Executives, Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Team Leaders, HR and OD specialists
You are invited to learn a simple to use multi-purpose method for leading highly participatory meetings involving from 7 to 1000 people. These meetings produce tangible results towards your business goals and achieve maximum participation, inspired creativity, and the best solutions from the collective of individuals involved. Open Space Technology (OST) was developed by Harrison Owen of Maryland, USA and has been used in almost every country in the world, with a twenty-year history of consistently exceptional results. Learn the Genuine Contact way of working with OST to achieve the greatest benefit for the organization.
During an Open Space Technology meeting, participants experience a culture of leadership for the duration of the meeting. A meeting facilitated using Open Space Technology can be used as a catalyst to launch a culture of leadership in the daily life of the organization using the meeting as a shared experience from which to draw their knowledge of what is required in a culture of leadership. More importantly, having experienced the culture of leadership during the meeting, the people involved know that they can do it!
Skill and Capacity Building
You will leave this experiential, interactive workshop equipped with:
- How to facilitate meetings using the method Open Space Technology as originally taught by Harrison Owen in his book Open Space Technology: a User’s Guide
- How to prepare the sponsor prior to the meeting for generating the greatest benefit from the OST meeting
- How to debrief with the sponsor following the OST meeting to assist them in achieving the greatest leverage from the meeting once the immediate results have been attained
- A working knowledge of practical and simple multi-purpose tools and frameworks for working with OST in the organization including the Medicine Wheel Tool©, the Deep Essence Tool©, the Grief Cycle, the Organizational Lifecycle, the Storyline
- How using OST in an organization will allow you to find solutions for complex problems in a very short period of time
- How to use OST to create teams, improve communication, improve staff morale, improve your bottom line
- How OST can be applied in non-profits, development agencies, private sector, public sector
- How to design OST meetings for conferences, community development, and citizen input at public forums
- A practical means for working with the information, knowledge, and wisdom that already exists in your organization
- How to use highly participatory meetings such as OST to achieve and sustain a participatory architecture for optimal performance
- A peer-to-peer mentoring circle for ongoing learning
Your Complete Learning Program
This program includes 9 segments.
- Segment 1: Self-study video focusing on your Business and/or Development Goal. Plan for 1 hour.
- Segment 2: Learn about Working with Open Space Technology. Plan for 4 hours.
- Segment 3: Focus on The Planning Meeting. Plan for 1 hour to review.
- Segment 4: Four Immutable Laws of Spirit. Plan for 20 minutes.
- Segment 5: Four Principles of Open Space Technology. Plan for 20 minutes.
- Segment 6: Five Beliefs of Genuine Contact. Plan for 30 minutes.
- Segment 7: Origins of Frequently Used Tools. Plan for 2 hours.
- Segment 8: One-to-One Mentoring: 3 hours. Date to be arranged with Birgitt Williams. For a leadership team going through this learning together, the one-to-one mentoring session is replaced by two group sessions with Birgitt Williams or Rachel Bolton of three hours each, date to be arranged.
- Segment 9: Real-time Mentoring Circle. 3 hours. Date: February 3, 2023
Birgitt Williams, as one of the creators of the Genuine Contact program, has skillfully facilitated the Genuine Contact program workshops since 1990 as they were being created, tested, researched for effect, and developed into what became the Genuine Contact program. Birgitt brings her unique skills in assisting people to access their full intelligence individually and collectively. Birgitt is passionate about assisting individuals and organizations of individuals achieve breakthroughs. Birgitt’s lifetime commitment has been to nourishing a culture of leadership.
Rachel Bolton attended her first Open Space Technology meeting at the ripe old age of 13 and hasn't looked back since. She brings a broad international experience with OST to the trainings as well as over a decade of experience as a Genuine Contact Trainer. Rachel assisted in the development of the Genuine Contact Program and is passionate about creating the conditions for high creativity, productivity, and inspiration in well designed and facilitated meetings.