<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Wonderful stories…… Thanks Chris…<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">😊<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 18 Apr 2022, at 02:21, Chris Kloth via OSList <<a href="mailto:oslist@lists.openspacetech.org" class="">oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div class=""><p class="">Thanks for your post. Birgitt.</p><p class="">While I have not been active online in recent years, I have
followed along. You and I started about the same time and shared
many OSONOS experiences in those early years.</p><p class="">Several of you observations ring true for me. I also did
experimentation with when shorter sessions might be effective -
especially after an extended meetings. <br class="">
</p><p class="">Over the years two of my clients eventually incorporated the
principles and practices of OST into their organization cultures.
Others use OST more or less regularly.<br class="">
</p><p class="">One of my favorite memories of an OST meeting involved calling
together a group of mental health professionals who were concerned
about some pending legislation that could have significant
negative affects statewide if passed. One of the things I was
aware of as background noise was that the urban leaders and the
rural leaders were actively involved in a political battle with
each other. While that issue had very little to do with the reason
they gathered, they ended up with a shared legislative strategy
AND resolved the urban/rural issue while they were at it! As we
all know - they just needed the space!</p><p class="">Another was when <span class="ILfuVd"><span class="hgKElc"><span class=""><span class="">
The <span role="tooltip" tabindex="0" class=""><span class="povykd" data-enable-toggle-animation="true" data-extra-container-classes="ZLo7Eb" data-hover-hide-delay="1000" data-hover-open-delay="500" data-send-open-event="true" data-theme="0" data-width="250" role="button" style="display:inline-block" tabindex="0" data-ved="2ahUKEwiLyojmtZz3AhXGKs0KHey3B24QmpgGegQICRAD"><span class="JPfdse" data-bubble-link="" data-segment-text="U.S.">U.S.</span></span></span>
Probation and Pretrial Services System was planning their
annual national training program. My colleagues and I had
worked with some of their local jurisdictions using OST
and some people suggested using OST for their national
event. There was definitely some resistance. They finally
agreed to half traditional and half OST. They started in
the traditional format and spent the last day in open
space. Starting the next year they did the whole event
using OST!<br class="">
</span></span></span></span></p><p class="">One of my favorite memories of Harrison is dancing with Harrison
and Ralph to the music of the Rolling Stones at one OSONOS. <br class="">
</p><p class="">Another is from US election day, 1988. (There is a separate
Harrison story related to that election, but I digress.) I had
invited Harrison to do an Open Space training with me in Columbus,
Ohio. Our "design" for the day was to model the process by using
the usual OST calling of the circle and agenda setting to shape
the training on the spot. While I was still thinking in terms of
introducing Harrison, and having Harrison make some opening
remarks and call the circle, he unexpectedly handed off calling
the circle to me. Once we had the agenda, we shared roles working
with the group. Participants were very satisfied, including two
who were openly skeptical about the process. In retrospect, I was
struck by Harrison's humility, as well as his confidence in me -
someone he had not know for very long.</p><p class="">In the words of the Grateful Dead, "What a long, strange trip
it's been!" And a wonderful one, as well.</p><p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Shalom,
Chris Kloth
Principal/Lead Consultant
ChangeWorks of the Heartland
254 South Merkle Road
Columbus, OH 43209-1801
Ph: 614-239-1336
Cell: 614-907-2409
Fax: 614-237-2347
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:chris.kloth@got2change.com">chris.kloth@got2change.com</a>
Web: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.got2change.com/">www.got2change.com</a>
Pronouns: he, him, his
White Silence is Violence
Think Globally, Act Locally</pre>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/5/2022 6:01 PM, Birgitt Williams
via OSList wrote:<br class="">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CAKF340hPFTO5zeD-OL+fS2cjXeKV5LkLP44V1s4RgM6CFKrqJQ@mail.gmail.com" class="">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Dear friends and
colleagues,</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">this month I am
celebrating 30 years of working with Open Space Technology.
What a grand journey it has been, giving me a vehicle to be of
help to leaders and their organizations...while
simultaneously growing me. I benefited a lot from in depth
four day trainings in OST with Harrison, attending,
co-sponsoring seven training sessions in Canada. I continue to
facilitate in the ways that we were originally taught, with
adjustments made to adapt OST for the online environment. I
refuse to facilitate an OST less than four hours, with
sessions never less than one hour. </div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">My two favorite
experiences of being a participant in OST meetings: the first
OSONOS in a hotel near Dulles airport in which just over 30 of
us gathered to explore our learning with OST and the
excitement of participating in what was then pioneering work
with organizations. The second of my favorite experiences was
the Expanding Our Now event in Oregon in the mid 90's
sponsored and facilitated by Harrison Owen and Anne Stadler.
Five full days within an OST container, exploring and
accomplishing ways to expand our now. Again, about thirty of
us came together, from a number of countries, with profound
experiences within which each of us experienced personal
transformation and the expansion of ourselves, and the
expansion of our NOW. We who gathered understood that the
bigger our NOW, the better we facilitated. The power of a
multi-day OST is not often the current offer...however, it is
powerful beyond what can be imagined.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">In those early days, I
experimented with how short an OST meeting could be while
still retaining what I believed was valuable about OST. Four
hours was the shortest I would go...and in those days I did so
as a means for following up from a multi-day OST for the
purpose of moving topics forward that had been prioritized
from the multi-day OST. At the time, I believed a short (ie 4
hour) OST was valuable only after a multi-day OST in the
organization. I believe that OST was initially devised for
multi-day meetings.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">I also experimented
with frequent OST meetings in the same organization ie:
monthly. The story goes that the first two monthly OST
meetings were loved by our staff and Board as the newly
preferred way to have our monthly meetings. At the third
meeting, I sat and said to those gathered (about eighty
people) that they need what to do so please post their topics.
Everyone stayed seated until someone said "we know what to do,
however, there is something important in this opening that you
do that helps us to determine what we want to post and to get
on with it. We need you to do the opening. It is not
sufficient to tell us that we know what to do." And so I
learned that the opening, even with a well seasoned group,
gave benefit from the ritual and was to be included. At the
fourth monthly meeting, as I entered the room, a staff member
stood up and said "we don't want to do these kinds of meetings
anymore. We come up with all sorts of ideas for going forward
but after the fact, we find out what the barriers are to
taking action and it is very disheartening to us". We sat
together and talked this over. Two gifts emerged from this.
The first was the concept of the 'givens', providing the shape
of the OST meeting (defining the playground to which people
were invited) by clarifying beforehand any non-negotiable
barriers. Once we worked out the givens together, we
successfully had years of OST meetings. The second gift was
the emergence of another meeting method Whole Person Process
Facilitation (WPPF), designed to be used in between the OST
meetings to examine what had come out of the OST meeting and
what would move forward into action..and how. By alternating
OST and WPPF for our monthly meetings, more actionable items
moved forward than would have moved forward with OST alone.
And the participants, with the addition of the givens, and the
bi-monthly OST/WPPF meetings were well satisfied that we had a
new way of working...during meetings and then into the daily
life of the organization.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">My favorite examples of
facilitating OST meetings is difficult to narrow down. One
that stands out as dear to my heart is for Saving Newborn
Lives, a global project of Save the Children USA.
Representatives from eighteen countries participated in the
OST that evolved into the strategic plan and was a significant
part of their organizational transformation from a research
program to a service delivery program.Another one that stands
out is an OST for the exploration of issues and opportunities
for housing hard to house marginalized people. In our Regional
government at the time, the idea of one-third of the spots
designated for the homeless themselves was a big challenge
resulting in skepticism about it all working, one-third of the
spots were for government, and one-third of the spots were for
non-profit organizations. The people were in genuine contact
with one another, and a lot got accomplished, much to the
surprise of many of the participants. I heard just last week
that one of the task forces developed from that OST is still
active and has been making a big difference for almost thirty
years in getting marginalized people housed. A testament to
sustainability of results from a single OST meeting.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">If you know me, you
know that I was attracted to the genuine contact that is
experienced in every OST meeting...genuine contact with self,
with other, with the collective, and with
Creator/Spirit/Creation/Conscious Energy. I developed the
Genuine Contact Program and way of working, with Working With
Open Space Technology as one of the essential modules of this
program </div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">I appreciate the
journey, the blessings inherent in the journey, the miracles I
have witnessed with OST, and its role in my life,</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">in genuine contact,</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Birgitt</div>
<div class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class=""><img src="https://www.google.com/s2/u/0/photos/public/AIbEiAIAAABDCPPYmZG55I3fFSILdmNhcmRfcGhvdG8qKDc2MmI2YjI3ZmUxMTlmMjA3YmM0ZjE3YzM3MWNmMjE1YjdhN2ExNGUwAdXO95TkkrhaiNp5B1BTw_BLAzaq" alt="Picture" moz-do-not-send="true" class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><b class=""><br class="">
</b></span></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><b class="">Birgitt
Williams</b></span></div>
<div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><b class="">Senior
consultant-author-mentor to
leaders and consultants </b></span></div>
<div class=""><span style="font-size:12.8px" class=""><b class="">Specialist
in organizational and systemic
transformation, leadership
development, and the power of
nourishing a culture of
leadership.</b></span></div>
<div class=""><a href="http://www.dalarinternational.com/" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">www.dalarinternational.com</a> </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<div class=""><a href="http://www.dalarinternational.com/upcoming-workshops/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">>>
Learn More & Register</a> for
any of our upcoming workshops
here.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</div>
<div style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px" class=""><img src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1JasXHRKxGtUQC72ySjjudKcQqLzp0c0n&revid=0B_EYga0qclsEWTBRZlNWaFdEMUE2Y1dTK1pySlNKZmgwMlZzPQ" moz-do-not-send="true" width="420" height="105" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">PO Box 19373, Raleigh, NC, USA
27613</div>
<div class="">Phone: 01-919-522-7750<br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><a href="https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=6677c35b38&e=e7zyhHfiqG" style="color:rgb(39,170,225);font-weight:bold;font-family:"Helvetica
Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:15px" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">Like us
on Facebook</a><font style="font-size: 15px;" face="Arial, sans-serif" class=""> </font><br style="" class="">
<a href="https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=c26173f86b&e=e7zyhHfiqG" style="color:rgb(39,170,225);font-weight:bold;font-family:"Helvetica
Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:15px" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="">Connect
on LinkedIn</a><span style="" class=""> </span><br class="">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br class="">
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org">OSList@lists.openspacetech.org</a>
To unsubscribe send an email to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org">OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org</a>
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a>
Past archives can be viewed here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org">http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</a></pre>
</blockquote>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br class="">OSList mailing list<br class="">To post send emails to <a href="mailto:OSList@lists.openspacetech.org" class="">OSList@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br class="">To unsubscribe send an email to <a href="mailto:OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org" class="">OSList-leave@lists.openspacetech.org</a><br class="">To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:<br class=""><a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org" class="">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><br class="">Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org</div></blockquote></div><br class=""><div class="">
<meta charset="UTF-8" class=""><div><b class="">Romy Shovelton<br class=""></b>Executive Director<br class=""><br class="">Wikima & the 5*<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">Tyddyn Retreat <br class="">Mid Wales Venue & Holiday Cottages</b><br class=""><a href="http://www.walescottageandvenue.com" class="">www.walescottageandvenue.com</a><br class=""><br class="">romy@walescottageandvenue.com<br class="">romy.shovelton@gmail.com<br class="">+44 (0) 7767 370739<br class=""><br class="">Tyddyn y Pwll, Carno, Caersws<br class="">Powys, SY17 5JU, Wales, UK<br class=""><br class="">Instagram: tyddynretreat<br class="">Facebook: Tyddyn Retreat</div>
</div>
<br class=""></div></body></html>