Open Space Meeting Process
Open Space Technology is a simple and yet
profound approach to meeting. The following description skims the surface, but
provides some guide to the meeting process.
Open Space in Pictures is a
presentation that gives you images of a typical Open Space Technology
event. Open Space Technology events have
been successful with 6 participants or with 2000 (and more connected by the internet).
It is the formal sponsors and those teams
designated for planning and logistics that prepare for the event. The outcomes and theme, the time frame and
any givens (that set context for action) are discerned or developed by the
Sponsors assisted by the facilitator. The
planning process also determines what kind of convergence – focusing of
actions or plans – will take place during the event. An invitation
is developed to both invite
participants and to clarify for them the nature of the event and their
role in co-creating the Open Space agenda.
The invitation also describes what initial commitment the sponsors will
make with regard to the results or plans that emerge.
The meeting is as follows:
Time frames for Open Space Technology events range
from 4 hours to 3 days depending on group size and the challenge at hand. The facilitator’s role at the event
is to open and hold the space for participant initiative, learning and
self-organization and to guide the convergence process and then to enable the
closing.
Convergence, or giving focus to the ideas
and energy that has emerged, varies between events depending on the intent or
outcomes sought. If individual learning
is the goal, convergence is focused on helping participants identify how they
will take ideas forward. If developing
organizational or community action or projects is the intent, then planning is
required for what happens both during and after the event.
Working groups that form in Open Space will
sometimes carry on beyond the event to accomplish the tasks they identified.
This action can be shaped by the
parameters established by the sponsors before the event. Results focused organization often benefit by
an additional full day of convergence to focus the development of projects and
the roles of formal sponsors in supporting ongoing initiatives in the
organization.
With this “large group method” a
surprising sense of the whole organization,
its direction and interconnections, emerges for participants. .
Because action is chosen and breakthrough learning often occurs, both culture change and performance improvements have been documented. Usually the
critical issues and opportunities for change with regard to the theme get on
the table, so that they can be pursued.
It provides a wonderful real time “survey” if sponsors are
willing to learn from that which emerges.
The feedback at the close of an Open Space meeting is often startling and moving. Individual sharing of breakthroughs in thinking and relationships is common. As a "large group" intervention it can shift culture and develop positive momentum. It can enable sponsors and participants to experience the self-organizing processes that take place when organizations work at their best.
PRINCIPLES OF OPEN SPACE
WHOEVER COMES IS THE RIGHT PEOPLE
WHATEVER HAPPENS IS THE ONLY THING THAT
COULD HAVE
WHENEVER IT STARTS IS THE RIGHT TIME
WHENEVER ITS OVER, ITS OVER
LAW OF TWO FEET
IF YOU ARE NEITHER LEARNING NOR CONTRIBUTING
MOVE ON!