Thanks for your post. Birgitt.
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.
Several of you observations ring true for me. I also did experimentation
with when shorter sessions might be effective - especially after an
extended meetings.
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.
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!
Another was when The U.S. 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!
One of my favorite memories of Harrison is dancing with Harrison and
Ralph to the music of the Rolling Stones at one OSONOS.
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.
In the words of the Grateful Dead, "What a long, strange trip it's
been!" And a wonderful one, as well.
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:chris.kl...@got2change.com
Web:www.got2change.com
Pronouns: he, him, his
White Silence is Violence
Think Globally, Act Locally
On 4/5/2022 6:01 PM, Birgitt Williams via OSList wrote:
Dear friends and colleagues,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
I appreciate the journey, the blessings inherent in the journey, the
miracles I have witnessed with OST, and its role in my life,
in genuine contact,
Birgitt
Picture*
*
*Birgitt Williams*
*Senior consultant-author-mentor to leaders and consultants *
*Specialist in organizational and systemic transformation, leadership
development, and the power of nourishing a culture of leadership.*
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