[OSList] action reflection learning track for leaders who have experienced OST in their organizations

Birgitt Williams birgitt at dalarinternational.com
Mon Jul 22 15:09:03 PDT 2019


Hi Thomas,
you asked about responsibility and accountability and my perspective
regarding the two.

I understand that the distinction between these two is not made in some
cultures/countries, with both being combined  as 'responsibility'. In my
perspective, this is not as helpful as making a distinction between the
two...the words and associated concepts.

I can be responsible for rolling out a new project inclusive of the
communications plan, engagement of people to work on the project, and
positioning the project as an important priority. This can be written in my
contract, defining my role.

But how well did I do this, how am I holding myself accountable for doing
the job, well, and within the spirit of intent of the job? Do I hold myself
accountable to myself? Am I accountable to a team? Am I accountable via a
hierarchy?  This is the other side of the coin of externally viewed
performance management. I want my contracts to have an agreement about how
accountability is to be carried out.

Let me relate this back to an OST meeting. The OST meeting is complete, a
closing circle has taken place, people are invited to come the following
day for a different process to formulate priorities, themes, initial plan
of action. Champions for the action items are identified, maybe self
identified. Agreement is reached that the champions for the actions will go
ahead with what has been agreed upon, and the next meeting of the 'circle
of the whole' is scheduled for three months into the future. It is stated
that at that time, the champions will take responsibility for reporting on
progress and agree that they are accountable to the circle of the whole for
1. progress or 2. being able to state clearly what the barriers are that
get in the way of progress.

Birgitt

*Birgitt Williams*
*Supporting Next Level Leadership "Leading So People Will Lead"*
Author, Senior Consultant, President Dalar International Consultancy, Inc
<http://www.dalarinternational.com/>
Founder Genuine Contact Program
<http://www.dalarinternational.com/genuine-contact>
Co-owner Genuine Contact Group, LLC
<https://genuinecontact.net/about/co-owners/>
Founder Extraordinary Leadership Network
<http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com/>

*Learn with us for your skill and capacity development for leading and
working in the new leadership paradigm "Leading So People Will Lead"*

Upcoming learning module: Working with Open Space Technology
<https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/open-space-technology/>.
Three different learning options to learn a process for facilitating
meetings that engage the people. Self-Study + One-to-One Mentoring +
Mentoring Circle; Self-Study + Real-Time Workshop + Mentoring Circle;
and Self-Study
+ Real-Time Workshop + One-to-One Mentoring + Mentoring Circle with real
time workshop dates three consecutive Fridays from 9am to 12:30pm EST on
October 18, 25, and November 1st.

PO Box 19373, Raleigh, NC, USA 27613
Phone: 01-919-522-7750


On Sun, Jul 21, 2019 at 6:39 AM Thomas Perret via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Birgitt,
>
> Thank you for your reply and your thoughts. The conversation format worked
> smoothly for me, even added a level of depth I would say.
>
> I am fascinated by accountability/responsibility and how things shift with
> it.
>
> One question came up there: I’m not sure about the difference between
> accountability and responsibility – will you tell me how you see it?
>
> Kind regards,
> Thomas
>
>
>
> On 21 Jul 2019, at 3.33, Birgitt Williams via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> Dear Thomas,
> Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
>
> You raised the following points/question and I am responding to this "One
> thing came to mind from a managers perspective. I think of a challenge
> regarding legal responsibility for the assets. If it’s my company, I take
> the risk by myself. If I am hired as manager for a company owned by someone
> else and thinking about self-management, I feel unsure about giving away
> decision-making power while remaining legally responsible. I would like to
> have the owners in on that conversation."
>
> Your concern about accountability for assets is similar to the dominant
> concern that comes up for senior leaders. It is always the senior leader
> that is held accountable for the performance of the organization and thus
> the concern raised is inclusive of the concern about assets...it is about
> the reality that their is personal accountability for performance.
>
> Following, I am writing as though we were having a conversation. I am not
> certain how this will come across in email format. I invite you to imagine
> that these are my replies within a conversation.
>
> The senior leader makes strategic choices, with or without the involvement
> of the owners of the company, or in the case of the non-profit, with or
> without the Board of Directors.  If including the Board of Directors or
> owners, I suggest presenting this as a strategy that you are recommending
> to accomplish a particular business goal ie: increasing employee
> engagement, increasing the health and well being of the organization, or
> other.
>
> There is wisdom in keeping authority linked with responsibility and
> accountability. In my experience, when the question of sharing decision
> making comes up, it is helpful to consider this triumvirate of
> authority/responsibility/accountability including whether the authority and
> accountability can be linked appropriately with whoever already has
> responsibility for various aspects of the organization. It starts to make
> sense to distribute the authority and accountability to achieve alignment
> with responsibility. In our geographic area we have a wisdom that says 'it
> is a fools errand to take on responsibility if you don't have the authority
> to go with it to get the job done'.
>
> Okay, if we are this far along in the discussion and the
> thinking/reflecting about this topic, you may be saying "Birgitt, I get all
> of that. Yet i still feel nervous about sharing the decision making and
> what we have discussed doesn't really help me".
>
> I would then introduce the concept of "givens" to you. It is the job of
> the senior leader to determine the "givens" or non-negotiables that the
> senior leader has decided upon. Working at the "givens" is one side of the
> task of figuring out how much freedom you are giving the people within
> which to be creative, innovative, and make decisions. As one Director said
> to me "in my decades of career, getting honest with myself about the givens
> has been the hardest work I have ever done. And now that it is done, and
> the givens are communicated, and everyone is figuring out what they now
> have authority and freedom for, this is amazing. My only regret is that I
> didn't do this sooner in my career. When I defined the givens, for the
> first time I defined the space within which I truly want the people to be
> free to be their best. I can be accountable for our performance within this
> frame of 'givens' and the clarity about the space I have opened up in my
> organization."
>
> Thomas, this is the best I can do to describe the ways forward beyond the
> tension created about sharing decision making. I am not on the same page as
> some of the others on this list about self organized systems. I experience
> value in having formal leaders, and in having appropriate hierarchy to
> getting the job done. I am very passionate about leadership that supports a
> culture of leadership.
>
> kind regards,
> Birgitt
>
>
>
> *Birgitt Williams*
> *Supporting Next Level Leadership "Leading So People Will Lead"*
> Author, Senior Consultant, President Dalar International Consultancy, Inc
> <http://www.dalarinternational.com/>
> Founder Genuine Contact Program
> <http://www.dalarinternational.com/genuine-contact>
> Co-owner Genuine Contact Group, LLC
> <https://genuinecontact.net/about/co-owners/>
> Founder Extraordinary Leadership Network
> <http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com/>
>
> *Learn with us for your skill and capacity development for leading and
> working in the new leadership paradigm "Leading So People Will Lead"*
>
> Upcoming learning module: Working with Open Space Technology
> <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/open-space-technology/>.
> Three different learning options to learn a process for facilitating
> meetings that engage the people. Self-Study + One-to-One Mentoring +
> Mentoring Circle; Self-Study + Real-Time Workshop + Mentoring Circle; and Self-Study
> + Real-Time Workshop + One-to-One Mentoring + Mentoring Circle with real
> time workshop dates three consecutive Fridays from 9am to 12:30pm EST on
> October 18, 25, and November 1st.
>
> PO Box 19373, Raleigh, NC, USA 27613
> Phone: 01-919-522-7750
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 20, 2019 at 11:18 AM Thomas Perret via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>> Birgitt,
>>
>> This seems spot on regarding lasting change, I liked it a lot.
>>
>> "The answer has consistently been about the leadership capacity of the
>> leadership team to lead an organization of people who are engaged in the
>> ways that were visible in the OST meeting. This is a vulnerable
>> conversation to be having and I feel a lot of respect for the leaders and
>> the discussion.”
>>
>> I read your whole mail aloud to a friend and this part touched me
>> especially.
>>
>> One thing came to mind from a managers perspective. I think of a
>> challenge regarding legal responsibility for the assets. If it’s my
>> company, I take the risk by myself. If I am hired as manager for a company
>> owned by someone else and thinking about self-management, I feel unsure
>> about giving away decision-making power while remaining legally
>> responsible. I would like to have the owners in on that conversation.
>>
>> Has something like this come up for you? If yes, will you say something
>> about it?
>>
>> Kindly,
>> Thomas Perret
>>
>>
>>
>> The answer has consistently been about the leadership capacity of the
>> leadership team to lead an organization of people who are engaged in the
>> ways that were visible in the OST meeting. This is a vulnerable
>> conversation to be having and I feel a lot of respect for the leaders and
>> the discussion.
>>
>> On 19 Jul 2019, at 4.07, Birgitt Williams via OSList <
>> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>>
>> Dear friends and colleagues in Open Space,
>> When you facilitate an OST meeting in an organization, it is the formal
>> leader who opens the space inside his/her organization for this meeting to
>> take place. Whether the leader feels well versed in what OST is or is
>> simply going along with something that has been recommended, that person
>> has an experience that is also a big opportunity...for the single leader
>> and/or the leadership team.
>>
>> If you also recognize the wonderful opportunity in front of this leader
>> as you have discussions with the leader and leadership team, you may be
>> interested in the five self study modules that our team is calling our Next
>> Level Leadership learning track
>> <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/next-level-leadership/>.
>> The five modules are designed for just such a leader to go through in a
>> self study mode to encourage some of the thinking that is important to lead
>> an organization within the new leadership paradigm within which OST fits
>> "Leading So People Will Lead".
>>
>> Since 1992 I have been fascinated by what happens when formal leaders
>> including leadership teams sponsor and experience an Open Space Technology
>> meeting in their workplace. There are a few different story lines that
>> emerged. First, it is important to share with you that within how we teach
>> about Working with Open Space Technology in our Genuine Contact program, we
>> encourage facilitators of the OST meeting to have a 'debrief meeting' with
>> these leaders (the sponsors). The questions we ask in the debrief meeting
>> are kept simple and are intended for heightening learning from the shared
>> experience of having been in an OST meeting. Yes, simple action-reflection
>> learning.
>>
>> In my experience, OST always works. And always, the quality and quantity
>> of outcomes surpasses all expectations. So...that is part of what is
>> reflected on during the debrief meeting. Within an OST meeting, there is
>> always the experience of leadership popping up by just about everyone;
>> people stating that they experience a shared vision during the meeting; a
>> real sense of community with good communication throughout; and self
>> management within the container created. This is also discussed in the
>> debrief meeting. Then comes the question that for me is of utmost
>> importance. Here it is "During the OST meeting, you experienced exceptional
>> performance by the people who participated as you have just discussed. If
>> you are not getting that exceptional performance every day, would you like
>> to?".
>>
>> Silence is the first response.
>> The second response is "no, this is not our daily experience"
>> Then comes the discussion of "we want this in our daily experience BUT we
>> are not ready". I reply "you say you want exceptional performance. Your
>> people have shown you within the OST meeting that they are capable of
>> exceptional performance already. If you are not having this exceptional
>> performance on a daily lived basis and you want it, what is it you are not
>> ready for?"
>>
>> The answer has consistently been about the leadership capacity of the
>> leadership team to lead an organization of people who are engaged in the
>> ways that were visible in the OST meeting. This is a vulnerable
>> conversation to be having and I feel a lot of respect for the leaders and
>> the discussion.
>>
>> My personal favorite outcome of the discussion is the leader (leadership
>> team) expressing an interest in developing personal and group leadership
>> capacity so that they can successfully lead an organization with a
>> participatory architecture along the same lines as the participatory
>> architecture of the OST meeting.
>>
>> Initially I proceeded with these leaders by teaching them how to work
>> with OST to get the most harvest out of an OST meeting and to structure
>> their organization to allow as much freedom and choice as possible. I
>> realized that something was missing. I had jumped ahead too quickly. Just
>> because the leader (leadership team) stated willingness, there are steps to
>> take between that stated willingness and feeling ready and engaged in
>> thinking and working in a more expanded concept of leadership.
>>
>> Now  when those leaders (leadership teams)  say they are willing to lead
>> their organizations as a culture of leadership, the kind of culture that
>> needs a participatory architecture with lots of use of OST meetings....we
>> have them go through what we call our Next Level Leadership learning
>> track
>> <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/next-level-leadership/>.
>> They can do these five modules as self study with lots of reflection about
>> their thoughts about leadership...and then have a one to one (or group)
>> mentoring session to have a conversation about what they are thinking
>> regarding leadership.
>>
>> Placing this learning track in their hands assists them with discernment
>> about leading for the leadership paradigm of "Leading So People Will Lead";
>> assists them in readiness and developing a plan for their readiness; and
>> assists them with engaging in the development needed for what is a very
>> challenging leadership role...well worth it, but challenging.
>>
>> I hope that this has piqued your interest about one way to help leaders
>> who are interested in leading for the kind of performance they experience
>> in an OST meeting. This has been a passion of mine for a long long
>> time...and I am very pleased with what happens when leaders take the time
>> to go through this self study. Shift happens.
>>
>> in genuine contact,
>> Birgitt
>>
>> *Birgitt Williams*
>> *Supporting Next Level Leadership "Leading So People Will Lead"*
>> Author, Senior Consultant, President Dalar International Consultancy, Inc
>> <http://www.dalarinternational.com/>
>> Founder Genuine Contact Program
>> <http://www.dalarinternational.com/genuine-contact>
>> Co-owner Genuine Contact Group, LLC
>> <https://genuinecontact.net/about/co-owners/>
>> Founder Extraordinary Leadership Network
>> <http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com/>
>>
>> *Learn with us for your skill and capacity development for leading and
>> working in the new leadership paradigm "Leading So People Will Lead"*
>>
>> Upcoming learning module: Working with Open Space Technology
>> <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/open-space-technology/>.
>> Three different learning options to learn a process for facilitating
>> meetings that engage the people. Self-Study + One-to-One Mentoring +
>> Mentoring Circle; Self-Study + Real-Time Workshop + Mentoring Circle;
>> and Self-Study + Real-Time Workshop + One-to-One Mentoring + Mentoring
>> Circle with real time workshop dates three consecutive Fridays from 9am
>> to 12:30pm EST on October 18, 25, and November 1st.
>>
>> PO Box 19373, Raleigh, NC, USA 27613
>> Phone: 01-919-522-7750
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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>
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