Dear colleagues and friends in Open Space, I continue my sharing of my learning, beliefs and growth with the conscious Open Space Organization. If you wish to see parts 1-3 please go to www.genuinecontact.com <http://www.genuinecontact.com/> and go to section on the conscious Open Space Organization. If you have participated in training in Open Space Technology and wish to explore the conscious Open Space Organization, consider joining us for the last of these sessions in 2001 in Raleigh, North Carolina Nov 1-4 (fee is $800US). If you have attended this session before but would like to attend it again for ongoing growth and development, as you know, there is no charge for tuition for refreshers. There are several of us now teaching these courses throughout the world (dates for 2002 will be posted soon). Blessings and love, Birgitt Williams
My Story of the Open Space Organization: Part Four of Four The Genuine Contact * program is a vehicle to develop the conscious Open Space Organization. The conscious Open Space Organization requires that the organization works to cleanse, balance, and nourish itself to health. Within the Genuine Contact * program, we work with the following beliefs: 1. Spirit is all that is. 2. All organizations have within them the blueprint for health. 3. Focusing on genuine contact enables individuals and organizations to achieve health and to experience our connection with all that is. We work with Spirit. Spirit works with us. We work from Spirit. Spirit works with us. We work to Spirit. Spirit works with us. And we are of Spirit My enlightenment is not a destination to be reached. I have always been enlightened. I simply have to remember my way. And not be afraid to go to the unknown. In the unknown, I will recognize that I always knew . The inspired organization is not a destination to be reached. All organizations are inspired organizations. They simply have to remember their way. And not to be afraid to go to the unknown. In the unknown, they will recognize that they always knew On earth, the mystical requires that we learn to walk the mystical path with practical feet. To mentor myself to walk the mystical path with practical feet, I strive toward and maintain mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. In each of these aspects of myself, I cleanse, balance and nourish myself. My consciousness of this process began by sorting out for myself who I am. I choose life nurturing patterns. I could have chosen otherwise however, I cannot deny that underneath, I am an inspired being, connected to Spirit and all that is. I chose to work with this consciously. I do not choose to argue for my limitations and why this is not possible. I choose to work with my full power and light. In mentoring the organization to do walk the mystical path with practical feet, I mentor the organization to strive toward and maintain mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. Organizations also must be able to answer who am I. All organizations are learning organizations. They have learned either life depleting or life nurturing patterns. Today, I and others mentor organizations to cleanse, balance and nourish themselves so that they can learn life nurturing rather than life depleting patterns and free themselves from the life depleting patterns that developed from previous learning. Often, part of the previous learning is to argue for limitations rather than working with their full power and light. Organizations can choose life nurturing patterns, or they can choose otherwise they are inspired organizations connected to Spirit and all that is no matter what their choice. All organizations are Open Space Organizations. They can choose to work with this consciously or choose not to. I choose to work with organizations that choose life nurturing patterns, that choose to cleanse, balance and nourish themselves. I choose to work with organizations that have made a choice about becoming conscious about their connection to, with, from and of Spirit. I choose to work with organizations that choose to be conscious Open Space Organizations. For those seeking to cleanse, balance and nourish themselves, Open Space Technology and Whole Person Process Facilitation are meeting methodologies that provide a window to what is already there under the surface, underneath the patterns that have been learned. In learning to work as inspired organizations, organizations can begin using meetings as the catalyst and then developing appropriate structure to support the awakened inspired performance. I tend to get right into the middle of something and then figure out what it is. And often, just when I think that I have it figured out, I realize that I know very little about it at all. This leads to another period of sitting in the middle of whatever it is a while longer until I reach another stage of aha, I know what it is. Over time, this way of living and learning has gotten me into more than a little hot water. However, I believe my learning is much deeper and richer for it all. I have gone through this living and learning process in understanding the conscious Open Space Organization. You might note, if you read the previous three parts of this story, that I preface the term Open Space Organization with the word conscious now which I didnt before. Previously, I wrote about leading an organization as the first intentional Open Space Organization. This period, from 1992 through 1995 was followed by a period of determining whether what I had learned about leading organizations in this way could be duplicated. I found that by paying attention to certain key ingredients and working with the organization from a holistic perspective, that intentional Open Space Organizations emerged. A test for me followed as I struggled to find a way to teach others how to develop intentional Open Space Organizations. I teamed up with my husband, Ward, in this quest, combining our varying skills. We found that the teaching required us to put aside what we had discovered and to find the right questions so that each person who learned with us could have their own opportunity for discovery, finding the place we had found, as though for the first time. The Genuine Contact program emerged from this with its seven component parts. The Genuine Contact program was designed with simplicity in mind, to teach people within organizations how to work with, from, to and of Spirit. The program assists in personal and professional development for participants in the program. Within the program, participants are taught to use meetings as a catalyst for working from, with, to and of Spirit. The result of working with the Genuine Contact program within an organization is to foster development as a conscious, life nurturing, interconnected learning organization based on what is already present in the organization. We name these organizations conscious Open Space Organizations. The process we teach requires that leaders and mentors work with the organic nature of the organization, with its own change from within the organization. External consultant assistance must be kept to a minimum. The program attends to the practical how to, walking the mystical path with practical feet. It is not the only way to work with Spirit in organizations to bring about results. However, it is the way that we have found and now teach around the world. Within the Genuine Contact * program, we work with the following beliefs: 4. Spirit is all that is. 5. All organizations have within them the blueprint for health. 6. Focusing on genuine contact enables individuals and organizations to achieve health and to experience our connection with all that is. Within the Genuine Contact program, there are seven components: 1. The Genuine Contact program is underpinned with the healing circle or medicine wheel as the overall matrix for our learning, healing, development, evolution and consciousness. This assists us in walking the mystical path with practical feet and bringing about results that exceed expectations. A holistic matrix, whether the Medicine Wheel or another, enables adults to learn through action/reflection learning and provides a common framework for conversation and learning as a collective. 2. The International Alliance for Mentoring (IAM) is a forum to learn the art of mentoring and to walk the talk of mentoring of both individuals and organizations. Consultants are encouraged to shift their perspective of their role away from viewing themselves as consultants to which seems to work with more of a medical model to the role of mentoring the organization and its people to work towards their own health and wholeness, underscoring a holistic approach. 3. The learning journey in Working With Open Space Technology provides the opportunity for participants to learn an effective holistic meeting methodology that works from, with, to and of Spirit. Participants in the four day Working With Open Space Technology session 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. Within Open Space Technology meetings, choices are made amongst topics that are posted at the start of the meeting. 4. The learning journey in Whole Person Process Facilitation provides participants the opportunity to learn about another effective holistic meeting methodology that works from, with, to and of Spirit. Participants in the two day Whole Person Process Facilitation session learn 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. Within Whole Person Process Facilitated meetings, choices are made amongst persons to work with to move posted topics forward into integrated learning and action. 5. The learning journey in Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution provides participants the opportunity to learn about the development and enhancement of skills to facilitate meetings in which people determine personal boundaries and view situations from flexible rather than fixed perspectives. Participants in the two day Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution session learn that healing is possible if there is a will for healing and if there is a willingness to look from new perspectives. 6. The four day learning journey in Advanced Work With Open Space Technology focusing on the conscious Open Space Organization provides participants with the opportunity to learn 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. The final component of the seven is a learning journey 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. Maybe one day, assisting others to learn about the conscious Open Space Organization will be simpler than this. However, for now, this is the simplest approach that we have found. The learning cannot be superficial but must go deeply into ones belief system, assumptions, and consciousness about life and values. Teaching others about working with meetings as the catalyst to enable organizations to be healthy enough to recognize themselves as conscious Open Space Organizations working with Spirit is an effective and efficient way. And we have found that using meetings that work with, to, of, and from Spirit is an effective and efficient way for organizations to learn and become conscious of themselves as Open Space Organizations. We offer learning opportunities through which each individual has the opportunity to clarify his or her own beliefs about organizations, how they work, and where Spirit fits into it all. Every component offered has merit on its own, however, it is the full mixture of the seven components that is the holistic vehicle for working developing the conscious Open Space Organization. Time and experience needs to be given between the components for the learning and practice to deepen. Breaking out of old beliefs and patterns can happen quickly. Often, participants in the Genuine Contact program experience this in the first day or two of working with the opportunity we offer for their personal reflection. However, deepening and grounding the new patterns and beliefs in daily reality usually takes a little longer. Ward and I walk our talk with our own lives and our own businesses as best as we are able to do so. We terminated all business activities, products and services that were not about creating opportunities for higher consciousness. We continually challenge ourselves and each other to stay open to working with, to,of, and from Spirit. Sometimes fear gets in the way, causing us each to experience constriction where there is no room for Spirit. At such times, we mentor each other to breathe and move away from fear into the place that we each understand as our connect with Spirit. We encourage each other to move beyond limiting beliefs. Basically, we opened space and we keep space open in these businesses and for all of the suborganizations within them and their connections with each other. They are all doing fine and I will give progress reports from time to time. We understand and experience that a business is an organization or system. And within a business, there are many subsystems. And outside of the business, in the connections with other businesses, including our own, there are many systems unto themselves and yet interconnected. Interconnected to the planet too. When I sat and drew circles on a paper for all the systems, with one nested within another, and sometimes not nested within but having points of connection, the number of circles was endless. Circles within circles. Circles connected to circles. We currently want to explore what this means in relationship to the conscious Open Space Organization. When organizations are open rather than closed systems, and an organization is made up of multiple systems, some contained within its boundary and some outside of it and some in and out and connected, speaking of the conscious Open Space Organization takes on more dimensions.
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