About Open Space OpenSpaceTech? is a leading edge community and organization development practice. It invites people working on complex and important issues to connect and deepen their work, through responsible self-organization. Open Space is more than just a phenomenal meeting process. It forms the basis of a new and powerful way of working and being in organizations and communities. It honors and invites contributions from all levels and groups. It leverages inherent expertise and knowledge to create new options, possibilities and progress. It gets people and information moving in powerful new directions -- and gets our most important work done.

For twenty years and counting, Open Space has been used around the world by ordinary people dealing with extraordinarily important, complex, conflicted and/or urgent issues:


About the Workshop The OST Training and Practice Workshop is a two-day summit providing an opportunity for deep and rapid learning. Based on Michael Herman’s The Inviting Organization and the work of OpenSpaceTech? originator Harrison Owen, this workshop offers a potent mix of theory and practice. Much of the learning takes place IN Open Space. In the second day, participants have the opportunity to work AS leaders and conveners of real Open Space events to address their most important business and/or community issues.

Workshop developers... Michael Herman of Chicago, USA, and Chris Corrigan of Bowen Island, BC, Canada, are experienced Open Space Technology facilitators. They have dealt with all of these issues in a wide range of settings, including private businesses, the voluntary sector, indigenous communities and Fortune 500 companies. Together they have been delivering this two-day practice workshop around North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. This workshop will be led by Michael Herman.

Who should come? Leaders, managers and facilitators working with very complex issues, requiring the cooperation of diverse stakeholders, where conflict is quite possible if not already present, and where their is an urgent need for right action.

What Will Happen? You will learn about and begin to apply Open Space as a practice in invitation. This will take place mostly in Open Space, so the days will be full, the spirit high, the learning fast and the applications immediate. Each day will start and end with a practice-specific briefing and dialogue that will serve to bound and contextualize our time and experience in Open Space.

Day one of the practice workshop covers the Story and Spirit of Open Space including:

Day two focuses on the Practice and Planning of Open Space Technology and covers:

During the practice workshop you will:

What are the results? A deeper understanding of OST as process and practice, specific plans to apply it in as many situations as you choose to work on, AND a number of local colleagues who can offer ongoing guidance, support and encouragement.

How to Prepare? Start by reading OST: A User's Guide, by Harrison Owen (a very quick study). Then have a look at any one of his other books OR the stories, resources and links collected at OpenSpaceTech? (http://www.globalchicago.net/ost). Most importantly, give thought to a list of meetings, events, projects and other situations that come to mind as places where Open Space might help people and organizations you know. Upon registration, you will receive further suggestions for pre-workshop exploration.

Why Open Space? More than ever before, we are truly living in Open Space... where old ways just aren't working anymore and the new ways aren't quite clear yet, either. Some things certainly will not be the same, yet the possibility that some things might be better, deeper, easier is real. THAT is the direction in which we want to move, together. That is the promise and the power of Open Space.


More About the Workshop Developers Michael Herman, co-developer and facilitator for this Chicago workshop

...is an internationally recognized Open Space Technology facilitator whose book "The Inviting Organization" and other online publications are an important contribution to the worldwide practice of Open Space Technology. He has worked for more than eight years with Harrison Owen, the creator of Open Space Technology and was the co-host of the eighth annual Open Space on Open Space international gathering of Open Space Technology facilitators in Chicago in 1999. Michael’s practice has led him to working with some of the biggest corporations in the United States as well as community and youth groups around the world. He serves as a director for the Open Space Institute USA and is the founding webmaster for the online centre of Open Space Technology at http://www.openspaceworld.org/. His own personal/professional website is at http://www.globalchicago.net.

Chris Corrigan, co-developer, but not facilitating this Chicago workshop

...is well known internationally in the Open Space Technology community. He was the co-editor (along with Michael Herman) of "Open Space Technology: A User’s NON-guide," which is an edited conversation of 37 practitioners of Open Space Technology from around the world and which is a complimentary volume to Harrison Owen’s "Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide." In 2001 he co-hosted the tenth annual OSonOS? in Vancouver. He works primarily with First Nations and Aboriginal organizations as well as government and communities facilitating using Open Space Technology. Since 2002, He has been delivering this practice workshop in Canada and in the United States. His personal website can be found at http://www.chriscorrigan.com.