(Open Space Technology)
Open Space Technology was developed 20 years ago by Harrison Owen. Used successfully tens of thousands of times across every continent, from small villages to large corporations and organizations, Open Space invites the community to self-organize their passions, strengths, and capacity for responsibility in new ways around new questions. As one of the most flexible, scalable, and powerful group processes on the planet, Open Space (OS) delivers a unique set of outcomes.
- How many people can participate in an OS? It can accommodate an invitation to any stakeholders - easily from 2 to 2,000 people
- When is OS most valuable? It works best when the group is diverse and the theme is complex, urgent, or challenging
- How long does it take? It can occur within the timeframe of a half-day or 2-3 days, depending on the complexity of the issues, the size and diversity of the group, and the outcomes desired
- How many expert facilitators does OS require? It only requires 1-2 facilitators because the sessions are self-organizing
- Can it work with other event structures? It can replace or complement other event designs, such as Appreciative Inquiry events and expert panel events
- What's the role of content experts in OS? It allows content experts who would usually monologue from a panel to more personally contribute their knowledge and wisdom in authentic conversations with the groups
- What does OS typically deliver? It engages people across social networks to interact with new people in new ways - often leading to new ideas, levels of consensus and alignment and initiatives
- What can OS participants expect to experience? It guarantees that the right people will show up and engage each other around the issues and opportunities within the given theme that they care about the most - that they feel the greatest passion and responsibility about
- What happens in OS? It is a process of multiple and usually concurrent sessions around topics created by the group during the process; depending on the size of the group and time and space available, there can be anywhere from 5-150 sessions
- What makes the process practical? It facilitates the highest level of authentic engagement possible, that can occur within the context of the sponsor's givens
- What happens to what people say in the sessions? It produces a quick and complete record of all the break-out sessions
- What happens after an OS event? It can, given enough time, produce any number of self-organizing project and action teams and proposals that go forward to produce optimum results. Sponsors can support these initiatives in any way they want and can.
The opposite of Open Space are directed events where sponsors rather than participants are responsible for the agenda topics and break-out assignments. Directed events are effective when groups tend be smaller and non-diverse, the theme is not very complex or challenging, and the sponsors have specific outcomes they're looking for.
When Open Space's design gives people freedom to talk about and take responsibility for what they care about the most, they naturally organize in an ever-enlarging spiral of passion, vision, engagement, responsibility, and action.
For more on Open Space, visit - Open Space World
OpenSpaceGuide
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