[OSList] the Conscious Open Space Organization revisited and renamed

[Birgitt Williams]

Dear friends and colleagues,

This morning I was thinking of Anne Stadler, a dear friend who has mentored
several of us to follow our passion. I fondly remember a number of
gatherings in her living room in Seattle, Washington that included fabulous
people. She held (and likely still holds) what used to be the 'salon',
intended for engagement and emergence of great ideas when interesting people
come together. One of those things I know and appreciate about Anne.she
likes people who she deems as interesting. In those days in the early
1990's, there was a lot of thought and inspiration about how to move OST
into the world. There was also a lot of thought exchanged based on my
experimentation with what I came to call the first intentional Conscious
Open Space Organization. Information of my journey with the Conscious Open
Space Organization is archived on this list in my posts as Birgitt Bolton
and Birgitt Williams, so no need to get into that incredible journey here.
Suffice it to say that concepts such as using 'givens' in organizations that
make frequent use of OST meetings in the organization emerged, rapidly,
thanks to my very insightful staff who were, as far as I know, the first
staff group who were in frequent OST meetings as part of our daily life as
an organization. We learned a lot and I shared a lot with this community.
Other activities emerged from those great conversations in Anne's living
room.Peggy Holman was the one person I remember as always there too.included
the formation of the Open Space Institute model, with a focus on what we
needed to do in Canada as different than what was needed in the USA. And
another outcome was the Spirited Work group, which became an incubator group
that met at Whidbey Institute, out of which emerged incredible creations
including the inspiration for Peggy's book Engaging Emergence. They are
having another gathering
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=969890 .

 

I wanted to report to this list the current learning and status of the
Conscious Open Space Organization. The basics, as described over time, are
still the same. The name changed in 2009, as agreed upon by the co-owners of
the Genuine Contact program. As a community of professionals who work with
the Genuine Contact program, we were invested in the Conscious Open Space
Organization, its use and its development.and so to change the name required
a community decision.  I initiated the Conscious Open Space Organization and
so I felt inspired to be the one to identify that the name was causing us
problems and that we needed a different name. The Conscious Open Space
Organization includes a number of key ingredients, framed by a liberating
structure and a participatory architecture requiring a culture of
leadership. There is structure with clear distinction between what is open
and what is not open to change, keeping the latter to a minimum. These
organizations make frequent use of OST and other participatory meeting
methods.

 

What I proposed and what was agreed to was the change of the name from
Conscious Open Space Organization to Genuine Contact Organization. Here is
why.

 

Originally, I had created the name 'Conscious Open Space Organization'
because the way of understanding the Conscious Open Space Organization is to
understand both the form and essence of a singular Open Space Technology
meeting.in other words, they are quite linked. I am now taking the
leadership of recommending the name change because while the community of
people who work with Open Space Technology might understand what is intended
with the Conscious Open Space Organization, we have found that with our
client groups, there is mis-understanding. We have had a serious situation
in which staff of a client organization assumed that everything within a
Conscious Open Space Organization became open and when they discovered that
some space was still closed by senior management, many bad feelings emerged.
The real purpose of 'Conscious' Open Space Organization was to understand at
an organization wide level what is open and what is closed, so that the
energy is not wasted on what is closed. And so, I am no longer feeling that
the name 'Conscious Open Space Organization' serves our clients well. When I
analyzed this further, it became clear to me that what the space is being
opened for results in genuine contact in the way that we do it, and so it
seems more accurate at this time to shift beyond what was determined
historically by me, and to move on to something that seems to be more
accurate after working with this for some twelve years.

 

We have had an interesting journey with what is now called the Genuine
Contact Organization (GCO). The beginning point of becoming a GCO in any
organization is a single OST meeting, and then a real desire by senior
leadership to lead their organization in such a way that the high quality
and quantity of the OST meeting and its results is experienced on a daily
basis in the organization even when not in an OST meeting. And indeed,
people experience genuine contact with self, with each other, and with the
collective (whole).

 

Birgitt

 

 

Birgitt Williams

President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy
<http://www.dalarinternational.com> 
Author, The Genuine Contact Way <http://www.genuinecontactway.com> 

919-522-7750

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