Dear Artur,
Hans-Georg Wicke, CEO of an outfit with some 30 women and man, has used
os for 10 years (for his own organisation about 12 times, the network
his org is in about 8 times and in the wider field of his org for
conferences and trainings maybe another 10 times) and written a chapter
on his experience and what it did to his organisation, its mission, the
roles of people in it in "Meine open space Praxis" (see the signature).
Its in German but that is probably no challenge for a portuguese scholar!
Yes, them critters are around.
Have a great day
mmp
On 19.08.2011 13:22, Artur Silva wrote:
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
difficultyin 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
<http://www.dalarinternational.com/>
Author, The Genuine Contact Way <http://www.genuinecontactway.com/>
919-522-7750
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