Dear friends and colleagues in Open Space, For each of us, there are origin stories for what we take a stand for (Law of Two Feet) during our lifetimes. Before being exposed to Open Space Technology, a precursor origin story supports our readiness to be open to learning and using Open Space Technology. For me, one of the precursor origin stories shows up in my lifelong dedication to holistic leadership development. I was just reviewing the workbook that Rachel Bolton and I are putting the finishing touches on, saw the origin story included and choose to share it with you. I invite you to share your origin story of what occurred in your development that supported you to be open to Open Space Technology. Origin Story of Holistic Leadership Development *The origin story of Holistic Leadership Development is told by Birgitt Williams, co-creator of the Genuine Contact Program and Genuine Contact Way of working and living. Holistic Leadership Development is Foundational Module 4 of the Genuine Contact Program.* I chose to take on leadership positions very early in my career, although it was more customary to refer to all acts of leadership as being a manager in those days. It was a time in which our leadership classes had a focus on managing people. There were phrases like ‘span of control’ that referred to how many people reported to you, and this was thought to be how much control one had in an organization. For a short time, I performed as expected in my manager role and yet I didn’t align with the idea that people should be managed. My experience with my own team and observing other teams was that this idea of managing people didn’t work either in team cohesion or getting to the desired outcomes. Fortunately, there were two big influences on my leadership that had nothing to do with managing people. The first was participating as a teenager in a Girl’s Athletic Leadership Camp. It was a rather grueling two weeks in terms of physical exertion yet completely fulfilling in developing my capacity for leadership. I came to understand that leadership required working with the leadership in the others around me to achieve any of the goals set for us. Every girl there was chosen by her school for her leadership at the school. Not one of us was willing to be managed. I came away from that experience wondering about the conditions a leader needed to create for leadership in others to strengthen the team for goal accomplishment. I understood that I needed to listen and to find ways to make our choices together. I also learned about using my mental intellect with my physical intellect because somehow listening to my body’s intelligence proved to be what made a difference. The second big influence resulted from interacting with people in leadership in Six Nations of the Grand River, an Indigenous reserve, for a few years. At the time I was on a team that was helping to set up the first Child Welfare office on a Reservation in Canada (late 1970s). My job included work directly with Elders, the Elected Council, and those who would take on the leadership roles. Although our team was responsible for transferring knowledge, what really happened was that we were the ones who were learning. Among what I learned was the value of sitting in a circle, the role of grandmothers, of Chiefs, of time and space, the relationship with nature and the concept of ‘All My Relations’ recognizing that everything is interconnected. What affects one affects all. I learned to pay attention mind, spirit, emotions, and body in navigating my life. Through generosity and kindness, I was mentored into a holistic perspective for navigating in the world and I began a lifetime study of and within the Medicine Wheel. This learning was within an era when there was a lot of prejudice against Indigenous people and ignorance about the vast wisdom to be shared. I was fortunate to understand the treasure that I was exposed to and the care with which the wisdom was shared to help me find a different way, a different path forward. I have spent over three decades understanding more and more about the value of a holistic approach to leadership. In the process I came to understand that leadership is a verb, not a noun. Leadership perceived as action, within a holistic approach, is comprehensive and coherent. Not only was this module Holistic Leadership Development created, but the entire Genuine Contact way of working was also born. 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 <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/hld-foundation/> *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>

Hi Birgitt, Thanks for your origin story. I hadn’t appreciated that Harrison’s use of the Medicine Wheel likely came through you! I’d love to hear how others came to Open Space Technology and how it fits in their larger sense of calling. I wonder what we can learn from each other? Here’s my story: I didn’t know I was looking for something like OST when I discovered it. Looking back on it now, I’d say my focus was on making people’s work lives easier. What prepared me for OST came through my Total Quality work for a cellular phone company during the early days of the industry - around 1994. I managed our software development function when the company hired an expert in Total Quality Management (TQM). (TQM is a management system based in involving the people of an organization in improving the quality of goods, services, and working conditions through continuous improvement of internal processes.) That expert ran a “multi-stakeholder” meeting that brought 30 people from every department together to resolve heated conflicts over priorities for a system-wide software system we were building. I was blown away by the agreements reached in just 2 hours. I moved from managing our software group to managing a new Total Quality function for our Information Technologies group. Two experiences while in that role set me up to embrace OST when I stumbled into it in 1996-ish. The first…When the ideas of "organizational learning" and “knowledge transfer” started making the rounds, I was tasked with figuring out how to implement the ideas at U S WEST - a 60,000 person telephone company. My team and I interviewed 30+ people at all levels about their experiences of how ideas spread. The conclusion I reached was that often, innovations came out of random encounters across different groups. So how could we create more opportunities for random encounters? The second experience: I had immersed myself in learning everything I could about TQM. Along the way, I started adapting the “7 new tools <https://qualityconcepts.home.blog/2020/02/14/the-7-new-quality-tools/>” for quality improvement. I ran this “off-book” session at a TQM conference session where we were expecting maybe 6 people. Word of mouth got out and about 50 people showed up. Since it was no longer an intimate conversation, I improvised. We created a list of what people wanted to talk about, used a quality tool for narrowing the topics to the top 3 and broke into groups. It was pretty radical! And fun. And successful. When I read about Open Space in a Training Magazine article <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dsvJAbN_ib_MaMJ30DfLOylRveA-Qeci/view?pli=1> a friend of mine sent to me, I recognized it as something that brought these two experiences together: it enabled random encounters for the conversations people wanted to have. I was hooked. And I went looking for the secret sauce of what made the magic happen. That led to The Change Handbook <https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/the-change-handbook>, which gave me the excuse to gather systemic, high participation change practices in one place so I could look at what they shared. And when the second edition grew from 18 practices to 61 practices, I once again sought the underlying principles these practices shared, leading to Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity <https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/engaging-emergence>. More recently, I came to an even simpler framing for how we design for emergence. (See Emergent Design for Generative Change <https://peggyholman.substack.com/p/emergent-design-for-generative-change-78571485daaa>.) My experiences with Open Space, Appreciative Inquiry, Circle Process, and other practices, the years of Spirited Work, an Open Space community of practice that met for a long weekend 4 times a year for 7 years, coupled with Harrison pointing to self-organization and complexity science, notably Stuart Kauffman’s At Home in the Universe <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/at-home-in-the-universe-9780195111309?cc=us&lang=en&>, shaped my learning about the deeper patterns that enable diverse groups deal with complex, even conflicted issues. Those are the roots of my focus on how we support emergence. And, in the process, be equipped to be creative in the face of the disruptions that are everywhere these days. So that’s my story in a nutshell. What’s yours?? Peggy _________________________________ Peggy Holman peggy@peggyholman.com Bellevue, WA 98006 206-948-0432 www.peggyholman.com Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity <https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-emergence/> "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become the fire". -- Drew Dellinger Join the Open Space practitioner’s conference - the World Open Space on Open Space (WOSonOS <https://www.wosonos2025.org/>) - in Kenya, November 6-8. > On Jun 3, 2025, at 12:54 PM, Birgitt Williams via OSList <everyone@oslist.org> wrote: > > Dear friends and colleagues in Open Space, > For each of us, there are origin stories for what we take a stand for (Law of Two Feet) during our lifetimes. Before being exposed to Open Space Technology, a precursor origin story supports our readiness to be open to learning and using Open Space Technology. For me, one of the precursor origin stories shows up in my lifelong dedication to holistic leadership development. I was just reviewing the workbook that Rachel Bolton and I are putting the finishing touches on, saw the origin story included and choose to share it with you. I invite you to share your origin story of what occurred in your development that supported you to be open to Open Space Technology. > > Origin Story of Holistic Leadership Development <> > The origin story of Holistic Leadership Development is told by Birgitt Williams, co-creator of the Genuine Contact Program and Genuine Contact Way of working and living. Holistic Leadership Development is Foundational Module 4 of the Genuine Contact Program. > > I chose to take on leadership positions very early in my career, although it was more customary to refer to all acts of leadership as being a manager in those days. It was a time in which our leadership classes had a focus on managing people. There were phrases like ‘span of control’ that referred to how many people reported to you, and this was thought to be how much control one had in an organization. For a short time, I performed as expected in my manager role and yet I didn’t align with the idea that people should be managed. My experience with my own team and observing other teams was that this idea of managing people didn’t work either in team cohesion or getting to the desired outcomes. > > Fortunately, there were two big influences on my leadership that had nothing to do with managing people. > > The first was participating as a teenager in a Girl’s Athletic Leadership Camp. It was a rather grueling two weeks in terms of physical exertion yet completely fulfilling in developing my capacity for leadership. I came to understand that leadership required working with the leadership in the others around me to achieve any of the goals set for us. Every girl there was chosen by her school for her leadership at the school. Not one of us was willing to be managed. I came away from that experience wondering about the conditions a leader needed to create for leadership in others to strengthen the team for goal accomplishment. I understood that I needed to listen and to find ways to make our choices together. I also learned about using my mental intellect with my physical intellect because somehow listening to my body’s intelligence proved to be what made a difference. > > The second big influence resulted from interacting with people in leadership in Six Nations of the Grand River, an Indigenous reserve, for a few years. At the time I was on a team that was helping to set up the first Child Welfare office on a Reservation in Canada (late 1970s). My job included work directly with Elders, the Elected Council, and those who would take on the leadership roles. Although our team was responsible for transferring knowledge, what really happened was that we were the ones who were learning. Among what I learned was the value of sitting in a circle, the role of grandmothers, of Chiefs, of time and space, the relationship with nature and the concept of ‘All My Relations’ recognizing that everything is interconnected. What affects one affects all. I learned to pay attention mind, spirit, emotions, and body in navigating my life. > > Through generosity and kindness, I was mentored into a holistic perspective for navigating in the world and I began a lifetime study of and within the Medicine Wheel. This learning was within an era when there was a lot of prejudice against Indigenous people and ignorance about the vast wisdom to be shared. I was fortunate to understand the treasure that I was exposed to and the care with which the wisdom was shared to help me find a different way, a different path forward. > > I have spent over three decades understanding more and more about the value of a holistic approach to leadership. In the process I came to understand that leadership is a verb, not a noun. Leadership perceived as action, within a holistic approach, is comprehensive and coherent. Not only was this module Holistic Leadership Development created, but the entire Genuine Contact way of working was also born. > > 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 <http://www.dalarinternational.com/> > > Upcoming Workshops > Holistic Leadership Development | June 23-27, 2025 | Waterloo, Canada <https://www.dalarinternational.com/curriculum/hld-foundation/> > 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 <mailto: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> > OSList mailing list -- everyone@oslist.org > To unsubscribe send an email to everyone-leave@oslist.org > See the archives here: https://oslist.org/empathy/list/everyone.oslist.org