[OSList] Certification?

Jeff Aitken r.jeff.aitken at gmail.com
Thu Aug 8 16:16:30 PDT 2013


having been trained by the motley lot who dreamed up this stuff, i can
attest that even that great privilege does not mean that i know much or
should be let near the folks in your organization.

jeff.

On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Peggy Holman <peggy at peggyholman.com> wrote:

> To be certified confused…where do I sign up?
>
> Chris -- thanks for your decidedly clear and unconfused comments on
> certification.
>
> I seem to recall in some past conversation that rather than certification,
> lineage is alternative to the client conundrum of who am I hiring?  To be
> trained by the creator, or by someone who trained with creator, on down the
> line seems to have worked for a variety of practice traditions through the
> ages.
>
> Still no guarantee, as Chris noted below.
>
> appreciatively,
> Peggy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  On Aug 8, 2013, at 10:35 AM, Chris Corrigan <chris at chriscorrigan.com>
> wrote:
>
>  Ohh I love this topic too, because as we go on and on it becomes clearer
> and clearer to me that Harrison's original idea (which predated Open
> Source) was sheer genius.  There is an expression in english: "Closing the
> barn doors after the horse has left."  It's too late to certify people in
> Open Space Technology, and thank God!
>
> You simply cannot certify people as a way to protect the brand and the
> reason is simple.
>
> Certification is based on an industrial quality assurance model  In other
> words, every product leaving the factory is guaranteed to work the way we
> say it is going to work.  If it doesn't you can have your money back and
> we'll give you a new one that works.  Every product can be tested before it
> leaves the factory to be sure it works reliably,
>
> You simply cannot do that with facilitators.  No amount of certification
> will guarantee that a client will get what they want every single time.
>  And a facilitator taking a single training in Open Space or some other
> method will by definition NOT be perfect leaving the factory.  You need to
> develop a practice, and even still there are contexts and situations that
> will challenge and surprise you.  "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" is the only
> certification I can reliably give to anyone that has trained with me.  We
> are not engineers, architects or doctors.  We are people whose skill is in
> responding well to myriad and changing contexts.
>
> The International Association of Facilitators went down this route.  I
> have seen some horrible facilitation done by people who are certified by
> the IAF.  So much so that I have no faith in that certification as standing
> for anything.  It is a worthy idea but it simply cannot be implemented.
>
> Open Space is a brand like brainstorming is a brand, like using markers
> and flipcharts is a brand, like parliamentary procedure is a brand.  In a
> few more decades, with any luck, the world will have forgotten where it all
> came from and it will just become a basic operating system of groups.  In
> the last 10 years that prospect has really come on as people have stolen,
> mashed up, mixed together, modified and redesigned Open Space Technology.
>  Participatory process is becoming an acceptable way of doing things, and
> will only become more so.  Most conference goers for example are now able
> to report on conference evaluations that they would have rather had a world
> cafe or an Open Space than a keynote address.  I see it all the time.
>  There is a fluency in the world with this method and others.
>
> I fundamentally distrust anyone who makes a concerted effort to certify
> Open Space.  If Harrison Owen, the guy that put it all down on paper,
> refuses to do it for excellent reasons, then I wonder what gives anyone
> else the right to do it.
>
> And for me that is a terrific example of how to steward something that
> really has an impact in the world.  Offer it up and let it go and only
> defend it from those that would try to own it.  Thankfully Open Space
> Technology I think is at a place in the world where it defies ownership.
>  Anyone who tries it will simply be laughed off the stage.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Kári Gunnarsson <kari.gunnarsson at simnet.is
> > wrote:
>
>> I love the Certification dialogue and I think that the recurrence of
>> the dialogue is necessary. As I have looked around of things that
>> trace there roots to open space or give the impression to be similar
>> is some way. Some of these processes have the Certification hierarchy
>> protecting the Quality of the Brand and the revenues steaming from the
>> property that the brand name is.
>>
>> The hierarchy of the Certification process associated with Brand names
>> is a way to close space and create tension witch in turn will fuel the
>> flow of cash from the people that can pay, excluding the people that
>> can not. It is an exercise in creating a closed system to fuel a
>> business plan. And naturally, any start up consultancy offering some
>> tools will need some flow of cash to pay the phone bill.
>>
>> When I was at Wosonon in Berlin back in 2010, I head one participant
>> saying. "You always have the clients that you deserve".
>>
>> By knowing that the space for clients is well open and the law of
>> mobility is active from them is perhaps a little scary. This scare can
>> be remedied by letting go of the outcome and commit time to prepare to
>> be of more benefit for my future clients.
>>
>> Here I have opened up many lines of thoughts that stay with me when I
>> think about this topic. What I would like to have written down is some
>> sort of vision on how to go about using the open space as a central
>> idea and core philosophy in a practise.
>>
>> On Certification, my vote would go for "no central Certification", but
>> I don't mind that various offspring's of Open Space go ahead and
>> create there own brand name with the associated cash flow headaches
>> and salaried sales staff of Certification trainings in there bid to
>> get a bought with a handsome cash out from lager companies.
>>
>> That said, I would like to see more people get interested in the
>> "boring" methought of meeting, working and begin together called open
>> space.
>>
>> By the way, I am bored to tears by people hearing about open space and
>> begin pissed off by the way open office layout (also called open space
>> in my country) has been ruining there work experiences.
>>
>> This is starting to be a long rant, Ill stop now.
>>
>> With the breeze from Iceland
>> Kári
>>
>>
>> On 8 August 2013 14:50, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>> > Certification (whatever that might mean) seems to be a perennial topic.
>> I
>> > suppose that is understandable, but for myself it is a horrible idea. My
>> > reasons are several. First of all it is too much work. The thought of
>> > developing the criteria, programs, and even worse, “protecting the
>> brand” is
>> > totally exhausting. We’d have to have certifiers to certify the
>> certifiers
>> > and so on ad infinitum. Second reason – Open Space seems to be taking
>> care
>> > of itself. When folks come on with “A little Open Space,” “Sort of Open
>> > Space,” “Modified Open Space,” ... the participants (increasingly)
>> > understand that they aren’t getting the genuine article—and say so. I
>> recall
>> > one instance where a large gentleman stood up in the middle of the
>> “program”
>> > and loudly proclaimed, “This sure ain’t Open Space! I’m out of here.”
>> And he
>> > walked. I guess you could call that “Market Certification.” Best of all
>>  ---
>> > it works all by itself. One more thing not to do!!
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Harrison
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Harrison Owen
>> >
>> > 7808 River Falls Dr.
>> >
>> > Potomac, MD 20854
>> >
>> > USA
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
>> >
>> > Camden, Maine 04843
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Phone 301-365-2093
>> >
>> > (summer)  207-763-3261
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > www.openspaceworld.com
>> >
>> > www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
>> >
>> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
>> OSLIST
>> > Go to:
>> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kári Gunnarsson
>> kari.gunnarsson at simnet.is
>> gsm: +354 8645189
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
>  ---
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Facilitation - Training - Process Design
> Open Space Technology - Art of Hosting
>
> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>
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