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
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Amen to that, Harrison! Blessings, Donna
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 8, 2013, at 17:36, "Harrison Owen" <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> 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. ____
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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 <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20/> ____
www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20/> (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:*[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]] *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
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> 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.____
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Still no guarantee, as Chris noted below.____
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appreciatively,____
Peggy ____
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__ __
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On Aug 8, 2013, at 10:35 AM, Chris Corrigan
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> 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. ____
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Chris____
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__ __
__ __
On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Kári Gunnarsson
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
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 <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> 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 <http://www.openspaceworld.com/>
>
> www.ho-image.com <http://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
>
>
>
>____
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>
--
Kári Gunnarsson
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
gsm: +354 8645189
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-- ____
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CHRIS CORRIGAN
Facilitation - Training - Process Design
Open Space Technology - Art of Hosting
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*_Upcoming workshops_*____
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*October 8-10, 2013, Montreal, PQ.*____
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