[OSList] the Conscious Open Space Organization revisited and renamed

Fri Aug 19 09:18:51 PDT 2011

Dear Artur,
Hans-Georg Wicke, CEO of an outfit with some 30 women and man, has used 
os for 10 years (for his own organisation about 12 times, the network 
his org is in about 8 times and in the wider field of his org for 
conferences and trainings maybe another 10 times) and written a chapter 
on his experience and what it did to his organisation, its mission, the 
roles of people in it in "Meine open space Praxis" (see the signature).
Its in German but that is probably no challenge for a portuguese scholar!
Yes, them critters are around.
Have a great day
mmp

On 19.08.2011 13:22, Artur Silva wrote:
> Hello Open Spacers:
> I am still on holiday with bad access to the Internet, but today I came
> to a small village nearby that have an Internet spot, and the post
> bellow got my attention.
> I remember many past discussions in the OSLIST on the concept of "Open
> Space Organization" - OSO (also called at the time "InterActive
> Organization" - name that I never liked, as it can be applied to many
> other things) but never could understand why they should be called
> "Conscious OSO's".
> If I recall well, the main argument it is that all organizations are
> OSO's. I think they are not - many organizations that I know are quite
> "closed"!
> Of course, self-organization (a concept that some of us have
> difficultyin understanding) is everywhere, even in "closed
> organizations". IMHO, that is the reason why, *if the appropriate
> "foundations" **are respected*, an Open Space event is possible… But no
> one calls it a "Conscious Open Space event"...
> So an organization that *regularly uses OS meetings to manage their
> business* can be called an "Open Space Organization". No need for the
> word Conscious, IMHO.
> But this message is quite surprising. Now the Open Space community (that
> is organized mainly around this list) is informed that *a different
> group* has decided to change the name, and - if I understood well -
> there is an implicit suggestion that we all should adopt the new
> designation.
> But, being OST (by decision of its initiator clearly stated in the
> User’s Guide), nor trademarked, neither copyrighted, and having no
> certification process, shall we change for a definition of *a different
> group* that combined OST with other methods and trademarked the result?
> I have continued (and will continue) to use the OSO expression.
> On another hand I have been told that there are many OSO's, or COSO's
> (or even GCO's) but never have been informed of one, that is not a group
> of friends or a NGO, but it is a company or even a department of a
> Public Administration.
> As I continue to try to research if and how an OSO has more learning
> capacities as different types of organizations, I would be grateful if
> someone could give me references that I can quote or, even better, that
> I can contact by mail to make a few questions about their openness and
> their learning processes.
> Best regards
> Artur
> *From:* Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com>
> *To:* 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, August 13, 2011 9:09 PM
> *Subject:* [OSList] the Conscious Open Space Organization revisited and
> renamed
>
> 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
> The Look Lo Res.jpg
> AW104 GCP Logo Yellow w Blue Back.jpgCo-Owner of the Genuine Contact™
> Program <http://www.genuinecontact.net/>
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-- 
"Meine open space Praxis" gibt's druckfrisch und versandkostenfrei beim 
Westkreuz-Verlag!
http://www.westkreuz-verlag.de/buch_s/meine_open_space_praxis.html

Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin
++49 - 30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org