[OSList] Ang.: Certification?

[Chris Weaver]

Hey Chris C!
I think our views are very much in accord.  Great to share the table with
you.  Speaking of "communities of practice" as I referred to in my response
to Artur, the *Art of Hosting* is a group that I have never made the time
to explore directly but have always respected and appreciated from a
distance.  (And speaking of the perceived *value* that can accompany a *name
*, if a potential collaborator ever told me that he/she was active in the
Art of Hosting community, I would immediately feel a level of deepened
trust and assumed shared purpose).  I love how the world of Open Space
includes these constellations of communities, through whose connections
learning and evolution are always happening.  To spend some time studying
the *form *that these various communities of practice take (how, why, with
what results) would be a valuable endeavor some day for somebody :-)
w/Love,
Chris



On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 1:37 PM, Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hiya ,Chris!
>
> I have no trouble with givens as a practice. I learned that from Birgitt
> too although these days i talk about it as working in context. For me it is
> all part of setting the container for the work. In the Art of Hosting
> workshops many of us do we spend a lot of time on design, reasoning that
> the methods are simple actually but understanding the pre and post meeting
> work, working with the context and setting and holding a container for
> cocreation are essential to good work getting done.
>
> I have no problem with people receiving certificates for attending
> workshops but one simply can't guarantee performance with certification in
> this field.
>
> Pass the wine.
>
> C
>
> --
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Harvest Moon Consultants
> www.chriscorrigan.com
>
> *Art of Hosting - Participatory Leadership and Social Collaboration*,
> Bowen Island, BC <http://aohrivendell.withtank.com/> November 11-14,2013
>
> On 2013-08-09, at 12:48 AM, "eiwor at gatewayc.com" <eiwor at gatewayc.com>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Chris I agree about all you said, especially about the givens. I
> would even dare to say that the prework and the discussion there is what
> opens the space. What I do at the beginning of an OST meeting is ritual,
> also important but still ritual.
> Thanks for your story.
> Eiwor
>
> Skickat från min HTC
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> Från: "Chris Weaver" <chrisgweaver13 at gmail.com>
> Till: "World wide Open Space Technology email list" <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
> Rubrik: [OSList] Certification?
> Datum: fre, aug 9, 2013 06:45
>
>
> Greetings All,
>
> Ah, I can't resist jumping in to stir the pot.  It is an honor to join a
> thread peopled by so many folks whom I respect (and appreciate and love) so
> much.  I invite you to settle in for rather a long story, which may, at
> some point, have something to do with "certification."
>
> After learning of Open Space in Anne Stadler's kitchen, I walked around as
> a newbie at the OSonOS in Monterrey (the one fifteen years ago, from which
> Harrison was unexpectedly absent, due to a nasty flu, I believe), with my
> jaw hanging open to meet so many bold and brilliant facilitators (I
> remember especially Michael P, Alan Stewart, Brian Bainbridge, Roxy, and
> Birgitt Bolton) sharing stories that I sweetly strove to wrap my head at
> least half-way around.
>
> For a few years I engaged actively on the OSLIST as I began to facilitate
> some OST meetings (without even "finishing the book," as I recall) in the
> Seattle school where I worked as a teacher.  In 1999 I landed here in North
> Carolina, where I attended my first OST workshop as part of the Genuine
> Contact Program with Birgitt (Bolton) Williams who had recently landed a
> few hours away.
>
> Now I will say that I have an assumption only that at around that time
> there was something of a "falling out" between Birgitt and her work and the
> work of some other OS facilitators.  I do not know, nor need to know, the
> details.  But I do know that there are some points of practice that have
> generated some heated passion in the community and that I think are worthy
> of putting on the storytelling table.  (I know that there is not supposed
> to be a table, but I suddenly imagine myself with Jeff, Chris, Peggy,
> Harrison, Michael in a pub somewhere with a rough wooden table, on which I
> am happily uncorking a bottle of pinot noir.)
>
> When I completed the Genuine Contact "Working with OST" workshop, I
> received a certificate, but not a certification.  (The distinction is
> important because there was no intention on the workshop leader's part to
> evaluate my "competence" in any way.)  Based on my participation in the
> four-day experience, I could, if I chose, refer to myself as an authorized
> "Genuine Contact professional."  The workshop included an exploration of
> the form & essence of OST, as gifted so effectively in Harrison's *User's
> Guide.  *The workshop also shared some suggested approaches and tools for
> working in depth with the sponsor of an OST meeting (usually a leadership
> team within an organization), both prior to and after the OST event.  My
> own understanding is that, by referring to myself as a GC professional if I
> chose, I would be sharing the simple message that I had had exposure to the
> approach of using OST that included these pre- and post-OST meeting
> practices and tools.  The choice of whether and how to apply these
> practices and tools was up to me.
>
> So that is the part that relates to this thread topic of certification.
>  As a practitioner, I honor the open-source nature of OST as Harrison's
> "discovery" and gift to the world.  I refer people to the *User's Guide*(and also the
> *Non-User's Guide *and other community resources) frequently.
>
> As an aside, I continued in the years that followed to participate in
> workshops on other methodologies that are shared through the Genuine
> Contact Program (most notably *Whole Person Process Facilitation*, which
> I use very often).  I collaborated with my Genuine Contact colleagues
> around the world in developing the minimal appropriate structure for our
> international community.  I participated in many mentoring circles,
> completed the Train the Trainer workshop, and became one of the 43
> "co-owners" of the program.  I also shifted my virtual community
> participation to the GC List, and dropped off of the OSLIST for a number of
> years.  (I am enjoying being back.)
>
> So here, the plot thickens :-).  One of the practices included in the GC
> "Working with OST" workshop is the use of...the "givens."  So, lubricated
> with wine, I am going to place the notion of givens on the wooden
> storytelling table for our enjoyment.  (This is worthy of its own thread,
> of course, but I'll just keep going here.)
>
> I have only infrequently worked as an external consultant/facilitator.
>  Most of my work with OST has been within schools and community
> organizations.  Over the years, I have come to value highly the practices I
> learned in the GCP of working with the sponsor prior to and after an OST
> (and I know that among other OST facilitators, pre- and post- meetings such
> as these are skillfully used and valued).
>
> In my experience, the purpose of careful preparation with the sponsoring
> team is to assist them in considering the state of their organization.
>  What is the story-line that has brought them to considering an OST
> meeting?  What's happening in terms of the grief cycle within their
> organization?  What (deeply now) is the *purpose* of the meeting?  What
> (deeply now) is the *context?  *Basically, I ask the questions, and the
> team has the conversations.  All this I explicitly place in the reality
> that when you sponsor an OST, there is not, nor should there be, any
> turning back.
>
> I use the givens as an essential tool in this process.  I draw a circle on
> a flip chart and say, If this circle represents the open space, what are
> the non-negotiables that form the parameters of the open space?
>
> In the past, there have been passionate objections to this practice on
> this list, based, I think, on the belief that to establish givens is to
> close the space before it is even opened.  My long-haul experience within
> organizations has taught me something different.
>
> What happens when I ask what the non-negotiables are is that a bunch of
> stuff goes up on the flip chart.  Then, I probe each one, and ask, "Is this
> REALLY a given at this time for this meeting?"  The fifteen givens get
> whittled down to twelve, and then eight, and then maybe five (ish).  As you
> can imagine, the level of trust that organizational leaders have in the
> people plays in heavily.  I let it be.  I cannot make them trust more; I
> can only model trust, and hold space for trust.
>
> But I also find that the few givens that remain are, every time, very
> important and meaningful.  Some examples:  Perhaps the organizational
> purpose is a given, and perhaps there is value in re-sharing the
> organizational purpose at the start of the OST.  Perhaps there has been a
> year of good work by a sub-group within the organization that has
> culminated in a policy that not everyone attending the OST is aware of, and
> that policy is a given.  Perhaps a "law of the land" that administrators,
> but not all participants, know about is a given.  Perhaps it is a given
> that the organization will stay within a certain budget, and any ideas
> generated beyond the budget will have to include the funding source to
> support them.
>
> Yes, the givens are shared with the group at the start of the OST.  In my
> experience, this does not close the space, but rather it opens the space
> clearly and honestly.  More importantly, it is a tool for building trust.
>  When participants hear their formal organizational leaders share, clearly
> and transparently, what the givens are, they are more trusting that their
> own ideas will be honored after the meeting and not squelched.
>
> And this is what happens.  Using givens is a way to profoundly mitigate
> the phenomenon, with which any seasoned OST facilitator is familiar, of
> leadership freaking out and clamping down on the results of an OST.  The
> practice does not (thankfully) prevent the productive chaos and re-framing
> that happens after the meeting, but it greatly reduces the phenomenon of *reactionary
> fear* on the part of formal leadership.  The result is that leadership is
> more inclined to sponsor another OST soon, and indeed to invite other
> groups withing the organization to utilize OST themselves.
>
> Perhaps because I have worked inside organizations for many years, I have
> a deep respect for the challenges that formal leaders face.  Perhaps an
> organization is possible without any formal leaders, but I have not yet
> encountered this.  In the school where I work, there is a fragile and
> indeed even tender respect for our formal leaders whose responsibility it
> is to hold the space for the organization in the community.  When
> leadership is in its integrity, followership is a natural and beautiful
> thing.
>
> Okay, I will pour the last of the bottle into all the glasses.  Sadly, I
> won't hear your fine words until tomorrow, but so it is, according to the
> odd and illusory parameters of space & time.
>
> Take Care, with Love,
> Chris
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 8:21 PM, Donna Read <
> donna.read at managing4wellness.org> wrote:
>
>> Amen to that, Harrison!  Blessings, Donna
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Aug 8, 2013, at 17:36, "Harrison Owen" <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> Jeff – as a sometime perpetrator and totally confused (certifiable) I can
>> attest that if at any point I were to intimate that I actually knew what I
>> was doing, that would be a significant error. However I feel quite
>> comfortable in my not-knowing if only because the “process” (OST) is not
>> something I “do.” Under the best of circumstances my contribution is to
>> invite folks to do what they already know how to do – to be what they
>> already are. It always works, and it works even better when I get out of
>> the way. ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> 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 <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20> ****
>>
>> www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website)****
>>
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
>> OSLIST Go to:
>> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [
>> mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org<oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>]
>> *On Behalf Of *Jeff Aitken
>> *Sent:* Thursday, August 08, 2013 7:17 PM
>> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list
>> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Certification?****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> 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
>> _______________________________________________
>> OSList mailing list
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>>
>>
>>
>> ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> -- ****
>>
>> ---****
>>
>> CHRIS CORRIGAN
>> Facilitation - Training - Process Design
>> Open Space Technology - Art of Hosting
>>
>> http://www.chriscorrigan.com****
>>
>> *Upcoming workshops*****
>>
>> ** **
>>
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>> *
>>
>> *August 22-25, Sänna Cultural Manor, Estonia*
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *Art of Hosting - Art of (Inter)action* <http://www.aohmontreal.org/en/>*
>> ***
>>
>> *October 8-10, 2013, Montreal, PQ.*****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *Art of Hosting <http://aohrivendell.withtank.com/> - Participatory
>> Leadership and Social Collaboration*****
>>
>> *November 11-14, 2013**, Bowen Island, BC, Canada.***
>>
>> * *
>>
>> ** **
>>
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