Hello Open Spacers:
I am still on holiday with bad access to the Internet, but today I came to a
small village nearby that have an Internet spot, and the post bellow got my
attention.
I remember many past discussions in the OSLIST on the concept of "Open Space
Organization" - OSO (also called at the time "InterActive Organization" - name
that I never liked, as it can be applied to many other things) but never could
understand why they should be called "Conscious OSO's".
If I recall well, the main argument it is that all organizations are OSO's. I
think they are not - many organizations that I know are quite "closed"!
Of course, self-organization (a concept that some of us have difficulty in
understanding) is everywhere, even in "closed organizations". IMHO, that is the
reason why, if the appropriate "foundations" are respected, an Open Space event
is possible… But no one calls it a "Conscious Open Space event"...
So an organization that regularly uses OS meetings to manage their business can
be called an "Open Space Organization". No need for the word Conscious, IMHO.
But this message is quite surprising. Now the Open Space community (that is
organized mainly around this list) is informed that a different group has
decided to change the name, and - if I understood well - there is an implicit
suggestion that we all should adopt the new designation.
But, being OST (by decision of its initiator clearly stated in the User’s
Guide), nor trademarked, neither copyrighted, and having no certification
process, shall we change for a definition of a different group that combined
OST with other methods and trademarked the result?
I have continued (and will continue) to use the OSO expression.
On another hand I have been told that there are many OSO's, or COSO's (or even
GCO's) but never have been informed of one, that is not a group of friends or a
NGO, but it is a company or even a department of a Public Administration.
As I continue to try to research if and how an OSO has more learning capacities
as different types of organizations, I would be grateful if someone could give
me references that I can quote or, even better, that I can contact by mail to
make a few questions about their openness and their learning processes.
Best regards
Artur
From: Birgitt Williams <[email protected]>
To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
<[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 9:09 PM
Subject: [OSList] the Conscious Open Space Organization revisited and renamed
Dear friends and colleagues,
This morning I was thinking of Anne Stadler, a dear friend who has mentored
several of us to follow our passion. I fondly remember a number of gatherings
in her living room in Seattle, Washington that included fabulous people. She
held (and likely still holds) what used to be the ‘salon’, intended for
engagement and emergence of great ideas when interesting people come together.
One of those things I know and appreciate about Anne…she likes people who she
deems as interesting. In those days in the early 1990’s, there was a lot of
thought and inspiration about how to move OST into the world. There was also a
lot of thought exchanged based on my experimentation with what I came to call
the first intentional Conscious Open Space Organization. Information of my
journey with the Conscious Open Space Organization is archived on this list in
my posts as Birgitt Bolton and Birgitt Williams, so no need to get into that
incredible journey here. Suffice it
to say that concepts such as using ‘givens’ in organizations that make
frequent use of OST meetings in the organization emerged, rapidly, thanks to my
very insightful staff who were, as far as I know, the first staff group who
were in frequent OST meetings as part of our daily life as an organization. We
learned a lot and I shared a lot with this community. Other activities emerged
from those great conversations in Anne’s living room…Peggy Holman was the one
person I remember as always there too…included the formation of the Open Space
Institute model, with a focus on what we needed to do in Canada as different
than what was needed in the USA. And another outcome was the Spirited Work
group, which became an incubator group that met at Whidbey Institute, out of
which emerged incredible creations including the inspiration for Peggy’s book
Engaging Emergence. They are having another gathering
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=969890 .
I wanted to report to this list the current learning and status of the
Conscious Open Space Organization. The basics, as described over time, are
still the same. The name changed in 2009, as agreed upon by the co-owners of
the Genuine Contact program. As a community of professionals who work with the
Genuine Contact program, we were invested in the Conscious Open Space
Organization, its use and its development…and so to change the name required a
community decision. I initiated the Conscious Open Space Organization and so I
felt inspired to be the one to identify that the name was causing us problems
and that we needed a different name. The Conscious Open Space Organization
includes a number of key ingredients, framed by a liberating structure and a
participatory architecture requiring a culture of leadership. There is
structure with clear distinction between what is open and what is not open to
change, keeping the latter to a minimum. These
organizations make frequent use of OST and other participatory meeting methods.
What I proposed and what was agreed to was the change of the name from
Conscious Open Space Organization to Genuine Contact Organization. Here is why.
Originally, I had created the name ‘Conscious Open Space Organization’ because
the way of understanding the Conscious Open Space Organization is to understand
both the form and essence of a singular Open Space Technology meeting…in other
words, they are quite linked. I am now taking the leadership of recommending
the name change because while the community of people who work with Open Space
Technology might understand what is intended with the Conscious Open Space
Organization, we have found that with our client groups, there is
mis-understanding. We have had a serious situation in which staff of a client
organization assumed that everything within a Conscious Open Space Organization
became open and when they discovered that some space was still closed by senior
management, many bad feelings emerged. The real purpose of ‘Conscious’ Open
Space Organization was to understand at an organization wide level what is open
and what is closed, so that
the energy is not wasted on what is closed. And so, I am no longer feeling
that the name ‘Conscious Open Space Organization’ serves our clients well. When
I analyzed this further, it became clear to me that what the space is being
opened for results in genuine contact in the way that we do it, and so it seems
more accurate at this time to shift beyond what was determined historically by
me, and to move on to something that seems to be more accurate after working
with this for some twelve years.
We have had an interesting journey with what is now called the Genuine Contact
Organization (GCO). The beginning point of becoming a GCO in any organization
is a single OST meeting, and then a real desire by senior leadership to lead
their organization in such a way that the high quality and quantity of the OST
meeting and its results is experienced on a daily basis in the organization
even when not in an OST meeting. And indeed, people experience genuine contact
with self, with each other, and with the collective (whole).
Birgitt
Birgitt Williams
President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy
Author, The Genuine Contact Way
919-522-7750
Co-Owner of the Genuine Contact™ Program
Genuine Contact Way blog
Become a fan of the Genuine Contact Way
Follow me
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