Dear friends and colleagues, I am very committed to a different leadership approach into the future, leaving behind outdated leadership models and leadership cultures. From June 24-28 you have the opportunity to learn about Holistic Leadership Development <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/hld-foundation/> with me and my facilitation partner Rachel Bolton. I developed this module of the Genuine Contact Way to support leaders who want and need a different approach for leading into the future, particularly those who understand that they are leading into uncertainty, into the unknown and want to develop their capacity to do so. Post-OST in an organization, leaders contend with uncertainty, in themselves, in their people, and in what to do with what emerged in the OST. And no, I am not specifically referring to the actionable items. Rather, I am referring to what was demonstrated in the shared experience during the OST. During an OST leadership is in everyone, vision is shared, community of people is engaged, and people demonstrate self management within a simple structure. Now, think of what the leader faces post-OST, think of what happens the next week back at work when people haven't got the same freedom to use their leadership, demonstrating their understanding of the vision, a let down as the feeling of community isn't what it was in the OST, and self management is limited. Uncertainty is felt. Is the new norm what they experienced in the OST or are they going back to the old ways before this OST experience. After elation comes a sense of deflation if this is not handled well. No one can take away the knowledge that both the people and those in leadership had in their shared experience. It is not theoretical. Their shared experience has proven what is underneath the surface and everyone knows it. Many of you are consultants and coaches. This workshop may be valuable as you support leaders in leading differently. It is definitely valuable if you have a leader you are working with that wants to make the most of having one or more OST meetings in their organization. There is no need for the deflation after the elation. Using a holistic approach, these wonderful attributes within the people and the natural way of working can be supported. I have made a long time practice of supporting leaders in developing a holistic approach to their leadership and in supporting them in their leadership post-OST. One of the skills that they end up with is the discipline of allowing. And allowing is a key capacity for leaders to have if they want to fully capitalize on an OST meeting for the longer benefit in their organizations. Think of the leader, who hasn't the capacity for allowing, to end up inadvertently being a barrier to the best follow up to an OST. The leaders I know and work with don't want to be that barrier. it's difficult in an email to convey my heartfelt enthusiasm for working with leaders, helping them shift their approach to leadership, opening more space in their leadership, and embracing the use of OST in their organizations. They open the space in their organization in a considered way, knowing that they and not the facilitator are responsible for the space created. I hope you are interested in coming and learning and exploring Holistic Leadership Development <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/hld-foundation/> with me. June 24 to 28 at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Its a great campus with lots of attributes, an eclectic interesting neighborhood and we'll be housed in student dorms to keep costs down yet with quite adequate accommodation. For those coming from the USA or Europe, your currency is of higher value than the Canadian dollar, so it goes further. The gathering will be international with registrants already from Norway, Sweden, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands. Warmly, Birgitt *Birgitt Williams* *Senior consultant-author-mentor to leaders and consultants * *Specialist in organizational and systemic transformation, leadership development, and the benefits of nourishing a culture of leadership.* www.dalarinternational.com *Upcoming Workshops* *Holistic Leadership Development* | June 23-27, 2025 | Waterloo, Canada *Individual Health and Balance for Leaders* | November 29, December 5, 12 & 19, 2025 | Online >> Learn More & Register <http://www.dalarinternational.com/upcoming-workshops/> for any of these workshops here. *Go to www.genuinecontact.net <http://www.genuinecontact.net> to see the public Genuine Contact training and mentoring options by Genuine Contact trainers internationally. If you wish to schedule an "in-house" training for people in your organization, please contact me, Birgitt Williams <birgitt@dalarinternational.com>, via email to set up a consultation to discern what is the best option to meet your development goals.* 16 Sunny Acres Dr., Etowah, North Carolina, USA 28729 Phone: 01-919-522-7750 Like us on Facebook <https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=6677c35b38&e=e7zyhHfiqG> Connect on LinkedIn <https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=c26173f86b&e=e7zyhHfiqG>

Dear friends and colleagues, Beyond knowing how to facilitate an OST meeting I offer you the following to consider as additional valuable skill sets, continually increasing your capacity. -knowing how to engage emergence. Peggy Holman has offered great insights about emergence in her book Engaging Emergence: turning upheaval into opportunity <https://peggyholman.com/engagingemergence/> -for coherence, knowing how to use a complimentary meeting method to OST that you can use with meetings related to the OST such as preparatory meetings and follow up meetings. Whole Person Process Facilitation, a module of the Genuine Contact program was initially created by me specifically for this purpose. Next workshop of WPPF in Berlin <https://genuinecontact.net/events/wppf-berlin-2025/>July 8-10. -knowing how to support leaders to move forward in coherent, holistic ways post-OST to actualize the results of the OST. As a result of decades of my work with leaders, I am launching a module to support consultants, coaches and facilitators. Exploring how you want to best support leaders is available as a five-day deep dive in Holistic Leadership Development. Next workshop Holistic Leadership Development in Ontario, Canada June 24-28 <https://genuinecontact.net/events/sa2025-hld/>. - When I learned OST, I was the senior staff person of a non-profit health and social service. When I took this position on in 1986, I had not previously been responsible and accountable for an organization. I remember entering my office for the first time with the determination that I was not going to lead in the ways I had experienced leadership in my prior experience. I hadn't appreciated the way power was used as it was contrary to what I believed was the way to lead people. Beginning on my first day, I had lined up a series of appointments for listening to staff, Board members, and volunteers in one to one interviews. I understood that people needed to be listened to, to feel heard, understood. Our staff meetings were participatory. What I didn't have the knowledge to do was how to move things forward based on the many insights and recommendations that were so generously provided by staff, Board and volunteers. It wasn't just the quality and quantity of outputs that we could have mapped into objectives, goals, milestones, targets. It was something far greater and in my mind even more important. It was the insights about people taking leadership for what they were passionate about, living the vision, experiencing community, and self managing. I experienced a big gap between not wanting to use my power of position, and actualizing what people were saying was needed. I came to understand, rather than judge, why leaders so frequently retreat to using power and control. To me, retreating to power and control seemed to be the efficient way to use my power of position. And yet, I didn't take this path of retreat. Instead I quested for a way forward for me as a leader. It wasn't easy. I researched into how other leaders were handling this, I talked to leaders I respected, I consulted with my Board members. No one had answers and my research wasn't helpful. Basically, I was a leader who wanted to make the most of what I learned from the people, and I didn't know how and was in great uncertainty in figuring out how to move forward. At the same time, I had accountability to the Board as a whole, to City Council, Regional Government, and the public as a whole. The media was quick to report on our successes, failures, and challenges. Even though it is almost 40 years since the time of me struggling to figure out what was needed in my leadership to actualize what the people were offering, I believe that leaders who open space for participatory meetings in their organizations and the will to listen...face the same dilemma for their leadership. For those of us who facilitate participatory meetings like Open Space Technology and Whole Person Process Facilitation within organizations, we either see ourselves as responsible for good facilitation of the meeting and leave it at that...or if you are like me, you are curious about helping the leaders actualize the recommendations/action plans into their organizations. For me, I understood that some things could be moved into action easily, other things needed to be clarified, and some things got parked into 'not yet'. I then turned to my staff and together over a period of years we worked out our leadership culture. One of the striking comments that has stayed with me to this day was 'Birgitt, in not wanting to retreat to power and control, you abandoned your power and this is affecting all of us'. Wow, that took me on a journey to wise use of power and embracing my power. Some years later, having taken my OST training with Harrison, in a conversation we turned this into being able to map outcomes into 'Do It', 'Clarify It', and 'Open Space It' and we found that this works wonderfully well. Warmly, Birgitt *Birgitt Williams* *Senior consultant-author-mentor to leaders and consultants * *Specialist in organizational and systemic transformation, leadership development, and the benefits of nourishing a culture of leadership.* www.dalarinternational.com *Upcoming Workshops* *Holistic Leadership Development* | June 23-27, 2025 | Waterloo, Canada *Individual Health and Balance for Leaders* | November 29, December 5, 12 & 19, 2025 | Online >> Learn More & Register <http://www.dalarinternational.com/upcoming-workshops/> for any of these workshops here. *Go to www.genuinecontact.net <http://www.genuinecontact.net> to see the public Genuine Contact training and mentoring options by Genuine Contact trainers internationally. If you wish to schedule an "in-house" training for people in your organization, please contact me, Birgitt Williams <birgitt@dalarinternational.com>, via email to set up a consultation to discern what is the best option to meet your development goals.* 16 Sunny Acres Dr., Etowah, North Carolina, USA 28729 Phone: 01-919-522-7750 Like us on Facebook <https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=6677c35b38&e=e7zyhHfiqG> Connect on LinkedIn <https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=c26173f86b&e=e7zyhHfiqG> On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 10:17 PM Birgitt Williams < birgitt@dalarinternational.com> wrote: > Dear friends and colleagues, > I am very committed to a different leadership approach into the future, > leaving behind outdated leadership models and leadership cultures. From > June 24-28 you have the opportunity to learn about Holistic Leadership > Development > <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/hld-foundation/> with me > and my facilitation partner Rachel Bolton. I developed this module of the > Genuine Contact Way to support leaders who want and need a different > approach for leading into the future, particularly those who understand > that they are leading into uncertainty, into the unknown and want to > develop their capacity to do so. > > Post-OST in an organization, leaders contend with uncertainty, in > themselves, in their people, and in what to do with what emerged in the > OST. And no, I am not specifically referring to the actionable items. > Rather, I am referring to what was demonstrated in the shared experience > during the OST. During an OST leadership is in everyone, vision is shared, > community of people is engaged, and people demonstrate self management > within a simple structure. > > Now, think of what the leader faces post-OST, think of what happens the > next week back at work when people haven't got the same freedom to use > their leadership, demonstrating their understanding of the vision, a let > down as the feeling of community isn't what it was in the OST, and self > management is limited. Uncertainty is felt. Is the new norm what they > experienced in the OST or are they going back to the old ways before this > OST experience. After elation comes a sense of deflation if this is not > handled well. > > No one can take away the knowledge that both the people and those in > leadership had in their shared experience. It is not theoretical. Their > shared experience has proven what is underneath the surface and everyone > knows it. > > Many of you are consultants and coaches. This workshop may be valuable as > you support leaders in leading differently. It is definitely valuable if > you have a leader you are working with that wants to make the most of > having one or more OST meetings in their organization. There is no need for > the deflation after the elation. Using a holistic approach, these wonderful > attributes within the people and the natural way of working can be > supported. > > I have made a long time practice of supporting leaders in developing a > holistic approach to their leadership and in supporting them in their > leadership post-OST. One of the skills that they end up with is the > discipline of allowing. And allowing is a key capacity for leaders to have > if they want to fully capitalize on an OST meeting for the longer benefit > in their organizations. > > Think of the leader, who hasn't the capacity for allowing, to end up > inadvertently being a barrier to the best follow up to an OST. The leaders > I know and work with don't want to be that barrier. > > it's difficult in an email to convey my heartfelt enthusiasm for working > with leaders, helping them shift their approach to leadership, opening more > space in their leadership, and embracing the use of OST in their > organizations. They open the space in their organization in a considered > way, knowing that they and not the facilitator are responsible for the > space created. > > I hope you are interested in coming and learning and exploring Holistic > Leadership Development > <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/hld-foundation/> with me. > June 24 to 28 at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. > Its a great campus with lots of attributes, an eclectic interesting > neighborhood and we'll be housed in student dorms to keep costs down yet > with quite adequate accommodation. For those coming from the USA or Europe, > your currency is of higher value than the Canadian dollar, so it goes > further. The gathering will be international with registrants already from > Norway, Sweden, Canada, the USA and the Netherlands. > > Warmly, > Birgitt > > > > > > > > *Birgitt Williams* > *Senior consultant-author-mentor to leaders and consultants * > *Specialist in organizational and systemic transformation, leadership > development, and the benefits of nourishing a culture of leadership.* > www.dalarinternational.com > > *Upcoming Workshops* > *Holistic Leadership Development* | June 23-27, 2025 | Waterloo, Canada > *Individual Health and Balance for Leaders* | November 29, December 5, 12 > & 19, 2025 | Online > > >> Learn More & Register > <http://www.dalarinternational.com/upcoming-workshops/> for any of these > workshops here. > > *Go to www.genuinecontact.net <http://www.genuinecontact.net> to see the > public Genuine Contact training and mentoring options by Genuine Contact > trainers internationally. If you wish to schedule an "in-house" training > for people in your organization, please contact me, Birgitt Williams > <birgitt@dalarinternational.com>, via email to set up a consultation to > discern what is the best option to meet your development goals.* > > > > 16 Sunny Acres Dr., Etowah, North Carolina, USA 28729 > Phone: 01-919-522-7750 > Like us on Facebook > <https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=6677c35b38&e=e7zyhHfiqG> > > Connect on LinkedIn > <https://dalarinternational.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=35ed818c946a88ba7344da05f&id=c26173f86b&e=e7zyhHfiqG> > >