Organization.



Who leads the change: the change must be led from within, by the CEO and
senior leadership team. Senior leadership must be committed to the new way
of operating. Depending on how the organization is structured and how
responsibility for functions has been established, the Human Resources
and/or Organizational Development leaders may, with a mandate from their
CEO, be involved first, to assist and teach the senior leadership team as
well s the rest of the participants.



The external consultant: The senior leadership in the organization can lead
the changes necessary for the development as a Conscious Open Space
Organization without external consulting assistance. This is possible after
the initial Open Space Technology meeting. If the senior leadership team
chooses to lead the changes without external consultant assistance, it is
advisable to hire the consultant for 2 days following the Open Space
Technology meeting to assist in developing the list of key ingredients that
must be attended to. It is also advisable for representatives from the
senior leadership team or designates (human resource or organizational
development specialists) to attend the Organizational Health and Balance
series of workshops for skill and capacity development, and to become
authorized to lead these workshops within the organization. This series of
workshops provides a very positive and effective framework for conversations
within the organization as well as the skills and tools to assist in the
development of and ongoing work as a Conscious Open Space Organization. The
processes, tools, and skills are simple and easy to use and are duplicable
within the organization. The Organizational Health and Balance series of
workshops that feature the Genuine ContactÔ program are available in
different locations in the world and are also available to be brought
“in-house” for your team to do the learning as a team.

There are advantages to engaging an external consultant/mentor to assist in
the development as a Conscious Open Space Organization. The external
consultant has a mentoring job, to assist the internal change leaders in
their own mastery of the process. And, as an objective outsider with
experience and effective skills, the external consultant can assist the
organization to uncover its truth in a way that the internal change leader
cannot do.

Total consultant/mentor time during year one is about 40 days including
mentoring and skill development through workshop leadership. The
consultant/mentor involvement is kept to a minimum. The focus of the
external consultant’s work is on building the skills and capacity “in-house”
for internal leadership and for all who are involved in the organization, to
navigate with change and to work with the true nature of the organization.
Its this true nature that it is alive, organic and unique, filled with great
untapped potential and possibilities. The organization and its leadership
can have ongoing benefit from maintaining a mentoring relationship with the
consultant, involving one to a few days a year, but again, this is optional
and as needed.

Blessings to you and to all with whom you make Genuine Contact,

Birgitt

Birgitt Williams of Dalar International Consultancy
www.dalarinternational.com

View the calendar for upcoming training in the Organizational Health and
Balance series of workshops featuring the Genuine ContactÔ program at
http://www.openspacetechnology.com/training.html

We invite you to join the Genuine Contact list serve at
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact

Contact information for Dalar International Consultancy: Po Box 19373,
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 Raleigh, North Carolina USA
Phone: 919-522-7750     Fax: 919-870-6599

As mentors to leaders and organizations we assist you in going beyond what
has been before. We provide inspirational and practical “how to” guidance
for leaders who want to achieve healthy and balanced organizations to
produce exciting, tangible results for the organization and for its people.
Our approach is holistic, creating a better future by tapping into ancient
wisdom.



We believe that Spirit matters and people are precious. We know that
organizations incorporating these values have exciting, tangible results
including wealth, prosperity, and abundance. These organizations tend to
their health and balance on a daily basis.







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