[OSList] Fwd: Certification?

[Chris Weaver]

Thank you, Suzanne, for your wonderful heart-felt message.

It is an exciting and meaningful moment when circumstances galvanize people
into action, and remind them of their deeply-held dreams and visions of a
better world.

OST is one of the practices we have now ~ a "place" where people can choose
to speak, listen, learn, and act according to their own inner guidance.  To
do this easily together is a great blessing, a resource for awakening and
for co-evolution.

I am enheartened by all the story-sharing, thoughtful responses, and
open-minded connections happening on this list.  Thank you to everyone,
known & unknown, for the gift of your attention.

Yours Truly,
Chris


On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 8:47 AM, Suzanne Daigle <sdaigle4 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Chris,
>
> Thank you so much for sharing this initiative with us. Thank you Artur for
> asking the question which led to Chris' response. As far as I'm concerned,
> what is happening in North Carolina is a microcosm of what is happening in
> America and in the World.
>
> I read the NYTimes article<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0>and listened to Dr.
> Reverend Barber's video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjL7X6gt16s> and
> I was inspired and moved to the core by the words, the message and seeing
> the 10,000 people (families, all races of all ages together) gathered in
> Pack Square.
>
> Chris, you said: "I might have slept through this too". This too speaks
> to my core. Another wake up call for me about what is at the heart of Open
> Space that gives me purpose and hope plus a simple process to guide me that
> I can return to when I feel confused and alone. Not a panacea but a way to
> remind myself that if I can somehow help break the isolation and solitude
> in small and big spaces, it is something.
>
> I have been so disheartened by what has been happening in the world, what
> happened to the now bankrupt 100+ year forest products company (lumber and
> paper) where I worked and the small town (all white, mostly French
> Canadian) where I lived for so many years. Where honest middle class people
> worked hard, raised their family and could look forward to a modest pension
> in their last years. No more!  It was troubling to see people in their 70s
> and 80s lose 35% or more of their small retirement income, for them to see
> that their children and grand-children, many well educated whether a blue
> collar or white collar job had no jobs or had no choice but to seek
> employment elsewhere and even then...!
>
> The same is true in North Carolina...furniture, textile, railroads and so
> many other places including Artur's Portugal.
>
> Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Civil Rights movement deeply
> affected Harrison too. Perhaps it was not just the two martinis and him
> noticing the energy and spirit of the coffee breaks at those big national
> conferences that he spent weeks and months organizing that led to Open
> Space.
>
> When I read Spirit (free for download<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.openspaceworld.com%2FSpirit.pdf&ei=2YUHUt_CEoae2gX_y4HAAQ&usg=AFQjCNEW7xxsC6JD324gsWbHNTx4lpIGAA&sig2=oqUjXlF9qHB8ENgV_zU0hQ&bvm=bv.50500085,d.b2I>),
> I was moved by these words also:
>
>  "While I can't say that I was totally unaware of the major changes that
> were
> occurring in the country at large, and particularly in the South, the
> whole business of
> desegregation and civil rights by no means held a central place in my
> consciousness. My
> world was certainly not perfect, but I had no inclination to change it.
> One day as I sat in the graduate student lounge watching the TV, the
> program
> was interrupted with a special announcement. There had been a bombing in a
> Birmingham
> church, and three little children had been killed. There seemed to be
> little question
> that the bombing was in retaliation for civil rights activities that had
> been organized
> there, although no suspects had been apprehended. For reasons which I did
> not
> understand then, and still don't today, my world radically changed in that
> moment. It all
> looked the same, and in many ways I was still doing what I had been doing
> before — but
> it was different, and no longer very comfortable."
>
> So Chris, as our mutual Conversare <http://conversare.net/?page_id=250>friend Alan Stewart often says:
>
> "Looking forward..."  yes looking forward to reading about how things go
> in your *Local Education Support Collaborative.
>
> *
> and*
> *
> *
> *
> *"*Go well"
>
> Suzanne
> *
>
>
> *
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 10:12 PM, Chris Weaver <chrisgweaver13 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> 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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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Suzanne Daigle
> NuFocus Strategic Group
> 7159 Victoria Circle
> University Park, FL 34201
> FL 941-359-8877;
> CT 203-722-2009
> www.nufocusgroup.com
> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
> twitter @suzannedaigle
>
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