Dear Colleagues and friends working in and with Open Space, Ward and I developed the first phase of the Genuine Contact program, a vehicle for developing the conscious Open Space Organization. I share with you here the unfolding story with this work. I begin by sharing the core beliefs in our lives and upon which the program is built and then share with you the story of what happened here during the past week as 17 people attended the train the trainer learning journey with us, each now prepared to lead these training sessions. And then below my signature, I include a longer description of the Genuine Contact program for those of you who are interested in the way that we market it through Dalar International Consultancy. If you find yourself interested in this work, you might want to consider doing the preparatory work through the next twelve months so that you have the prerequisites to take the next train the trainer here in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA beginning Sept 21 of 2002. If you have already attended a training session in working with Open Space Technology, you already have a key pre-requisite.
All who graduate from the train the trainer now co-create the Genuine Contact program as we continue evolving. As part of their contribution, Koos de Heer of Holland and Thomas Herrmann of Sweden have developed a list serve for ongoing discussions. In the Genuine Contact program, we relate to the following three beliefs to guide our development, behaviors and actions: 1. Spirit is all that is. 2. All organisms have within them the blueprint for health. 3. Focusing on genuine contact enables individuals and organizations to achieve health and experience our connection with all that is. 17 people, representing 5 countries joined Ward and I here in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA for the last four days to enhance our learning and development in working with conscious Open Space Organizations. This is a note to you, our friends and colleagues who work with Open Space Technology to keep you posted about our journey and to invite you to consider participating with us in the future. We offer great gratitude to the community of practice regarding Open Space Technology and to its creator, Harrison Owen, for providing a key ingredient for us in working with the conscious Open Space Organization. We go beyond the meeting methodology and work with the ongoing organization. We have learned a lot and will continue to learn and evolve and develop. Here is a summary of what we have just participated in and the immediate results of this gathering. We invite you to consider joining us in this evolving work. And below my signature, I send along to you the outline of how we at Dalar International Consultancy describe our work with this program that we have called the Genuine Contact program. For us, it is the vehicle to develop the conscious Open Space Organization. For others who now co-create this program, they will make other offerings of what the program is for them. 1. Over the last few years, hundreds of people have participated in training sessions in component parts of the Genuine Contact program including Working With Open Space Technology, Whole Person Process Facilitation, Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution, and Advanced Work in Open Space Technology focusing on the conscious Open Space Organization. 2. From amongst this group, 17 chose to take all of the sessions, culminating in attending the Train the Trainer session from Sept 21-24. There are a number of others who have already identified that they will join the 2002 Train the Trainer session next September here in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. 3. Our home, intended as a healing center held its first meeting September 17th. The excitement of a dream unfolding 4. On the morning of September 21st at 7am eastern standard time, this group along with hundreds of others in the world opened space for opportunities for harmony in the world with the intention of holding space for our lifetimes. We created a large Open Space (different from an Open Space Technology meeting as we know it). All participants were cofacilitators. 5. The training began at 9am using Whole Person Process Facilitation. 6. Birgitt Williams facilitated an Open Space Technology meeting from 1pm on the 21st to 5pm on the 23rd to discuss issues and opportunities for working with the Genuine Contact program. This meeting included convergence and action planning. The givens for the meeting were limited but clearly stated to define what the Genuine Contact program as initiated by Birgitt and Ward Williams is and is not. A given was that beyond the few basic givens, the program from here on in is open for co-creation by all who invest of themselves in the full program and complete the Train the Trainer. We were intentionally developing as a conscious Open Space Organization, learning as we participated to walk our talk. 7. Judi Richardson facilitated an Open Space Technology meeting within the already existing meeting that Birgitt was facilitating. This second meeting, which included some people on-line from around the world, discussed the International Alliance for Mentoring, a newly forming organization with only one given, the definition for mentoring. Everything else was open for creativity. This meeting did not include convergence and action planning. It lasted from 6 through 9:30pm on the 21st. 8. The space was closed with a closing circle on the 21st for the OST meeting for the International Alliance for Mentoring. The space was closed on the 23rd for the OST meeting for the Genuine Contact program. The space was not closed for the intentional Open Space for harmony in the world. And the space of the overall training session, held using Whole Person Process Facilitation, was closed on the 24th. Every experience was unique, different, and intended for our fullest experience and learning regarding conscious Open Space Organizations and the circles within the circles within the circles that make up daily living in an organization. Some Results High learning and high play and high achievement. A list serve for the Genuine Contact program hosted by Koos de Heer of Holland and Thomas Herrmann of Sweden. All who are interested are invited to participate. To sign up for the list serve contact Koos at opensp...@auryn.nl <mailto:opensp...@auryn.nl> or Thomas at thomas.herrm...@telia.com <mailto:thomas.herrm...@telia.com> A group of people made a commitment to co-creating the Genuine Contact program and how it will manifest in the world. This group of people committed to finding their way to walk their talk by working with the Genuine Contact program as a conscious Open Space Organization, and to continue to involve more and more people as co-creators of an organic conscious Open Space Organization over time. Every year, we will find our way to involve the new graduates of the train the trainer as co-creators of the program. We learned that where we are going with this is an unknown and that we are doing pioneering work with this which will come complete with moving forward and falling a few times. We committed to continuing to work together to find a new way of working. We committed to developing as a learning community to keep evolving and developing with this work, adding to a greater knowledge base. We will have an annual professional development gathering (the next one Sept 26/27 of 2002 here in Raleigh, North Carolina immediately following the next train the trainer) and we will support one another through on-line discussions. And beyond that, except to express gratitude, I cannot at this time either process or summarize the richness of what happened and what is now birthed. I can say that it began with a dream. And somehow the dream is now reality. The reality, with 17 additional people now working with the Genuine Contact program is way bigger than I ever dreamed it. I am grateful and filled with joy and wonder and awe. And anticipation . Others will make contributions to this list about some of our learnings as we continue to link our learnings into the Open Space list serve too. All of us are people who love using Open Space Technology and are simply taking it to what we see as a natural progression to working with the conscious Open Space Organization. Peace and love and honoring the beauty within you all, Birgitt The Genuine Contact * program The Genuine Contact * program was designed with simplicity in mind, using meetings as a catalyst to develop conscious, life nurturing, interconnected learning organizations. We call these organizations conscious Open Space Organizations. The process is organic so every organization brings about its own unique change from within, simultaneously enhancing skills and capacity for working with change in our rapidly changing times. For an individual to achieve optimum health, the individual must balance the system, cleanse and detoxify the cells and provide absorbable nourishment to the cells. Through the Genuine Contact * program, individuals within the organization learn to achieve and sustain organizational health through understanding and working with balance, cleansing, and nourishing the organization. Within the Genuine Contact * program, we work from the following three beliefs: 4. Spirit is all that is. 5. All organisms have within them the blueprint for health. 6. Focusing on genuine contact enables individuals and organizations to achieve health and experience our connection with all that is. When you work with the Genuine Contact * program, you will experience seven key components for your skill and capacity building as individuals and as an organization: 1. Within the Genuine Contact *program you will experience the healing circle or medicine wheel as the overall matrix to guide your learning, healing, development, evolution and consciousness. This assists you in bringing about results that exceed expectations. The medicine wheel assists action/reflection learning regarding health and balance in the organization focusing on purpose, leadership, vision, community, management and relationships. You will be taught to use this framework as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool for achieving and then maintaining health and balance. 2. You and your organization will be in a mentoring relationship with the consultant that you choose to work with. The consultant will mentor the organization and individuals within the organization to achieve organizational health and balance with minimal consultant involvement. As well, you will be offered the opportunity to enhance your mentoring skills and capacity through an evolving interconnected learning community, the International Alliance for Mentoring (IAM). This forum is provided to learn the art of mentoring and to walk the talk of mentoring of both individuals and organizations. The International Alliance for Mentoring uses encouraging truth, facilitating compassion, tolerance, self acceptance, promoting service in the world, cooperation, respect, and joy as the definition for mentoring. The IAM is a component of the Genuine Contact * program and extends beyond the program to include all persons who are interested in mentoring who wish to enhance their learning about mentoring through an interconnected learning organization. 3. You will learn Working With Open Space Technology to develop and enhance skills in facilitating meetings in which a frequency is held for people to make life nurturing choices from amongst agenda items within a particular theme and givens. 4. You will learn how to facilitate Whole Person Process Facilitation to develop and enhance skills in facilitating meetings in which a frequency is held for people to make life nurturing choices based on what is presented to them to solve within a particular topic and within stated givens. 5. You will learn Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution to develop and enhance skills to facilitate meetings in which people determine personal boundaries and view situations from flexible rather than fixed perspectives. 6. You will learn Advanced Work With Open Space Technology focusing on the c onscious Open Space Organization to develop and enhance skills in leading and mentoring conscious interconnected learning organizations. These organizations provide the conditions for choices to be life nurturing rather than life depleting. 7. And you will be offered the opportunity to develop and enhance skills to teach others in all of the components of the Genuine Contact * program , ensuring that the program maintains its integrity (wholeness) and respects the unique contributions that each individual makes to the program. What is the Genuine Contact * program? The Genuine Contact * program is a program for building skill and capacity within the organization, for working with change. It is designed to keep external consultant involvement to a minimum, providing training and mentoring work only, so that working with change is led from within the organization. Leaders within an organization are taught to develop and use an operating system in which business is conducted with genuine contact at all levels on an ongoing basis. Upon completion of the sixteen days of training, leaders are authorized to teach the components of the Genuine Contact * program to others within the organization, in an ongoing internal process, until the new operating system is functioning fully in a growthful, sustainable and effective way. During year one, during and following the initial training, a consultant to the organization coaches and mentors this in-house team as the in-house team leads the change process for its own organization. Training days during the first year range from 12 to 16 days, generally taken in groupings of 4 days at a time and spaced a few months apart. Additional external consultant time is limited to approximately 24 days through the course of the first year, supporting change and capacity building that is led from within the organization. Results beyond your expectations through the Genuine Contact * program Dalar International Consultancy offers you the opportunity to achieve organizational results beyond your expectations. We believe that Spirit matters and people are precious. We know that strategies based on these values have exciting, tangible results. Dalar International Consultancy will enable you to draw upon the wisdom that exists among people in your organization to achieve success. We offer you a program that can develop an energized, interconnected learning organization, able to achieve, sustain, and renew itself in healthy and effective ways. We offer you a program that fosters genuine contact within your organization to access its full potential. Dalar International Consultancy focuses on uncovering key ingredients from which an organization determines what will work best for it. The operating system developed from these through the Genuine Contact * program enables the organization to make the most of its potential. They system is duplicable and self-replicating throughout the organization, and is customized to suit your specific situation. What your Organization will Achieve through the Genuine Contact * program Through the Genuine Contact * program, you will achieve an effective and quick means to access the issues that need to be addressed in your organization, and the solutions that need to be implemented. This program fosters a solution-focused organization, achieving results that surpass expectations. It provides a nourishing environment in which the human spirit can flourish creatively and fulfil its potential. Solutions come from the collective genius and passion of the organizations human resources. The energy to implement them is generated in the process. Tangible Results from using the Genuine Contact * program * Breakthrough learning * Appropriate structure * Genuine community and effective communication * High morale * Spirited performance * Engaged involvement * High efficiency * High productivity * Shared leadership * Shared vision * Clear purpose * Growth from within * Elimination of barriers to doing a job quickly with excellence and pride * Increased creativity * Sustainable and renewable organizational health and energy for further successes * An ability to navigate with change and take quick advantage of the opportunities it brings * an environment where the creative human spirit can flourish The focus of the Genuine Contact * program is on building skill and capacity within the organization, keeping external consultant involvement to a minimum As an organization develops its interconnected learning, change in action and behaviors are required. More important are the changes in the way that purpose, values, assumptions, and structure are understood and worked with. For both individuals and organizations, growthful change comes from deep within. For both, change uncovers our fears of the new and unknown, yet we know that we must face the unknown if we are to grow and flourish. In the Genuine Contact * program, change is viewed as life nurturing rather than life depleting. In the Genuine Contact * program, we foster the development of the interconnected learning organization, which we have called the conscious Open Space Organization. Leaders within an organization are taught to develop and use an operating system in which business is conducted with genuine contact at all levels on an on-going basis. These leaders are then empowered to teach others within the organization in an ongoing internal process until the new operating system is functioning fully in a growthful and effective way. Change is a constant, not a destination. Change cannot be managed. Success is dependent on building the capacity of individuals and organizations to navigate with change. Values Considerations for embarking on the Genuine Contact * program in your organization If you and your organization are truly interested in effectiveness and success, if you want positive results in attitude and action, if you understand that change is constant and cannot be managed, then the Genuine Contact * program is for you. It provides a simple approach for solving complex situations, and helps you create a way of working with ongoing change. The Genuine Contact * program is for you if: 1. You value whole systems thinking and understand that the organization is not a closed system, but an open one, subject to constant change and interaction with the environment in which it operates. You want your organization to be flexible, able to flourish as it navigates successfully through change. 2. You value learning organizations which build the capacity, skills and knowledge of individuals resulting in ongoing organizational effectiveness. 3. You value developing and using the potential of your human resources for successful personal and organizational accomplishment. 4. You value effective work teams that can address day to day challenges, assessing and overcoming any difficulties they encounter, and coordinating their efforts with other work teams that might be affected. 5. You value a clear framework of parameters that are understood throughout the organization so that individuals can work effectively under minimum supervision, and can safely participate in finding and implementing solutions that will lead to increase achievement for the organization. 6. You value not only highly productive organizational achievement, but also the continuing personal growth of those involved in creating and sustaining it. What is provided if we bring the Genuine Contact * program into our organization? The Genuine Contact * program assists the development of organizational change and transformation for increasing effectiveness and success by providing basic training and ongoing coaching for a fixed period of time for its leaders. It requires minimal external consultant intervention. The focus is on building in-house skills to handle on-going change which can be developed and sustained from within. The approach is organic, rather than mechanical. It encourages simple solutions that are easy to use to increase real, ongoing organizational effectiveness. How does an organization begin the Genuine Contact * process? 1. Establish the commitment of the CEO and senior managers to developing an organization that recognizes and draws upon its workforce potential, is open, participative, interconnected, and working to improve its learning and capacity. 2. Form an internal team to be trained by a trainer authorized in the Genuine Contact * program. It is recommended that this team include managers, human resource specialists, organizational development specialists, and in the case of unionized environments, union leaders. The maximum recommended size of this team is 35. At the completion of the training phase, each member of this team will be authorized as a trainer of the Genuine Contact * program for others within the organization. This team will implement the transformation of the organization into an Open Space Organization capable of navigating change effectively and productively. 3. Identify internal coaches who will work with the training team and senior management, including the CEO, to provide leadership and coaching on an ongoing basis within the organization to sustain peak performance. If an external coach is preferred, this consultant must take the Genuine Contact * program training and training certification. Such external consultation should be limited to 24 days over the initial one year period of transformation. 4. Contract with Dalar International Consultancy for an in-house Genuine Contact * program, or arrange to send the internal team in a small organization to external training programs organized in various locations in the world by Dalar International. The total training program takes 16 days over the first year and has five components. We Invite Consultants to become Authorized to Provide the Genuine Contact * program to Organizations We invite consultants to attend the five components of training of the Genuine Contact * program to become authorized to take the full program "in-house" to assist organizations in their transformation. Graduates of the train the trainer will train people within the organization in the component parts of the Genuine Contact * program so that those authorized through this process in turn will train ever widening circles of people within the organization. Anyone trained as a trainer can offer the complete program and authorize those graduating in turn to train in the Genuine Contact * program, using the outline they learn from Dalar International so that there is consistency and duplicability. Consultants authorized to deliver the Genuine Contact * program will be listed on our website www.genuinecontact.com <http://www.genuinecontact.com/> if they so wish for direct contact by organizations. We recognize that everyone facilitating and leading using the Genuine Contact * program will do so with their own unique style and experience. However, it is also necessary to guarantee to organizations who bring this Program into the organization that they are receiving consistency with the component parts and/or their development as a conscious Open Space Organization. Clients are entitled to assurance that when they engage in any or all of the components of the Genuine Contact * program, that the components and the whole program maintain the integrity of what is offered through the Genuine Contact * program. Within the Genuine Contact * program, the component parts are standardized so that they can be easily duplicated and so that when a client pays for one of the components to be used in the organization, the client is guaranteed of a certain standard. Persons completing their training in the Genuine Contact * program are invited to become co-creators of the program as it evolves and develops through time, using a list serve and annual professional development gatherings to walk their talk as an interconnected conscious Open Space Organization. Dalar International is available in an ongoing mentoring capacity to all facilitators and leaders trained in the Genuine Contact * program. To maintain consistency, all trainers delivering the Genuine Contact * program training programs will use the training format developed by Dalar International and will guide participants through the Genuine Contact * program using the training workbooks from Dalar International. The workbooks, accompanying CD ROMs and video and audio tapes for the Program are available through our publisher, Musango multi-media and can be ordered through musan...@home.com <mailto:musan...@home.com> Our personal life commitment is to create opportunities for higher consciousness. Higher consciousness is required for our healing and wholeness. As individuals, we also live according to the beliefs stated above for the Genuine Contact * program. Birgitt and Ward Williams Co-founders, Dalar International Consultancy
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