<div dir="ltr">Thank you, Suzanne, for your wonderful heart-felt message.<div><br><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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. </div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div><div>
<br></div><div>Yours Truly,<br>Chris</div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 8:47 AM, Suzanne Daigle <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sdaigle4@gmail.com" target="_blank">sdaigle4@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Dear Chris, <br></div><br>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. <br>
<br></div><div>I read the<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0" target="_blank"> NYTimes article</a> and listened to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjL7X6gt16s" target="_blank">Dr. Reverend Barber's video</a> 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. <br>
</div><div><br></div></div><div><font style="background-color:transparent">Chris, you said: "I might have slept through this too". </font>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. <br>
<br><div><div>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...! <br>
<br></div><div>The same is true in North Carolina...furniture, textile, railroads and so many other places including Artur's Portugal. <br> <br></div><div>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.<br>
<br></div><div>When I read Spirit (<a href="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" target="_blank">free for download</a>), I was moved by these words also: <br>
<br> "While I can't say that I was totally unaware of the major changes that were<br>occurring in the country at large, and particularly in the South, the whole business of<br>desegregation and civil rights by no means held a central place in my consciousness. My<br>
world was certainly not perfect, but I had no inclination to change it.<br>One day as I sat in the graduate student lounge watching the TV, the program<br>was interrupted with a special announcement. There had been a bombing in a Birmingham<br>
church, and three little children had been killed. There seemed to be little question<br>that the bombing was in retaliation for civil rights activities that had been organized<br>there, although no suspects had been apprehended. For reasons which I did not<br>
understand then, and still don't today, my world radically changed in that moment. It all<br>looked the same, and in many ways I was still doing what I had been doing before — but<br>it was different, and no longer very comfortable."<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>So Chris, as our mutual <a href="http://conversare.net/?page_id=250" target="_blank">Conversare</a> friend Alan Stewart often says: <br><br></div><div>"Looking forward..." yes looking forward to reading about how things go in your <font style="background-color:transparent"><i>Local Education Support Collaborative.<br>
<br></i></font></div><div><font style="background-color:transparent">and<i><br></i></font></div><div><font style="background-color:transparent"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font style="background-color:transparent"><i>"</i>Go well"<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br></font></span></font></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><font style="background-color:transparent">Suzanne<br></font></div><div><font style="background-color:transparent"><i><br><br><br></i></font> </div>
<div><br><br><br></div><div><br></div></font></span></div></div>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 10:12 PM, Chris Weaver <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chrisgweaver13@gmail.com" target="_blank">chrisgweaver13@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="font-size:x-small;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(80,0,80)">You also wrote: "</span><span style="font-size:x-small;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,255)">I'm also active in a most inspiring response to the current alarming political situation in my home state, including by using OST</span>.</span><span style="font-size:x-small;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(80,0,80)">"</span><br>
</div><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><span style="background-color:transparent"><font size="1"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<span style="background-color:transparent"><font size="1">That is something that, if you have time, I also would like to know more about.</font></span></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<br></div></div></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">Hi Artur,</div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">I'll try to put this story in a nutshell, and it will get to the OST part after the first paragraph.</div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">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<a href="http://goog_242060000" target="_blank"> </a><font style="background-color:transparent"><font size="1"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0</a></font>)</font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent">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).</font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="background-color:transparent">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.</font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="background-color:transparent">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 <i>Local Education Support Collaborative. </i>The model is to host a bi-monthly OST over the weekend (including storytelling, OST, and convergence) around the theme of <i>Supporting our Students, Teachers, and Schools. </i>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 <i>gift ecomony </i>(see the work of Charles Eisenstein for lots more about this)<i>. </i>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).</font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="background-color:transparent">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.</font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="background-color:transparent">We <i>were</i> 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.</font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="background-color:transparent">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.</font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="background-color:transparent"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="background-color:transparent">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<font size="1"> </font></font><font style="font-family:arial" size="1"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjL7X6gt16s." target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjL7X6gt16s.</a></font></div>
<div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">Warmly,<br>Chris</div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">
<font style="font-family:arial" size="1"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent"><font style="font-family:arial" size="1"><br></font></div></div><div><div>
<div>
<div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 3:01 PM, Artur Silva <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:arturfsilva@yahoo.com" target="_blank">arturfsilva@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><div><span>Hi Chris:</span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif">
<span><br></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>Thanks for your clarification.</span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif">
<span><br></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><span>It always has been - and it is now - a great pleasure to read your posts.</span></div>
<div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><span><br></span></div><div style="font-size:16px;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:normal">
<span>You also wrote: "</span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,255)">I'm also active in a most inspiring response to the current alarming political situation in my home state, including by using OST</span>.</span><span style="background-color:transparent">"</span></div>
<div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent"><br></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="background-color:transparent">That is something that, if you have time, I also would like to know more about.</span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="background-color:transparent"><br></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Regards</span></div>
<span><font color="#888888"><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent"><br></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="background-color:transparent">Artur</span></div></font></span><div><br></div><div> </div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div> </div><div style="font-family:'times new roman','new york',times,serif;font-size:12pt">
<div> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">From:</span></b> Chris Weaver <<a href="mailto:chrisgweaver13@gmail.com" target="_blank">chrisgweaver13@gmail.com</a>><br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">To:</span></b> Artur Silva <<a href="mailto:arturfsilva@yahoo.com" target="_blank">arturfsilva@yahoo.com</a>>; World wide Open Space Technology email list <<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>> <br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Sent:</span></b> Saturday, August 10, 2013 3:53 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject:</span></b> Re: [OSList] Certification?<br> </font> </div></div><div><div> <div>
<br><div><div dir="ltr">Hi Artur!<div><br></div><div>So glad to have you turn around, I didn't see you here in the pub under
that hat :-)</div><div><br></div><div>Here is a perhaps indirect answer to your direct question about <i>certificate vs. certification.</i></div>
<div>My thoughts about it likely do not correspond to common usage of the terms & ideas.</div><div><br></div><div>The way I think of these particular "certificates" is that they are a symbol and reminder, <i>for me</i>, 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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>To me the verb "to certify" does imply the act of one "qualified" person <i>granting </i>a <i>rank</i> 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 <i>certificates of non-certification </i>mentioned above, especially with regard to Open Space Technology facilitation.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <i>certification. </i></div>
<div><i><br></i></div><div>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 <i>definition</i> for the name?</div>
<div><br></div><div>I have one more response Artur to your post to me. You wrote:</div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff">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. </font></span><br>
</div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><font color="#0000ff"><br></font></span></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">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 <a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:genuine-contact@googlegroups.com" target="_blank">genuine-contact@googlegroups.com</a>). But I am relishing being back in these conversations, and I have always enjoyed reading your posts Artur. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">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.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Cheers,<br>Chris</font></div>
<div><br></div></div><div><br><br><div>On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 8:01 AM, Artur Silva <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:arturfsilva@yahoo.com" target="_blank">arturfsilva@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif"><div style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt">
<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Hi Chris:</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</span>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. </span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</span>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.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</span>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.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">I think that there are a lot of interesting stuff in your post,
that probably could give occasion to have (or repeat) discussions about, <span>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 </span>"</span><span>"falling
out"<span> </span></span><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">that apparently was at the origin of the schism, that has an
historical interest, and maybe others on and off topic).</span><u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">
<span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">But, for the moment, and
to stay on topic, I would like to remember that you wrote</span>:<u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">
<span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">«</span></span><span><span style="color:blue">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.)</span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> »<u></u><u></u></span></span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</span>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?</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</span>Thank you and best regards</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></span></div><div>
</div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt"><span><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Artur </span><u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif">
<span><br></span></div> <div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"> <div style="font-size:12pt"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1">
<font face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">From:</span></b> Chris Weaver <<a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:chrisgweaver13@gmail.com" target="_blank">chrisgweaver13@gmail.com</a>><div><br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">To:</span></b> World wide Open Space Technology email list <<a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>> <br>
</div><b><span style="font-weight:bold">Sent:</span></b> Friday, August 9, 2013 5:45 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject:</span></b> Re: [OSList] Certification?<br> </font>
</div><div><div> <div><br><div><div dir="ltr">Greetings All,<div><br></div><div>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."</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.)</div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <i>User's Guide. </i>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <i>User's Guide</i> (and also the <i>Non-User's Guide </i>and other community resources) frequently.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <i>Whole Person Process Facilitation</i>, 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.)</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.)</div>
<div><br></div><div>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). </div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <i>purpose</i> of the meeting? What (deeply now) is the <i>context? </i>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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?</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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 <i>reactionary fear</i> 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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Take Care, with Love,<br>Chris</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br><br><div>On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 8:21 PM, Donna Read <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:donna.read@managing4wellness.org" target="_blank">donna.read@managing4wellness.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div>Amen to that, Harrison! Blessings, Donna<br><br>Sent from my iPhone</div><div><div><div>
<br>On Aug 8, 2013, at 17:36, "Harrison Owen" <<a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:hhowen@verizon.net" target="_blank">hhowen@verizon.net</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div><div><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">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. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">Harrison<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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