[OSList] Fwd: Certification?

[Chris Weaver]

You also wrote: "I'm also active in a most inspiring response to the
current alarming political situation in my home state, including by using
OST."

That is something that, if you have time, I also would like to know more
about.

Hi Artur,
I'll try to put this story in a nutshell, and it will get to the OST part
after the first paragraph.

I have spent many years living and working in an apolitical (perhaps
anti-political) bubble, teaching in a wonderfully progressive school,
living in a lovely progressive city, and tending to the home fires of
family and spiritual practice.  In the past six months, the governor's
office and the state legislature in North Carolina have both been in
republican control for the first time in well over a century, and they have
enacted a dizzying slate of pieces of extremist legislation that leaves
even my republican friends feeling embarrassed and angry (see NYTimes
editorial - The Decline of North Carolina  <http://goog_242060000>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0
)
I might have slept through this too but for two things.  First, the state
budget passed a few weeks ago cut thousands of teaching assistants and
teachers, raised class sizes, eliminated pay for advanced degrees, and
wiped out the meager job security that public school teachers have in our
state.  The second thing is that a country preacher named Dr. Rev. William
Barber, who is the head of our state's NAACP, has stepped up like the
prophet Isaiah to "speak truth to power," and inspired by his inclusive
message and his eloquence, nearly 1,000 people have been arrested this
summer for civil disobedience (requesting an audience with leaders who have
refused dialogue).

As a teacher, I am responding to this situation in several ways, one of
which involves OST.  So let me say first that I do not consider OST as a
tool for engagement in partisan politics.  In fact, I do not consider any
of my own actions as engaging in partisan politics, which I see as
basically a group projection of the meaningless dramas of our egos.  One of
the beauties of OST is that it is anathema to tyranny in any form by any
political agenda.

My use of OST is a simple one:  a sponsoring team of educators from a wide
variety of types of schools is starting something that we are calling
the *Local
Education Support Collaborative.  *The model is to host a bi-monthly OST
over the weekend (including storytelling, OST, and convergence) around the
theme of *Supporting our Students, Teachers, and Schools.  *One of the
functions of this OST is as a "Gift Circle," where needs and resources can
find one another as part of a non-monetary *gift ecomony *(see the work of
Charles Eisenstein for lots more about this)*.  *We're developing our web
platform to serve as a kind-of educational-gift-economy-"Craig's List,"
where teachers can post what they need and donors can contact them to
provide it.  The same web platform will include the books of proceedings
from the OSTs (including action plans).

Although I have enacted some similar projects before, this one is exciting
because the political situation is lending intense relevance and interest
to what we are doing.  And the magic of OST to reveal hidden unity will
help us to cross many existing barriers - between district-public,
public-charter, independent, and home-schools, between political parties,
between economic classes and across racial boundaries.

We *were* going to host our first OST next weekend, but we have postponed
it until October to give us time to prepare our sponsoring team and to
build a web platform that can do all the things we want it to do in
user-friendly ways.

When we get it together, I will share the invitation on this list, and make
the time to tell the story when our first OST is complete.

And in case anyone has a spare 33 minutes and would like to watch the
speech that Dr. Rev. Barber gave in my hometown this past Monday, have a
look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjL7X6gt16s.

Warmly,
Chris




On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 3:01 PM, Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Chris:
>
> Thanks for your clarification.
>
> It always has been - and it is now - a great pleasure to read your posts.
>
> You also wrote: "I'm also active in a most inspiring response to the
> current alarming political situation in my home state, including by using
> OST."
>
> That is something that, if you have time, I also would like to know more
> about.
>
> Regards
>
> Artur
>
>   ------------------------------
>  *From:* Chris Weaver <chrisgweaver13 at gmail.com>
> *To:* Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com>; World wide Open Space
> Technology email list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, August 10, 2013 3:53 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Certification?
>
> Hi Artur!
>
> So glad to have you turn around, I didn't see you here in the pub under
> that hat :-)
>
> Here is a perhaps indirect answer to your direct question about *certificate
> vs. certification.*
> My thoughts about it likely do not correspond to common usage of the terms
> & ideas.
>
> The way I think of these particular "certificates" is that they are a
> symbol and reminder, *for me*, of an experience.  The experience was the
> workshop, and the certificate is like one small gift that is a part of a
> complex "gift-exchange" of energy (in many forms) and attention that
> constitutes the workshop itself.  In this sense, the "certificate" could
> just as well be a stone or a shell or a bottle of Oporto; it is a physical
> reminder of an experience.
>
> To me the verb "to certify" does imply the act of one "qualified" person *granting
> *a *rank* of qualification on another person as a result of some form of
> measured judgment.  So in this common sense, I would of course love to have
> one of those *certificates of non-certification *mentioned above,
> especially with regard to Open Space Technology facilitation.
>
> To me, an interesting underlying aspect of our conversation is about the
> symbolic "language" for a community of practice.  We are exploring a gray
> area between the idea of "certifying" and the idea of "naming" something.
>  In the example I shared in this thread:  When I chose to invest time &
> energy into Genuine Contact workshops, one of the responding opportunities
> was to be part of a community of practice that naturally develops out of
> shared experience.  So the words "Genuine Contact" may become the name for
> a community of practice, without any of the "power-over" implications of
> the idea of *certification.  *
> *
> *
> With "Open Space Technology," we're exploring the same territory.  What IS
> it?  What ISN'T it?  What does it mean for "IT" to have a name?  What are
> the perils of putting forth a *definition* for the name?
>
> I have one more response Artur to your post to me.  You wrote:
> Nice to see you back to a list were you were once a frequent contributor,
> until you had your time and interests diverted to another movement and
> list, as you have now explained.
>
> So yes, that is for a while how I used my two feet.  Like many on this
> list, I apply my attention to the online communities of practice that are
> most useful to my work within the limits of time I choose to spend sitting
> at a computer.  (The Genuine Contact list is an interesting list, and open
> to anyone, at genuine-contact at googlegroups.com).  But I am relishing
> being back in these conversations, and I have always enjoyed reading your
> posts Artur.
>
> Unfortunately I will begin teaching in about a week and my time will be
> under much greater demands than in summer.  I'm also active in a most
> inspiring response to the current alarming political situation in my home
> state, including by using OST.  I'll at least be dropping by to share how
> that goes.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 8:01 AM, Artur Silva <arturfsilva at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Chris:****
>
> Nice to see you back to a list were you were once a frequent contributor,
> until you had your time and interests diverted to another movement and
> list, as you have now explained. ****
>
> You were not, by the way, the only person that almost disappeared from
> this list. In fact, as I see it, it was like a schism, with some people
> that stayed beyond, for reasons that only they know, but anyone can
> speculate about.****
>
> I was not in your virtual table of the pub and could not taste the pinot
> noir, but it happens that I was in a close table, drinking an Oporto wine,
> and could not avoid listening to your interesting story.****
>
> I think that there are a lot of interesting stuff in your post, that
> probably could give occasion to have (or repeat) discussions about, in
> other threads (one probably - again - about the "givens" question - if one
> does not want to search the archives; another about the history of what you
> have called the ""falling out" that apparently was at the origin of the
> schism, that has an historical interest, and maybe others on and off topic).
> ****
>
> But, for the moment, and to stay on topic, I would like to remember that
> you wrote:****
>
> «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.) »****
>
> I could not understand the difference between "certificate" and
> "certification" (maybe I had already drunk too much Oporto wine or, more
> probably, the cause is my lack of English proficiency...). Could you be so
> kind to please elaborate a bit more about what is the difference between
> the two concepts?****
>
> Thank you and best regards****
>
> Artur  ****
>
>   ------------------------------
>  *From:* Chris Weaver <chrisgweaver13 at gmail.com>
>
> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
> *Sent:* Friday, August 9, 2013 5:45 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] Certification?
>
> 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****
> ** **
>
>
>
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