Dear Chris I agree about all you said, especially about the givens. I would
even dare to say that the prework and the discussion there is what opens the
space. What I do at the beginning of an OST meeting is ritual, also important
but still ritual.
Thanks for your story.
Eiwor
Skickat från min HTC
----- Reply message -----
Från: "Chris Weaver" <chrisgweave...@gmail.com>
Till: "World wide Open Space Technology email list"
<oslist@lists.openspacetech.org>
Rubrik: [OSList] Certification?
Datum: fre, aug 9, 2013 06:45
Greetings All,
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."
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.
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.
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.)
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 User's Guide. 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.
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 User's Guide (and also the
Non-User's Guide and other community resources) frequently.
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 Whole Person Process Facilitation, 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.)
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.)
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).
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 purpose of the meeting? What (deeply now) is the context?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 reactionary fear 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.
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.
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.
Take Care, with Love,
Chris
On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 8:21 PM, Donna Read <donna.r...@managing4wellness.org>
wrote:
Amen to that, Harrison! Blessings, Donna
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 8, 2013, at 17:36, "Harrison Owen" <hho...@verizon.net> wrote:
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.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.Potomac, MD 20854
USA
189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)Camden, Maine 04843
Phone 301-365-2093
(summer) 207-763-3261
www.openspaceworld.com
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go
to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
From: oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Aitken
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2013 7:17 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Certification?
having been trained by the motley lot who dreamed up this stuff, i can attest
that even that great privilege does not mean that i know much or should be let
near the folks in your organization.
jeff.On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Peggy Holman <pe...@peggyholman.com>
wrote:
To be certified confused…where do I sign up? Chris -- thanks for your
decidedly clear and unconfused comments on certification.
I seem to recall in some past conversation that rather than certification,
lineage is alternative to the client conundrum of who am I hiring? To be
trained by the creator, or by someone who trained with creator, on down the
line seems to have worked for a variety of practice traditions through the ages.
Still no guarantee, as Chris noted below.
appreciatively,Peggy
On Aug 8, 2013, at 10:35 AM, Chris Corrigan <ch...@chriscorrigan.com> wrote:
Ohh I love this topic too, because as we go on and on it becomes clearer and
clearer to me that Harrison's original idea (which predated Open Source) was
sheer genius. There is an expression in english: "Closing the barn doors after
the horse has left." It's too late to certify people in Open Space Technology,
and thank God!
You simply cannot certify people as a way to protect the brand and the reason
is simple.
Certification is based on an industrial quality assurance model In other
words, every product leaving the factory is guaranteed to work the way we say
it is going to work. If it doesn't you can have your money back and we'll give
you a new one that works. Every product can be tested before it leaves the
factory to be sure it works reliably,
You simply cannot do that with facilitators. No amount of certification will
guarantee that a client will get what they want every single time. And a
facilitator taking a single training in Open Space or some other method will by
definition NOT be perfect leaving the factory. You need to develop a practice,
and even still there are contexts and situations that will challenge and
surprise you. "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" is the only certification I can
reliably give to anyone that has trained with me. We are not engineers,
architects or doctors. We are people whose skill is in responding well to
myriad and changing contexts.
The International Association of Facilitators went down this route. I have
seen some horrible facilitation done by people who are certified by the IAF.
So much so that I have no faith in that certification as standing for anything.
It is a worthy idea but it simply cannot be implemented.
Open Space is a brand like brainstorming is a brand, like using markers and
flipcharts is a brand, like parliamentary procedure is a brand. In a few more
decades, with any luck, the world will have forgotten where it all came from
and it will just become a basic operating system of groups. In the last 10
years that prospect has really come on as people have stolen, mashed up, mixed
together, modified and redesigned Open Space Technology. Participatory process
is becoming an acceptable way of doing things, and will only become more so.
Most conference goers for example are now able to report on conference
evaluations that they would have rather had a world cafe or an Open Space than
a keynote address. I see it all the time. There is a fluency in the world
with this method and others.
I fundamentally distrust anyone who makes a concerted effort to certify Open
Space. If Harrison Owen, the guy that put it all down on paper, refuses to do
it for excellent reasons, then I wonder what gives anyone else the right to do
it.
And for me that is a terrific example of how to steward something that really
has an impact in the world. Offer it up and let it go and only defend it from
those that would try to own it. Thankfully Open Space Technology I think is at
a place in the world where it defies ownership. Anyone who tries it will
simply be laughed off the stage.
Chris
On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Kári Gunnarsson <kari.gunnars...@simnet.is>
wrote:
I love the Certification dialogue and I think that the recurrence of
the dialogue is necessary. As I have looked around of things that
trace there roots to open space or give the impression to be similar
is some way. Some of these processes have the Certification hierarchy
protecting the Quality of the Brand and the revenues steaming from the
property that the brand name is.
The hierarchy of the Certification process associated with Brand names
is a way to close space and create tension witch in turn will fuel the
flow of cash from the people that can pay, excluding the people that
can not. It is an exercise in creating a closed system to fuel a
business plan. And naturally, any start up consultancy offering some
tools will need some flow of cash to pay the phone bill.
When I was at Wosonon in Berlin back in 2010, I head one participant
saying. "You always have the clients that you deserve".
By knowing that the space for clients is well open and the law of
mobility is active from them is perhaps a little scary. This scare can
be remedied by letting go of the outcome and commit time to prepare to
be of more benefit for my future clients.
Here I have opened up many lines of thoughts that stay with me when I
think about this topic. What I would like to have written down is some
sort of vision on how to go about using the open space as a central
idea and core philosophy in a practise.
On Certification, my vote would go for "no central Certification", but
I don't mind that various offspring's of Open Space go ahead and
create there own brand name with the associated cash flow headaches
and salaried sales staff of Certification trainings in there bid to
get a bought with a handsome cash out from lager companies.
That said, I would like to see more people get interested in the
"boring" methought of meeting, working and begin together called open
space.
By the way, I am bored to tears by people hearing about open space and
begin pissed off by the way open office layout (also called open space
in my country) has been ruining there work experiences.
This is starting to be a long rant, Ill stop now.
With the breeze from Iceland
Kári
On 8 August 2013 14:50, Harrison Owen <hho...@verizon.net> wrote:
> Certification (whatever that might mean) seems to be a perennial topic. I
> suppose that is understandable, but for myself it is a horrible idea. My
> reasons are several. First of all it is too much work. The thought of
> developing the criteria, programs, and even worse, “protecting the brand” is
> totally exhausting. We’d have to have certifiers to certify the certifiers
> and so on ad infinitum. Second reason – Open Space seems to be taking care
> of itself. When folks come on with “A little Open Space,” “Sort of Open
> Space,” “Modified Open Space,” ... the participants (increasingly)
> understand that they aren’t getting the genuine article—and say so. I recall
> one instance where a large gentleman stood up in the middle of the “program”
> and loudly proclaimed, “This sure ain’t Open Space! I’m out of here.” And he
> walked. I guess you could call that “Market Certification.” Best of all ---
> it works all by itself. One more thing not to do!!
>
>
>
> Harrison
>
>
>
> Harrison Owen
>
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>
> Potomac, MD 20854
>
> USA
>
>
>
> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
>
> Camden, Maine 04843
>
>
>
> Phone 301-365-2093
>
> (summer) 207-763-3261
>
>
>
> www.openspaceworld.com
>
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
>
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST
> Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
>
>> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
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> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
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>
--
Kári Gunnarsson
kari.gunnars...@simnet.is
gsm: +354 8645189
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-- ---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Facilitation - Training - Process Design
Open Space Technology - Art of Hosting
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
Upcoming workshops
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August 22-25, Sänna Cultural Manor, Estonia
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October 8-10, 2013, Montreal, PQ.
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November 11-14, 2013, Bowen Island, BC, Canada.
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