learning regarding the evolvement of the Conscious Open Space Organization through the Genuine Contact program workshops

Birgitt Williams birgitt at dalarinternational.com
Sun Jul 30 12:14:08 PDT 2006


Years ago, we developed the Genuine Contact program to assist leaders
and consultants work with the Conscious Open Space Organization (COSO)
which has its primary root in the application of Open Space
Technology
.but lasts as the way of getting work done in the
organization. My own teachers in this work to whom I am most grateful
included some wonderful psychology professors at McMaster University in
Canada, Harrison Owen from whom I learned facilitation of OST; Marge
Dennis from whom I learned fundamentals of process facilitation; and
Angeles Arrien from whom I learned The Four Fold Way; my four children;
and the staff of about 80 people for whose performance I was accountable
during the period that I was learning how to apply the basics of OST on
a daily basis in our organization. Neither my children nor my staff let
me get away with anything that wasn’t true to the essence of a COSO both
in how we led our organization and our family. Actually, my oldest
daughter says that our family was led as a COSO before I ever knew about
OST. I take that as a big compliment. 
 
The COSO cannot rely totally on OST meetings. It requires a blending of
methodologies including OST and Whole Person Process Facilitation, as
well as use of AI and World Café. There is great joy in working with the
development of a newly forming organization as a COSO. This relies on
tapping into great creative energy, paying attention to the flow of
Spirit. For me, as a consultant, the challenge of a new organization is
in both keeping enough space open and simultaneously having the courage
to authentically define where the space is closed, even if it doesn’t
feel safe to identify that some of the space is closed. There is always
closed space and identifying it assists in identifying where the space
for creativity, innovation and decision making is truly open. 
 
Then there is the challenge of assisting an existing organization
complete with all its over bureaucracy, in devolving what needs to be
devolved, and evolving what needs to be evolved to emerge itself as a
COSO. There is always open space but finding it and then sustaining it
can be challenging.  Organizations, just like people, have a default
setting that they tend to revert back to when the transformation process
hits rough spots. It is kind of like the computer, when chaos reigns,
going back to its default settings. And usually,  when the pain is its
most intense, the organization is just about to leave its old patterns
behind and fully claim itself as a COSO with authentic space open for
people to really get on with their jobs.
 
Anyway, we developed the Genuine Contact program to assist in this work
and spend most of the year teaching this work inside of organizations.
We ourselves as the developers of this program hold public workshops of
this program only once a year
annually in September. Thanks to those of
you who registered for the workshops this September in Raleigh, the
workshops are now full. We are now taking registrations for Sept 2007.
And of course there are other options in that there are a number of
great trainers about this work in the world (HYPERLINK
"http://www.genuinecontact.net/"www.genuinecontact.net) . Remember, if
you can understand the Open Space Technology meeting, you can understand
the Conscious Open Space Organization. 
 
Birgitt Williams

 

-- 
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.3/395 - Release Date:
7/21/2006
 
  

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20060730/7b493309/attachment-0007.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list