<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Dear friends and colleagues,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This morning I was thinking of Anne Stadler, a dear friend who has mentored several of us to follow our passion. I fondly remember a number of gatherings in her living room in Seattle, Washington that included fabulous people. She held (and likely still holds) what used to be the ‘salon’, intended for engagement and emergence of great ideas when interesting people come together. One of those things I know and appreciate about Anne…she likes people who she deems as interesting. In those days in the early 1990’s, there was a lot of thought and inspiration about how to move OST into the world. There was also a lot of thought exchanged based on my experimentation with what I came to call the first intentional Conscious Open Space Organization. Information of my journey with the Conscious Open Space Organization is archived on this list in my posts as Birgitt Bolton and Birgitt Williams, so no need to get into that incredible journey here. Suffice it to say that concepts such as using ‘givens’ in organizations that make frequent use of OST meetings in the organization emerged, rapidly, thanks to my very insightful staff who were, as far as I know, the first staff group who were in frequent OST meetings as part of our daily life as an organization. We learned a lot and I shared a lot with this community. Other activities emerged from those great conversations in Anne’s living room…Peggy Holman was the one person I remember as always there too…included the formation of the Open Space Institute model, with a focus on what we needed to do in Canada as different than what was needed in the USA. And another outcome was the Spirited Work group, which became an incubator group that met at Whidbey Institute, out of which emerged incredible creations including the inspiration for Peggy’s book Engaging Emergence. They are having another gathering <a href="http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=969890">http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=969890</a> .<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I wanted to report to this list the current learning and status of the Conscious Open Space Organization. The basics, as described over time, are still the same. The name changed in 2009, as agreed upon by the co-owners of the Genuine Contact program. As a community of professionals who work with the Genuine Contact program, we were invested in the Conscious Open Space Organization, its use and its development…and so to change the name required a community decision. I initiated the Conscious Open Space Organization and so I felt inspired to be the one to identify that the name was causing us problems and that we needed a different name. The Conscious Open Space Organization includes a number of key ingredients, framed by a liberating structure and a participatory architecture requiring a culture of leadership. There is structure with clear distinction between what is open and what is not open to change, keeping the latter to a minimum. These organizations make frequent use of OST and other participatory meeting methods.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>What I proposed and what was agreed to was the change of the name from Conscious Open Space Organization to Genuine Contact Organization. Here is why.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:35.4pt'>Originally, I had created the name ‘Conscious Open Space Organization’ because the way of understanding the Conscious Open Space Organization is to understand both the form and essence of a singular Open Space Technology meeting…in other words, they are quite linked. I am now taking the leadership of recommending the name change because while the community of people who work with Open Space Technology might understand what is intended with the Conscious Open Space Organization, we have found that with our client groups, there is mis-understanding. We have had a serious situation in which staff of a client organization assumed that everything within a Conscious Open Space Organization became open and when they discovered that some space was still closed by senior management, many bad feelings emerged. The real purpose of ‘Conscious’ Open Space Organization was to understand at an organization wide level what is open and what is closed, so that the energy is not wasted on what is closed. And so, I am no longer feeling that the name ‘Conscious Open Space Organization’ serves our clients well. When I analyzed this further, it became clear to me that what the space is being opened for results in genuine contact in the way that we do it, and so it seems more accurate at this time to shift beyond what was determined historically by me, and to move on to something that seems to be more accurate after working with this for some twelve years.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:35.4pt'><span lang=FR-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> We have had an interesting journey with what is now called the Genuine Contact Organization (GCO). The beginning point of becoming a GCO in any organization is a single OST meeting, and then a real desire by senior leadership to lead their organization in such a way that the high quality and quantity of the OST meeting and its results is experienced on a daily basis in the organization even when not in an OST meeting. And indeed, people experience genuine contact with self, with each other, and with the collective (whole).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Birgitt<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Birgitt Williams<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>President and Senior Consultant, <a href="http://www.dalarinternational.com">Dalar International Consultancy</a><br>Author, <a href="http://www.genuinecontactway.com">The Genuine Contact Way</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>919-522-7750<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=297 height=93 id="_x0000_i1029" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CC59D3.50E1D250" alt="The Look Lo Res.jpg"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=20 height=20 id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.jpg@01CC59D3.50E1D250" alt="AW104 GCP Logo Yellow w Blue Back.jpg">Co-Owner of the <a href="http://www.genuinecontact.net">Genuine Contact™ Program</a><br><img border=0 width=20 height=20 id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image003.png@01CC59D3.50E1D250" alt=rss.png> <a href="http://blog.genuinecontactway.com">Genuine Contact Way</a> blog<br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Genuine-Contact-Way/241784543761?ref=ts"><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=20 height=20 id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image004.jpg@01CC59D3.50E1D250" alt="cid:image005.jpg@01CAEA4D.D1AEB6B0"></span></a> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/genuinecontactway">Become a fan</a> of the Genuine Contact Way<br><a href="http://twitter.com/genuinecontact"><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=20 height=20 id="Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image005.jpg@01CC59D3.50E1D250" alt="cid:image006.jpg@01CAEA4D.D1AEB6B0"></span></a> <a href="http://twitter.com/genuinecontact">Follow me</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>